As college tuition costs and student debt soar to record heights, state education budgets also continue to fall. More than ever, universities and other educational institutions need new ways to control costs and increase transparency. School administrators can gain a better perspective on finances by using expense management software like Chrome River EXPENSE, which offers detailed analytics and monitoring of business expense reports.

For example, a recent audit of Oregon’s seven state universities called for more in-depth analysis and reporting of financial and personnel data, according to a news story on The Oregonian’s website. As matters stand, school officials and the public lack necessary insight when it comes to university expenses, including the compensation and workloads of employees and faculty.

Using the latest expense management software tools can help institutions increase spending visibility by leveraging key analytics to deliver transparency for all cost centers. And since funding is tight at many state universities, the good news is that monitoring business expense reports for your institution doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming.

Financial officers can use today’s intuitive tools to generate highly complex reports, charts and dashboards from multiple data sources without the expense and hassle of additional IT customization. Whether you need to track global and departmental spending or drill down into transaction details, expense management software makes it easy to review past expenses, analyze current ones, and compare past and present amounts. This supports informed decision-making and organizational transparency.

Let us know your thoughts. Have analytics and reporting helped your institution keep a closer eye on spending and improved transparency by providing more detailed data?

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Our choice of Chrome River EXPENSE was made in part due to the very user-friendly interface, easy configurability, and the clear commitment to impactful customer service – all aspects in which Chrome River was the clear winner. While Chrome River is not as large as some of the other vendors we considered, we found that to be a benefit and our due diligence showed that it could support us as well as any large players in the space, along with a personalized level of customer care. Sally Abella, Director of Corporate Travel Harman International
We are excited to be able to enforce much more stringent compliance to our expense guidelines and significantly enhance our expense reporting and analytics. By automating these processes, we will be able to free up AP time formerly spent on manual administrative tasks, and enhance the role by being much more strategic. Ben Zastrow Zelle