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Free Expense Process Audit

Free expense process audit for Australian businesses. Score your workflows across 8 areas and get personalised recommendations for reducing manual work.

Why audit your expense process?

Most Australian SMEs know their expense process is inefficient but don’t know where the biggest time drains are. This free audit scores your workflows across 8 areas and shows you exactly where automation would save the most time.

What this audit covers

Payment method — how employees pay for business purchases
Spend controls — how limits are set and enforced
Receipt management — how receipts are collected and stored
Approval workflows — how expenses are reviewed and authorised
Categorisation — how transactions are coded to your chart of accounts
Accounting integration — how data flows to Xero, MYOB, or your accounting software
Spend visibility — how quickly you can see what has been spent
Month-end reconciliation — how long it takes to close the books

How the scoring works

Each area is scored from 1 (fully manual) to 3 (fully automated). Your total score out of 24 places you in one of four maturity levels:

Score	Level	What it means
8-10	Manual	Heavy reliance on paper, spreadsheets, and manual processes
11-16	Partially automated	Some tools in place but key gaps remain
17-20	Mostly automated	Good foundation with a few areas to tighten
21-24	Fully automated	Real-time control and minimal manual work

Audit your expense process

Answer 8 questions about how your business handles expenses. Takes about 2 minutes.

1. How do employees pay for business purchases?

2. How are spending limits enforced?

3. How are receipts collected?

4. How are expenses approved?

5. How are expenses categorised and coded?

6. How does expense data get into your accounting software?

7. How quickly can you see what has been spent this week?

8. How long does month-end reconciliation take?

8 out of 24

Manual Your expense process relies heavily on manual work

Top recommendations:

Frequently asked questions

How is the audit score calculated?

Each of the 8 questions is scored from 1 (fully manual) to 3 (fully automated). Your total score out of 24 indicates your overall expense management maturity. Scores below 10 indicate heavy manual processes with significant room for improvement.

What does a 'Manual' score mean?

A Manual score (8-10 out of 24) means your expense process relies on reimbursements, paper receipts, shared cards, and manual data entry. Finance teams in this range typically spend 3+ days on month-end reconciliation and lose hours chasing receipts.

How can I improve my score?

The biggest improvements come from replacing reimbursements with individual Visa debit cards, automating receipt capture at point of sale, and connecting your spend management platform to your accounting software for real-time sync. These three changes alone can move a Manual score to Mostly Automated.

Methodology and disclaimer

This audit uses a simplified maturity model based on common expense management workflows at Australian SMEs. It assesses 8 areas: payment method, spend limits, receipt collection, approvals, categorisation, accounting integration, visibility, and reconciliation. Each area is scored 1-3 based on the level of automation. The tool provides general guidance only and does not constitute financial or operational advice.

Replace the manual work your finance team hates

Budgetly gives every employee a Visa debit card with built-in controls. Receipts captured at point of sale, transactions coded by AI Bookkeeping, and everything synced to Xero in real time.

Watch the demo