To evaluate your current setup in a structured and practical way, here are the steps you must follow:

Step 1: Map Current Expense Workflows

Document how expenses are submitted, approved, reimbursed, and recorded today. Also, capture how employees submit expenses, who approves them, how exceptions are managed, and where manual involvement occurs.

Paying attention to off-policy cases, corrections made during reconciliation, and delayed approvals is also important. After all, these frictions show early signs of misalignment between system behavior and policy.

Step 2: Define Critical Requirements

Next, you need to identify what must work without compromise. Let’s say audit trails, policy rules, approval thresholds, and reporting granularity… they are all quite important to support compliance solutions.

Don’t focus on listing the “nice-to-have” features, though. Because they don’t impact risk exposure or financial outcomes.

Step 3: Evaluate Actual System Behavior

Test the system with real expense scenarios, not just flawless demo flows. Simply put, you should submit expenses that include actual exceptions, unusual timing, and mixed categories. 

Now, observe whether the system automatically enforces rules or demands manual checks. If any process needs emails, spreadsheets, or post-approval fixes, it absolutely identifies a gap.

Step 4: Identify Gaps and Risk Areas

Notice where the system actually fails to support already-defined requirements. This can include limited reporting, delayed data availability, weak policy enforcement, or other factors.

Then assess how frequently these problems occur and how they affect reliability and overall workload.

Step 5: Score Fit Versus Cost

Lastly, you must evaluate whether each gap increases audit risk, operational cost, or employee friction. Everything that has an impact counts. And in the end, it should help you make a decision about whether your current system can be optimized.

Or else, consider replacement or other available solutions.