What is spend management?

Business spending includes different types of spend: Strategic spend is usually centralized and managed by C-level executives with dedicated spenders. It can be managed through invoices, wire transfers and purchase orders. Discretionary and operational spend is also centralized, but spending is done by managers and employees during their daily professional lives. It includes card purchases, subscription payments, digital ads, events, office orders, and business travel. Expenses , unlike strategic spend, represent a significant amount of small purchases that can be difficult to track. These include card payments, expense claims, team perks, and travel expenses. Spend management is the process through which companies manage business spending . It takes into account the end-to-end process when someone needs to spend: getting purchase approvals, providing payment methods, submitting and processing invoices, submitting and reimbursing expense claims, chasing receipts and invoices for reconciliation, and assigning the right analytical codes, expense accounts, and VAT rates to all those expenses for bookkeeping. Spend management tools become necessary when the number of employees increases and the need for clear processes, better visibility and control starts to grow for finance teams. Employees need flexible, user-friendly tools, in order to spend easily and be empowered to do their job. That’s when Spendesk can be a good fit.

BlogAI and automation

AI readiness: A 10-step checklist for finance leaders

Chris Dunne

Published on November 25, 2025

AI and automation

Most finance teams are experimenting with AI. Few are seeing real results.

The gap isn't about technology – it's about implementation. Getting AI to work in finance isn't about deploying the latest tools. It's about changing how your team works, one workflow at a time.

This guide will help you move from AI pilots to proven workflows that deliver measurable time savings, improved accuracy and strategic impact. Whether you're just starting out or struggling to scale beyond initial experiments, these 10 steps will get you back on track.

1. Start with one workflow (not everything at once)

The biggest mistake finance leaders make? Trying to transform everything simultaneously.

Instead, identify a single, high-impact workflow where AI can deliver quick wins. Look for processes that are high-volume, repetitive and rule-based – the kind that drain your team's time without adding strategic value.

The best starting points:

Invoice processing and matching
Expense categorisation and policy compliance
Month-end variance explanations
Supplier contract summaries

Starting small isn't playing it safe – it's playing it smart. A focused pilot lets you learn fast, iterate quickly and build confidence before scaling. More importantly, a successful workflow creates momentum and turns sceptics into advocates.

2. Build a small cross-functional squad

Here's the truth: AI projects fail in silos.

You need finance expertise to understand the problems, technical knowledge to evaluate solutions and change management skills to drive adoption. But keep your squad lean – 3 to 5 people maximum.

Your core team should include:

A finance lead who knows the workflows inside out
An IT or operations partner with technical fluency
A change champion focused on team adoption

The key? Give them dedicated time. Not "squeeze this in between everything else" time, but real, protected hours each week. Give them decision rights and a clear mandate to experiment and learn.

3. Define success metrics upfront

"We want to be more efficient" isn't a metric. Neither is "work faster" or "improve accuracy."

Before you launch anything, define specific, measurable targets. What does success actually look like? How will you know if this is working?

Strong metrics look like this:

Time saved: "Reduce invoice processing time by 40%"
Accuracy: "Decrease miscategorisation rate from 15% to 5%"
User satisfaction: "80% of team rates AI tools as helpful"
Business impact: "Accelerate month-end close by 2 days"

Clear metrics serve two purposes: they help you evaluate whether the pilot is working, and they help you make the business case for scaling. Vague goals lead to vague results, and vague results don't get budget approval.

4. Clean your data early (yes, really)

AI is only as good as the data it learns from. Garbage in, garbage out.

Before you implement any AI tools, audit your data quality. Are expense categories consistent? Are supplier names standardised? Are historical transactions properly classified?

If your chart of accounts is a mess, your vendor records are duplicated and your policy documentation is scattered across drives, fix that first.

The investment pays off: Spend 2 to 4 weeks cleaning and standardising your most critical datasets. This upfront work dramatically improves AI accuracy and reduces the time you'll spend correcting mistakes later. Clean data means faster training, better results and higher team confidence.

5. Pick the right tools, not the loudest

The AI market is incredibly noisy right now. Every vendor claims to be "revolutionary" and "transformative." Don't be swayed by hype or impressive demos alone.

Evaluate tools based on what actually matters:

Integration: Does it work seamlessly with your existing systems – your ERP, spend management platform, reporting tools?
Data security: Where does your data go? What are the privacy guarantees? Who has access?
Ease of use: Will your team actually use it, or is it too complex to adopt?
Vendor stability: Is this a serious player with staying power, or a feature that might disappear in 18 months?

Pro tip: For finance teams, purpose-built AI within your existing spend management platform (like Spendesk) often delivers better results than standalone generic tools. Why? Because adoption beats sophistication. A simple AI assistant embedded in your daily workflow will outperform a powerful tool that requires constant context-switching.

6. Pilot fast, measure faster

Speed matters more than perfection.

Run a focused 4 to 6 week pilot with a small group of users working on real tasks. Don't wait for the perfect setup – launch, learn and iterate.

During your pilot:

Collect weekly feedback from users
Track your success metrics in real time
Document what works and what doesn't
Be ready to adjust quickly

Long pilots lose momentum. Fast cycles let you course-correct quickly and maintain urgency.

Watch for red flags: If adoption is low or results are weak after 6 weeks, pause and diagnose the problem before scaling. Better to pivot early than to roll out something that doesn't work.

7. Upskill your team on prompt fluency

Even the best AI tools underperform if your team doesn't know how to use them.

The new skill everyone needs? Prompt fluency – knowing how to frame questions, provide context and refine outputs. Think of it as the new Excel fluency for the AI era.

Your training should cover:

How to write clear, specific prompts
When to use AI versus when to do it manually
How to verify and refine AI outputs
Real examples from your finance workflows

Format matters: Run a 90-minute "Prompt Writing for Finance" workshop. Create a shared prompt library with examples of what works. Offer drop-in office hours for questions. Make learning continuous, not a one-time event.

8. Establish governance from day one

AI introduces new risks around data privacy, accuracy and compliance. Set clear guardrails before someone crosses them.

Your AI governance framework should define:

Which tools are approved for use
What data can and cannot be shared with AI
How to verify AI-generated outputs
Who is accountable for AI-assisted decisions
How to handle errors or biases

You don't need a 50-page policy document. Create a simple, one-page "AI usage policy" that covers the essentials. Share it widely. Make it easy to find and understand.

Governance isn't about slowing innovation – it's about building trust. Teams need clarity on boundaries, not just capabilities.

9. Communicate wins early (and often)

Momentum requires visibility.

Don't wait until the pilot is complete to share results. Celebrate early wins loudly and often – even small ones.

Share the impact:

Time-saving stories in team meetings
Quantified results in leadership updates
Spotlight team members who are using AI effectively

Early communication serves multiple purposes: it builds belief, attracts more users and secures continued support from leadership. Sceptics become advocates when they see real results from their peers, not just promises from vendors.

After week 2 of your pilot, share one concrete example of AI impact. Include the metric and the user's reaction. Make it real, not theoretical.

10. Keep a human in the loop

AI is a powerful assistant. It's not a replacement for human judgement.

Always maintain human oversight, especially for final approvals on financial decisions, sensitive communications with suppliers or stakeholders, complex situations that fall outside normal patterns and anything with regulatory or compliance implications.

The rule is simple: Use AI to draft, analyse and suggest. Humans decide.

Define clear review checkpoints in your workflow. Train reviewers on what to look for. Make "human-verified" a badge of quality, not a bottleneck. AI makes mistakes – a human review catches errors before they become problems.

From checklist to competitive advantage

Implementing AI in finance isn't a one-time project. It's a shift in how your team works – from manual, repetitive tasks to strategic, high-impact work.

The finance teams that win with AI aren't the ones with the most sophisticated tools. They're the ones who start small, move fast, measure obsessively and keep humans at the centre of decision-making.

AI works best when it's embedded in the tools your team uses every day. Spendesk brings purpose-built AI to finance operations – streamlining spend management, automating policy compliance and accelerating month-end close.

Give your team the complete solution they need to work smarter, not harder, and turn AI into your competitive advantage.

Ready to get started? Book a demo to see Spendesk's AI capabilities in action.

AI and automation

Chris Dunne

Chris Dunne is our Content Marketing Manager. Based in Derry, he brings over 15 years of marketing experience to our content strategy. Outside of work, Chris loves spending time with his two young children, playing football, and exploring Ireland.

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Close the books 4x faster, collect over 95% of receipts on time, and get 100% visibility over company spending.

Business spending includes different types of spend:

Strategic spend is usually centralized and managed by C-level executives with dedicated spenders. It can be managed through invoices, wire transfers and purchase orders.
Discretionary and operational spend is also centralized, but spending is done by managers and employees during their daily professional lives. It includes card purchases, subscription payments, digital ads, events, office orders, and business travel.
Expenses, unlike strategic spend, represent a significant amount of small purchases that can be difficult to track. These include card payments, expense claims, team perks, and travel expenses.

Spend management is the process through which companies manage business spending. It takes into account the end-to-end process when someone needs to spend: getting purchase approvals, providing payment methods, submitting and processing invoices, submitting and reimbursing expense claims, chasing receipts and invoices for reconciliation, and assigning the right analytical codes, expense accounts, and VAT rates to all those expenses for bookkeeping.

Spend management tools become necessary when the number of employees increases and the need for clear processes, better visibility and control starts to grow for finance teams.

Employees need flexible, user-friendly tools, in order to spend easily and be empowered to do their job.

That’s when Spendesk can be a good fit.

Spendesk provides payment methods for modern businesses, and a powerful platform for finance teams to manage spending. This includes debit cards to replace old-fashioned company credit cards, virtual cards for online purchases, and automated expense reports for unexpected payments.

For employees
Employees no longer need to spend out-of-pocket. They request funds for a particular purchase, and can use their Spendesk card or virtual card to execute the payment.

If for any reason the employee can’t use their Spendesk card, they snap a picture of the receipt via the Spendesk mobile app and create an expense claim on the spot. This is sent directly to their manager for validation, and on to the finance team.

For finance teams
Each employee has their own Spendesk profile and debit expense card. So unlike the company credit card, you always know who’s spending company money.

The platform lets controllers create spending limits and pre-approvals. C-Level executives or managers will have a different level of pre-approved spend from other staff. Should a team member need to go over their pre-approved budget, they can make a request to their manager via the mobile app or the platform online.

When an expense is made with a Spendesk card, the employee simply snaps a picture of the receipt at the time of purchase. Which means no more lost receipts.

Finance teams can see real-time company spend and follow up on missing receipts or invoices by sending reminders to employees via the platform.

Reviewing expenses is also easier as finance teams can group expenses and assign them the right VAT rates and expense accounts before exporting everything easily to their accounting tools.

Spendesk streamlines the whole business spending process, making spend management intuitive, simple and efficient.