Enterprise growth raises the stakes for how expenses are tracked, managed, and optimized. These tactics offer a clear path for finance leaders to stay in control while enabling their organizations to scale with agility and speed.
Smart expansion requires smart spending. Whether you're entering new markets, opening offices abroad, or scaling operations to meet new demand, finance leaders face a growing challenge: how to control costs without slowing momentum. Expansion multiplies variables—vendors, currencies, regulations, and approval chains. Each new piece adds pressure to maintain consistency, accuracy, and accountability.
At the same time, finance leaders are balancing growth ambitions with economic pressure, rising costs, and increased stakeholder expectations. The Workday C-Suite Global AI Indicator Report found 56% of executives cite operational efficiency as the top driver of AI and machine learning investment—highlighting a growing focus on doing more with less. That mindset extends to enterprise cost management, where smarter systems, clearer processes, and greater visibility help businesses scale with discipline and intent.
But with the right approach, you can grow with confidence. The integrated tactics in this guide are designed to help manage costs as enterprises expand. Supported by the right technology, they create alignment between systems, policies, and people so every decision supports sustainable growth.
As exciting as growth can be, enterprise expansion introduces a host of new financial pressures. From navigating unfamiliar regulatory environments to managing fluctuating exchange rates, enterprises face a maze of complexities that can drive up operational costs.
One major challenge is decentralization. When teams, departments, or entities multiply across locations, so do spending behaviors—and compliance risks. Without strong oversight, organizations risk losing track of who is spending what, where, and why. Workday research found only 20% of companies have digitized the majority of their internal operations, suggesting most organizations aren’t equipped for agile, scalable cost management.
Just 20% of companies have digitized internal operations, suggesting lack of readiness for agile and scalable cost management.
Another pain point is slow or reactive decision-making. Many organizations still rely on legacy systems or disconnected tools that delay access to critical data. Finance leaders need real-time insights to course-correct early—not after quarterly reports have been finalized. Moving data across disconnected systems increases the risk of error, delays reporting, and undermines trust in the numbers.
There’s also the human element. As finance teams shoulder more responsibility in guiding business strategy, their ability to manage enterprise costs must go beyond spreadsheets and audits. They must become partners in this transformation—bringing insight, control, and assurance to every corner of the organization.
Yet the Workday CFO Indicator Study reveals that 31% of finance and IT teams are rarely or never aligned, which can stall progress and limit the potential of cost management strategies.
So how can enterprises navigate this complexity? The answer lies in rethinking how expense management works at scale—not just with better tools, but with smarter systems, clearer processes, and a finance team equipped to lead.
Effective enterprise cost management requires a combination of process discipline, policy design, and real-time insight applied consistently across an organization. The following tactics reflect that balance, offering a practical framework that can help finance leaders stay in control, even as the business scales.
Expansion often means decentralization. With new regions, departments, or entities come new layers of spend. Without real-time visibility, you’re making decisions in the dark. The foundation of enterprise cost management starts with a single system that provides up-to-date expense data across the business.
Modern business expense management software enables this visibility. With a cloud-native platform, finance teams can monitor spending patterns, drill into expense categories, and act on insights quickly. Enterprises that unify finance and operational data into one single system reduce decision lag and enable more strategic planning.
Manual processes don’t scale. Automation is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s a necessity. Expense submissions, approvals, reimbursements, and audits should be streamlined end-to-end.
With AI-powered business process automation, businesses can:
Workday research shows that finance teams using automation complete their financial close significantly faster, freeing up bandwidth for value-added work. In fact, 71% of organizations using substantial automation close their books in six days or less (compared to only 43% using some automation, and 23% using little to none).
One common expansion pitfall: inconsistent policies. A clear, standardized expense policy lays the groundwork for compliance and accountability. But expansion also demands flexibility. What's acceptable in one region may be unreasonable in another.
Use a centralized expense management solution to apply global policies and customize them for local tax laws, per diem rates, or cultural norms. This ensures fairness, reduces friction for employees, and improves audit readiness.
Compliance shouldn’t rely on memory. Smart systems can enforce guardrails automatically:
Automated controls prevent overspending without slowing down the business. When companies embed rules into systems rather than spreadsheets, confidence in the numbers increases dramatically.
Employee reimbursements are often slow, opaque, and hard to track. Expanding organizations can improve control and employee experience with corporate cards, virtual cards, and pre-funded wallets.
The benefits:
Plus, modern platforms offer card management tools that let finance set limits, monitor usage, and auto-sync with expense reports.
To scale successfully, companies need one core system that integrates expense management, budgeting, payroll, and planning.
As you acquire new entities or open regional offices, fragmented systems become a drag. Disconnected tools slow reporting, increase risk of errors, and create blind spots.
Workday research shows that only 52% of CIOs believe their organizations have a unified view of finance, operations, and people data. This is a gap enterprises must close to expand successfully. When scaling, businesses need one core system for finance that integrates expense management, budgeting, payroll, and planning. It not only simplifies operations but also fuels insight-led growth.
Financial consolidation becomes more complex with every new subsidiary, currency, or regulation. A modern close process needs built-in controls, real-time reporting, and automation to keep pace.
With the right tools:
The result? Finance teams spend less time prepping and more time partnering with the business.
Expense management isn’t just about compliance—it’s a treasure trove of insight. Where is money being spent? By whom? On what? And does that align with business priorities?
Using advanced analytics and visualization tools, finance leaders can:
The most advanced finance teams are not just looking in the rearview mirror. They’re using AI to surface strategic insights from expense data.
Even the best software won’t deliver results if your team can’t use it effectively. As finance expands its role from scorekeeper to strategic advisor, upskilling is key.
The Workday report Building a Future-Proof Finance Team found that 41% of CFOs now prioritize hiring for analytics and data storytelling. But smart CFOs are looking to strengthen their teams by upskilling current employees. Upskilling existing teams in areas like AI, machine learning, and cross-functional collaboration helps unlock more immediate value from your systems and your people.
Expense management may seem like a tactical function, but when staffed by strategic thinkers, it becomes a growth enabler.
A great partner doesn’t just give you software, but helps you transform your finance function.
Finally, technology is only as powerful as the partner behind it. You want a provider who:
A great partner doesn’t just give you software, but works as an extension of your team to help you transform your finance function.
Growing your enterprise shouldn’t come at the cost of financial clarity. As expansion accelerates, so does the importance of strong expense management. The right strategy helps you stay agile, minimize waste, and ensure every dollar spent supports long-term success.
These tactics aren’t just helpful—they’re essential. When powered by modern business expense management software, they give finance leaders the visibility and control they need to guide growth. With the right systems in place, organizations can make more informed decisions and avoid costly surprises. That creates the conditions for measured, sustainable growth.
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