“73% of compliance officers report rising regulatory expectations and scrutiny from boards and regulators as the main sources of pressure.”
In the U.S., the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) enforce stringent regulations on life sciences companies. These regulations mandate comprehensive tracking and reporting of financial transactions to ensure transparency and prevent fraud. Compliance with these regulations is non-negotiable, and failure to adhere can result in significant penalties, including fines and legal sanctions. Hence, it’s imperative for life sciences companies to stay up-to-date with the right expense monitoring and auditing tools.
Why Get an Expense Monitoring and Auditing Tool?
When life sciences companies do not adhere to these regulatory requirements, they may receive more attention than expected, causing operational problems, such as expensive auditing and investigating procedures.
Benefits of Effective Monitoring and Auditing
Implementing robust expense monitoring and auditing tools provides numerous benefits. These include accurate reporting and ensuring all financial transactions are recorded comprehensively for compliance.
AI-enabled tools in expense audits also offer fraud prevention through real-time monitoring and automated alerts. Additionally, these tools increase efficiency by reducing the time and resources needed for manual audits.
Maintain detailed financial records and foster trust with stakeholders such as investors, regulators, and partners to enhance transparency.
Criteria for Selecting the Right Expense Monitoring and Auditing Tool
Life sciences companies need to select an automated expense monitoring and auditing tool that meets regulatory requirements, enhances operational efficiency, and supports their long-term business goals/needs.
Here are some key criteria to consider:
Compliance Features
- Regulatory Adherence: The tool must have features specifically designed to meet U.S. regulatory requirements, including those set by the FDA and OIG. This includes capabilities for detailed record-keeping, automated reporting, and comprehensive audit trails.
- Real-Time Monitoring: Real-time monitoring capabilities are essential for promptly identifying and addressing compliance issues. This feature ensures that any discrepancies or unusual activities are flagged immediately, allowing for swift corrective action.
Integration Capabilities
- Expense Management: See if the expense monitoring and auditing tool is integrated with other systems like SAP concur to create a unified platform for managing all your business spending, including travel, expenses, and invoices. This integration ensures smooth data flow and reduces the risk of errors associated with manual data entry.
- Data Synchronization: Effective data synchronization across different platforms and departments is crucial for maintaining consistency and accuracy in financial records.
User-Friendliness
- Ease of Use: The expense audit analytics tool should have an intuitive user interface that makes it easy for employees at all levels to use effectively. This reduces the learning curve and increases adoption rates.
- Accessibility: Features like mobile access and cloud-based solutions enhance the tool’s accessibility, allowing users to monitor and audit expenses from anywhere.
Cost and ROI
- Affordability: Consider the cost of the tool, including licensing fees, implementation costs, and ongoing maintenance expenses. It’s important to balance affordability with the tool’s features and benefits.
- Return on Investment: Evaluate the potential ROI by considering factors such as time savings, reduction in compliance risks, and improvements in operational efficiency. A tool that offers significant ROI can justify higher upfront costs.
Customer Support and Training
- Support Services: Reliable customer support is essential for addressing issues quickly and minimizing downtime. Look for tools that offer comprehensive support services, including technical assistance and troubleshooting.
- Training Programs: Effective training programs are critical for ensuring that your team can fully utilize the tool’s features. Choose a tool that provides robust training resources, such as user manuals, online tutorials, and in-person training sessions.
Top 5 Expense Monitoring and Auditing Tool
With its advanced AI capabilities, qordata offers efficient, comprehensive expense monitoring and auditing, making it an essential tool for maintaining compliance in the U.S. life sciences sector.
Improve your transparency and accountability with qordata’s AI powered expense monitoring and auditing solution. It enables you to audit 100% of your expense reports within minutes, ensuring compliance with pre-defined expense limits.
Utilizing advanced OCR technology, their system converts sign-in sheets and expense receipts into machine-readable text, detecting anomalies such as whiteouts, incomplete entries, and repeated signatures by the same person.
Key Features:
- SAP Concur integration to extract reports with the ability to connect with other T&E systems.
- OCR & computer vision to convert meal receipts, boarding passes, sign-in sheets, and other expense receipts into machine-readable text
- Reconciles expense reports against sign-in sheets and receipts
- Utilizes Machine Learning (ML) to detect anomalies in sign-in sheets such as; white-outs, incompleteness, and same-person signature
- Checks against company, state, and country policies and requirements
- Flags non-conducive venues
- Built-in and configurable audit rules as per industry best practices
- Identifies risk patterns and marks for further monitoring and remediation
- Comprehensive insights/analytics
- Global coverage
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Verify Concur
Verify by SAP Concur is another good expense auditing solution that utilizes advanced analytics and machine learning to detect anomalies and potential fraud.
Features:
- Automated Risk Scoring: Verify assigns a risk score to each transaction, allowing auditors to prioritize high-risk areas.
- Industry-Specific Compliance Rules: Leverage pre-built compliance rules designed for the life sciences industry.
- Integration with SAP Concur: Verify seamlessly integrates with SAP Concur expense management software, providing a unified workflow.
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Intelligent Audit
Intelligent Audit provides a cloud-based solution for expense audit automation. Their platform leverages a combination of artificial intelligence and human expertise to ensure accuracy and efficiency.
Features:
- Customizable Compliance Workflows: Design custom workflows tailored to your specific life sciences compliance needs.
- Audit Trail Management: Maintain a comprehensive audit trail for all transactions, ensuring traceability and accountability.
- Data Visualization Tools: Gain clear visibility into spending patterns and identify potential compliance risks with interactive data visualizations.
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AppZen
AppZen offers a suite of AI-powered solutions for financial automation, including expense auditing. Their platform utilizes document intelligence to automate data extraction and anomaly detection.
Features:
- Automated Receipt Review: AppZen automates the review of receipts for completeness and compliance with company policies.
- Sunshine Act Compliance Support: The platform facilitates the identification and reporting of payments to physicians as required by the Sunshine Act.
- Real-time Fraud Detection: AppZen utilizes AI to detect fraudulent activity in real-time, preventing financial losses.
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Expense on Demand
Expense on Demand provides a cloud-based expense management platform with integrated audit functionality. Their solution helps automate expense reporting and streamline the audit process.
Features:
- Automated Receipt Capture: Expense on Demand offers various options for capturing receipts, including mobile app and email integration.
- Configurable Expense Policies: Set up and enforce company expense policies to ensure compliance.
- Audit Reporting Tools: Generate comprehensive audit reports that simplify internal and external audits.
Conclusion
Investing in these tools gives life sciences companies valuable insights into their spending, aiding better decision-making and financial health. As regulations evolve, having advanced technology in place will be crucial for staying compliant and competitive.
Automation empowers you to stay ahead of industry regulations, mitigate risks, and achieve operational excellence. As the future unfolds, advanced technology is the key to sustainable growth. Embrace automation and agility to unlock your organization’s full potential.
