Top 6 Procurement Software Solutions for Modern Businesses

One of your teams discovers a SaaS tool and makes a quick purchase using the company credit card, thinking this software solution will simplify processes and increase efficiency. It seems straightforward at this point—a hassle-free process.

However, this purchase workflow shadows the IT and legal departments. None of them are involved in the decision-making process. As a result, the chosen product never undergoes the risk assessment for security threats and legal regulations. What appears as an elementary and frictionless process becomes a breeding ground for chaos and potential operational disruptions.

This blog post is for procurement teams that wish to understand the SaaS procurement process and streamline the purchases for efficiency. We will discuss the challenges with the traditional approach and how you can overcome these to create a secure and cost-effective tech stack.

What is SaaS Procurement?

SaaS procurement is the acquisition and management of cloud-based software solutions through a subscription model.

As a member of the procurement team, you assess organizational software needs, evaluate vendors, negotiate contracts, and oversee the entire lifecycle. You aim to ensure cost-effectiveness, compliance, and optimal performance of SaaS applications.

Challenges With Traditional SaaS Procurement Process 

The most significant loophole in traditional SaaS procurement processes is the lack of proper approval workflow. Employees purchase suitable SaaS tools by themselves based on self-assessment. While this approach is flexible and saves time, it leads to operational bottlenecks in the long run.

Here is an overview of what happens when the relevant stakeholders aren’t involved in the SaaS procurement process:

Absence of Procurement Team

When teams proceed without involving the procurement team, they introduce several challenges, impacting the following aspects:

1. Cost-Optimization: Without a centralized team overseeing SaaS subscriptions, different departments independently select similar plans, leading to redundant expenses. For example, two teams might unknowingly invest in the same SaaS product for $ 12/month/user plans. However, when consolidated under an enterprise plan, they could get added security features more cost-efficiently.
2. Vendor Management: Vendor management becomes fragmented without a procurement team, as various teams engage with multiple vendors independently. Hence, It becomes challenging to negotiate favorable terms, track performance, and ensure consistent service levels across the organization. This absence of centralized management hinders the organization's ability to leverage its purchasing power effectively.
3. Inconsistent User Experiences: Different teams choose diverse tools for similar tasks, resulting in variations in workflows and collaboration. This lack of standardization hinders overall efficiency and employees' ability to work seamlessly across different projects.
4. Renewal Management: The decentralized approach of SaaS procurement makes it challenging to track and manage subscription renewals effectively. Unintended renewals for underutilized or obsolete SaaS subscriptions ensue, leading to unnecessary costs and potential inefficiencies in resource allocation.

Absence of Legal Team

Legal professionals evaluate and ensure that the chosen SaaS solution adheres to data protection and privacy laws. Also, they help craft and review contracts to protect the enterprise’s interests.

The absence of legal scrutiny leads to inadequate safeguards, exposing sensitive information to security breaches. Moreover, without their input, contracts with SaaS vendors lack clarity, leaving room for misunderstandings, disputes, or unfavorable terms. There's a high risk of violating laws, regulations, or contractual obligations, leading to legal consequences and financial penalties.

Absence of IT Team (Also Known as Shadow IT)

IT professionals assess the security measures of SaaS products. The absence of IT involvement results in security compromise and operational inefficiencies. Let's say the sales team, without prior knowledge of the IT team, independently procures a SaaS product for inbound leads, integrating it swiftly into their workflow. This incident is also known as shadow IT.

But after a few weeks, a technical issue arises. Unaware of the product's existence, the IT department struggles to provide immediate support or resolve the issues promptly. It disrupts the sales team's workflow and raises broader concerns for the organization, exposing the company to potential data breaches or regulatory non-compliance. Moreover, fixing this issue involves potential legal ramifications and additional unplanned costs for IT intervention.

6-Step SaaS Procurement Process 

Each relevant stakeholder reviews and gets an overview of the purchase cycle — this is what a collaborative SaaS procurement process looks like.

1. Identify Need

This step involves identifying the specific software needs of the organization. Departments communicate their requirements to ensure the chosen SaaS solution aligns with overall business objectives. They fill out custom forms that become the procurement team's base to select the right vendor. 

2. Vendor Selection

The procurement team researches and evaluates various SaaS vendors to find a solution that meets the identified needs. At this stage, it aims to find the best vendor that offers functionality and security at reasonable pricing. Factors such as vendor reputation, integration capabilities, and contractual flexibility shape the selection process.

3. Approval Process

Relevant stakeholders, including IT, legal, and finance, review the selected vendor and approve the procurement. This collaborative approach ensures that the desired SaaS solution complies with legal standards, aligns with IT strategy, and fits within the budget.

However, this collaborative approach can quickly become a root cause for internal resentment if you don’t lay out proper approval workflows. A lack of workflow makes departments wait for weeks, while none of the stakeholders has visibility over the process. There is unnecessary back-and-forth communication, and eventually, teams move to the traditional, flexible, yet risky SaaS procurement process.

If delays and friction in approval workflows disrupt your SaaS procurement process, centralized SaaS procurement software helps teams collaborate with minimal friction.

You can create proper approval workflows that define who needs to approve what. You get a no-code workflow builder, where you add if-then rules and make the desired workflow. You can have multiple workflows for different kinds of purchases, including parallel approvals as well.

For instance, a purchase request goes to the line manager, then the finance team, and after that, for a combined legal and IT review. You can have intricate workflows as required to suit your hierarchical structures.

With proper workflows laid out in a procurement automation platform, you simplify approvals. Moreover, a centralized dashboard makes it easier for each stakeholder to get an overview of the process without getting stuck in long email threads. 

4. Purchase and Deployment 

After approval, the procurement team finalizes contractual agreements with the chosen SaaS vendor. They negotiate on pricing models, licensing terms, and any customization requirements unique to the enterprise's needs.

Also, the procurement team ensures that the purchase aligns with the organization's budgetary constraints and financial policies. This step involves securing the best possible pricing and managing payment structures through one-time transactions or recurring subscription models. Further, the procurement team develops and finalizes contractual agreements with the vendor. This step involves clarifying terms and conditions, specifying service-level agreements, and addressing legal or compliance-related aspects.

With the procurement formalities completed, the deployment phase starts. Firstly, the SaaS solution has to be configured to align with the specific needs and processes of the company. This step ensures that the SaaS solution seamlessly fits within the organizational framework.

Secondly, the deployment team collaborates with IT and relevant departments to ensure that the SaaS tool integrates effectively with other applications to have a unified data ecosystem. Moreover, they establish and maintain robust access controls by defining user roles, permissions, and authentication mechanisms to safeguard sensitive data and maintain compliance.

5. Onboarding and Training

Once deployed, the onboarding and training phase ensures employees use the new SaaS tool effectively. This step is crucial for optimizing usage and ensuring that the software contributes to increased productivity. 

Training sessions, documentation, and support materials are provided to familiarize end-users with the features and functionalities. This step minimizes the learning curve and maximizes user adoption.

6. Monitor and Renew

Once users are onboarded and the SaaS solution is integrated into the organization's workflow, the focus shifts to post-onboarding and ongoing management. This stage involves the following:

• Encouraging ongoing user engagement and collecting feedback, where regular communication channels help gather insights into user experiences and identify areas for improvement.
  
• Monitoring the SaaS solution's performance to identify and address issues promptly. The IT and support teams collaborate to resolve technical glitches, ensuring uninterrupted functionality and a positive user experience.
  
• Assessing functionality, user satisfaction, and alignment with business objectives to make renewal decisions. Simultaneously, compliance with legal and regulatory standards remains a significant consideration to avoid potential risks.

Collaborative Effort for Efficient SaaS Procurement

While SaaS procurement seems like a small piece of the puzzle, choosing and implementing it requires attention to detail to avoid operational and financial shocks. Each team needs to work together and help create a secure and cost-effective tech stack for the organization. 

However, collaborative efforts demand a centralized platform to overcome two core challenges — delay and friction. We have shared the top nine procure-to-pay software for enterprises for you to find solutions that transform the SaaS procurement process.

Here’s the difference between a vague and a specific petty cash policy:

Vague: Petty cash can be used for any business-related expenses as needed upon approval.

Specific: Petty cash is used for small, incidental business expenses, such as office supplies, minor equipment purchases (up to $100), business-related meals and entertainment (up to $25 per occurrence), and travel expenses (e.g., tolls, parking fees).

Companies often set vague policies or leave them to employee understanding; after all, having petty cash is about flexibility and saving time. The entire petty cash system sits on the foundation of trust, where a missed receipt isn’t considered a big deal. 

However, as the business grows, these missing documents, owing to a lack of structure, cause monetary setbacks and disrupt operations. The finance team pursues the employees for receipts, and the employees struggle to get them submitted on time and the budget goes off the charts. 

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What is a Petty Cash Policy?

A petty cash policy is a set of guidelines that govern the management and usage of small amounts of cash for nominal business expenses. It outlines the purpose, authorized expenses, and recordkeeping and replenishment procedures for the petty cash fund.

Suppose an employee wants to purchase office supplies. With proper documentation and approval, a policy in place can restrict the use of cash for office supplies and minor expenses up to $50 only. After all, petty cash should be used only when absolutely necessary, for all other larger purchases it is better to use corporate purchasing cards.

Hence, structured petty cash policies and procedures help the business track and control all expenses with proper recordkeeping, enhancing accountability and petty cash management.

4-Step Process to Set Petty Cash Policy and Procedures

Before you set up policies and procedures, assess the need for petty cash and the types of expenses you will cover. This study will become the foundation for your guidelines and provide an estimated figure for petty cash funds.

For example, a transport business’s petty cash expenses include fuel for vehicles, tolls, minor vehicle repairs, and possibly small office supplies for administrative needs. However, a property investment company’s petty cash expenses include office stationery, postage, property maintenance supplies, and likely local travel expenses for property visits or inspections.

Hence, the nature of petty cash expenses will vary based on your business’s specific needs and operations.

Once these fundamentals are clear, you can set your petty cash policies and procedures by following the steps mentioned below.

1. Get Inputs From the Finance Team

Collaborate with the finance team to discuss current processes and challenges. Understand the gaps in existing systems and get feedback for potential improvements and best practices.

For instance, if the finance team struggles with frequent delays in providing employees with adequate cash on time for urgent expenses, you can establish guidelines that they can follow for such instances. 

Another common instance is that the finance team struggles with frequent delays in employee reimbursement due to unclear approval processes. You can establish a streamlined approval hierarchy in the policy. It involves specifying designated approvers and setting clear timelines for reimbursement requests, ensuring timely resolution.

Additionally, discuss compliance requirements to create a framework that ensures legal and regulatory standards adherence. This can include provisions such as documenting receipts and carefully reporting cash transactions above a certain threshold to comply with company reporting & auditability requirements. 

2. Define Procedures

Create a comprehensive document outlining the workflow of petty cash transactions, including authorizations and documentation.

Define the approval process, specifying who needs to approve different transaction amounts. For instance, your approval policy could look like this:

The routine office supplies purchases under $20 require immediate department supervisor approval, larger expenditures for equipment up to $100 need approval from the finance manager, and any expenses exceeding $100 require executive-level authorization.

Similarly, create a standardized process and template for documenting each transaction, including separate fields for date, amount, purpose, and signatures. Additionally, you could add guidelines, such as submission of a receipt within a week. These measures further help you strengthen the structure and avoid any hassle.

3. Specify Controls

Once all the fundamental procedures are defined, you set the rules for operating your petty cash system to ensure proper control. Here are some examples:

“If the petty cash fund balance falls below 20% of the initial amount, the designated custodian is responsible for submitting a replenishment request to the finance department. The replenishment should be completed within two business days to ensure the continuous availability of the petty cash fund for essential business needs.”

“Authorized petty cash transactions for office supplies are limited to $25 per occurrence, while minor miscellaneous expenses are limited to $15. Any transactions exceeding these limits require prior approval as per the designated approval process outlined in this policy.”

“To ensure transparency and accountability in the management of petty cash funds, a policy of custodian rotation will be implemented. Every quarter, a new employee will be assigned the responsibility of a petty cash custodian. The outgoing person must provide a comprehensive handover to the incoming custodian to maintain continuity and accuracy in fund management.”

4. Communicate and Review 

Share the new petty cash policy with relevant stakeholders and conduct training sessions for employees involved in petty cash transactions. 

To assess the effectiveness, establish a monthly audit schedule, in addition to petty cash reconciliation, where the designated team member will verify the log, review the completeness and accuracy of documentation, confirm that the approval process has been followed, etc. 

The audit will help you identify potential loopholes, allowing you to modify the policy and procedure for effective petty cash management. 

In addition to these audits, implement a tracking system, such as a spreadsheet or an expense management platform, to monitor expenses. While the spreadsheet is a cost-effective solution, a dedicated automation platform will make tracking petty cash in real time easier with complete visibility. Moreover, you will have many more controls and features to oversee your petty cash without spending hours maintaining logs and Excel spreadsheets.

Template for Setting Petty Cash Guidelines

Modify this template and include specific petty cash guidelines to suit your business needs:

Petty Cash Policy and Procedures

1. Purpose

The purpose of this document is to provide clear guidelines for the establishment, management, and usage of the petty cash fund within [Company Name]. The petty cash fund is intended for minor, day-to-day business expenses, facilitating the quick and efficient processing of small transactions.

2. Custodian

The finance department will manage the petty cash fund, with [Designated Employee] serving as the petty cash custodian. The custodian is responsible for secure cash handling, accurate record-keeping, and compliance with company policies.

3. Petty Cash Fund Amount

The initial petty cash fund is set at [Enter Amount], subject to review annually or as business needs dictate. Any adjustments to the fund require approval from [Finance Manager/Authorized Approver].

4. Replenishment

When the petty cash fund balance drops to [Enter Minimum Amount], the custodian must submit a replenishment request to [Finance Manager/Authorized Approver]. These requests should include original receipts and a summary of expenditures.

5. Authorized Petty Cash Expenses

The following types of expenses are authorized for petty cash disbursement:

• Office supplies (e.g., pens, notepads)
• Small equipment purchases (under [Enter Amount])
• Minor business-related meals and entertainment
• Travel expenses (e.g., tolls, parking fees) 

6. Unauthorized Expenses

Petty cash funds should not be used for personal expenses, cash advances, or any expenditures unrelated to official business activities. Any unauthorized expenses must be reimbursed by the individual responsible.

7. Recordkeeping

The custodian will maintain a dedicated petty cash log. Each entry should include:

• Date of transaction
• Vendor or payee
• Description of the expense
• Amount
• Receipt verification

8. Receipts

Original receipts for all petty cash transactions must be submitted promptly. Receipts should be attached to the petty cash log and clearly show the date, amount, and nature of the expense.

9. Auditing

The finance department will periodically conduct surprise audits on the petty cash fund to ensure compliance. The custodian is responsible for facilitating the audit process and addressing any discrepancies.

10. Reporting

A monthly summary of petty cash transactions, including the remaining balance and any discrepancies, will be provided to the finance manager. Any significant issues or concerns should be reported immediately.

11. Policy Review

This policy will be reviewed annually by [Finance Manager/Authorized Approver] to assess its effectiveness and relevance. The petty cash custodian can recommend adjustments or issue an official request.

Approval:

[Signature] [Date]

[Name, Title]

[Finance Manager or Authorized Approver]

[Company Name] 

Implementing a Foolproof Petty Cash System

To establish a dependable petty cash system, collaborate and automate. Stay in close connection with the finance team to gather feedback and insights. Use solutions like spend management software to automate the petty cash system and get real-time visibility. They provide more structure to your petty cash management and simplify workflows for employees.

In one of our posts, we have covered more about petty cash management and how you can automate it. It will help you understand the nuances and efficiently manage your petty cash.

One crucial aspect of business finance management is knowing how the money of your organization is being spent.  You can’t paint a complete picture of your organization’s financial health without understanding how the money is flowing first. This clarity is precisely what effective expense reports provide. When properly maintained, expense reports give you a clear perspective over your organization's finances. 

In this comprehensive guide, we delve into:

• The Definition of Expense Reports: What are they and why are they crucial?
• The Importance of Accurate Expense Reporting: How does it affect your organization's financial health?
• Creating Effective Expense Reports: We'll explore two practical methods to craft accurate and insightful expense reports, empowering you to make informed financial decisions.

What is an expense report?

An expense report is a crucial tool in business finance management. It is a categorized and itemized list of expenses made on behalf of the organization. These reports assist employers or finance teams in determining what money was spent, what was purchased, and how much of the expenditure is eligible for reimbursement.

The purpose of an expense report is to track the expenditures of a business and expense forms should include all purchases necessary to operate a business, such as food, gas, or parking.

It is most commonly used by employees when requesting reimbursement for expenditures. 

When expenditure amounts exceed a certain threshold, receipts are usually attached to the form. 

Employees are paid the requested amounts after the employer examines their submissions for accuracy and validity. 

In this case, the employer will be able to recognize accounting profit and taxable profit based on the reimbursements.

Business expense reports are usually generated on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis to track business spending:

• It is important for a company to maintain monthly and quarterly expense reports to track all of its purchases during that period. The reports are used to determine whether spending within the organization's budget is within its limits and to identify areas for cost reductions.
• Yearly expense reports are in turn used for tax purposes. A company's tax returns are prepared using its annual expense reports.

It is also possible to use expense reports to detail expenditures made against an initial employee advance. 

Employers still record employee expenses as business expenses, but they do not reimburse employees; instead, they deduct the expenditures from employee advances.

Why use an expense report?

Expense reports are essential for small businesses, enabling a clear tracking of business expenses often paid out-of-pocket by employees. These reports detail all reimbursable expenses and require attaching receipts for accurate verification. Once reviewed for accuracy, employees are reimbursed accordingly. Additionally, small business owners and accountants use these reports to analyze total expenses over specific periods, employing accounting tools to assess whether costs align with budget expectations

The following are some benefits of generating a expense report:

1. Facilitates efficient expense tracking and cost control

Analyzing expense report data is the ideal starting point for cost control. This allows you to track your firm's spending over time by giving you a clearer picture of what your money is being spent on. 

Additionally, you can analyze how much your employees are spending on different expense categories, determine which categories are driving up costs, and implement strategies to reduce or eliminate them. In addition to identifying loopholes in expense policies, these reports can help you decide which vendors to prioritize and which ones to let go by identifying loopholes in expense policies.

Tracking expenses over time allows you to identify whether a particular expense category (such as transportation or hotels) is increasing costs excessively. As a result, you can strategize on how to reduce or eliminate these costs.

2. Helps with budgeting

A business's budget is essential to its smooth operation. A detailed and accurate expense report can help your organization develop a strong and informed financial plan. As a result, various departments and projects can be allocated more appropriate budgets. You can maintain your business's financial security long-term by consistently tracking expenses in order to ensure that different departments and projects adhere to their budgets.

3. Makes for accurate reimbursements

In the event that an employee paid for business expenses out of pocket, they would expect a fair and accurate reimbursement. 

Also, you want to make sure that the request is fair so that you don't pay more than you are owed. 

It allows organizations to determine if a claim is legitimate faster by providing employees with a standardized process to learn what can and cannot be expensed. 

In addition to providing solid evidence of when, where, and how expenses were incurred, itemized expense reports with receipts do the same for proving compliance with your organization's expense policy.

4. Simplifies tax deductions

Tax deductions are available for many business expenses incurred by employees at work. In order to claim expenses as deductions, you must properly record them and provide proof that they were actually incurred. 

Business owners sometimes use their bank account or corporate card statements to keep track of their deductible expenses. It's important to keep in mind that these statements may not include all expenses. 

In contrast, expense reports simplify the process of keeping track and deducting deductible expenses during tax season. The finance team simply needs to add up all the expenses that can be deducted and enter them into the appropriate tax forms.

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What should be in the expense report?

By creating an expense report, you (or your accountant) can easily add up all expenses so that they can be entered into your tax return. 

Some crucial elements to include in an expense report include:

• The name, department, designation, and contact information of the employee who submitted the report.
• The date and amount of each expense (corresponding to the date and amount on the receipt)
• What type of expense is being incurred (meals, mileage, internet, etc.)?
• Vendor or merchant who sold the item
• If applicable, the client or project for which it was purchased
• From your accounting chart, determine the account where the expense should be charged
• A description of each expense in more detail
• Expense subtotals and total costs, including taxes, for each type of expense
• (If applicable) a deduction for prior advances made to the employee

How to create expense reports

Companies most often generate and track expense reports using spreadsheets, templates, or expense reporting software. 

You can generate expense reports in two different ways: manually through templates, or through Pluto. 

Manual expense reporting with custom templates

To make the task of preparing expense reports easier for employees, some organizations provide customizable, ready-made templates to download and use. To report expenses in this way, follow these steps:

1. The employee outlines their name, contact information, designation, the dates covered, and the purpose of the report in the appropriate fields.
2. Following that, they determine how many rows and columns the expense report should contain. For example, some firms have mandatory columns and categories that correspond to the expense categories and columns in tax returns.
3. In the report, expenses should be listed chronologically with brief descriptions, with the most recent expense appearing at the end.
4. In order to calculate the grand total, the employee must first calculate the subtotals for each expense category followed by the total for all expenses. Subtotals assist the finance department in analyzing expenses.
5. Finally, all expenses mentioned above must be accompanied by receipts. The receipts can either be scanned or photocopied depending on whether the report is being submitted digitally.
6. Reports are submitted to the line manager or department manager for validation and fraud detection.
7. As soon as they approve the report, it is forwarded to the finance department for reimbursement.

Automated expense reporting

The use of expense report templates is a quick way to keep track of expenses for small businesses. 

The problem arises when your business grows, at which point the process of filling out a report, even if using a template, can become a time-consuming task. 

When multiple departments process several expense reports a day, it is important to switch to an automated expense reporting solution like Pluto, so that these reports can be tracked and managed more efficiently.

1. Pluto enables employees to create expense reports on the fly. Their receipts need to be captured digitally or filled out in the mandatory fields within the application. 
2. By grouping all the expense claims together, a report can be created and submitted effortlessly. 
3. Pluto also provides virtual and physical cards, so the expense data are booked straight into the platform for later use.
4. Line managers and department managers review reports to identify policy violations, fraud, duplicate expenses, or warnings about them. 

How to simplify the expense reporting process

While expense reports are important when it comes to gaining an overall view of the way money is moving, creating them can be a hassle when your organization incurs too many expenses to keep track of manually.

However, there are a few ways that you can simplify your expense reporting. These include:

Switching to expense reporting software

The first step in expense management is to file expense reports. You must also maintain policy compliance, reimburse expenses on time, and conduct successful expense audits to stay on top of your business expenses. 

This is where Pluto can help. By providing multiple ways to record expenses on the go, we eliminate the need for manual data entry and paperwork. You can benefit from an expense management solution by:

• Generating and submitting reports automatically;
• The ability to support multiple expense policies and spend limits;
• Eliminates policy violations and fraudulent expenditures
• Analytical reports and intuitive dashboards increase spend visibility

With all of these features, you can save time and money while keeping your employees productive.

Make expenses easy to report and track

Provide your employees with Pluto real-time reporting system where they can track expenses, submit receipts, and report business expenses. 

Business expense reports can be updated in real-time using online or smartphone apps, and receipt images can be added for total transparency, if you use digital technology. 

Time-stamping and expense classification make it easy to catch fraud, which is beneficial to both you and your employees.

Embrace mobile devices

By scanning receipts and automatically extracting and reporting the key data, Pluto saves your employees' time and improves their expense reporting accuracy. 

It makes perfect sense for you to use an app that allows your employees to track expenses easily from their phones since most (if not all) of your employees spend a lot of time on their smartphones. 

Set up a routine audit

Ensure that you also incorporate a routine audit process into your business expense report policies. Your expense report should be audited quarterly, biannually, or annually, depending on the number of expenditures your employees incur. 

You can catch fraud cases through audits, but you can also understand where the biggest expenditures are and reduce them. 

Routine audits can also help you improve management and tracking of your business expenses by letting you know how to refine your reporting process.

Automated expense reporting with Pluto

Pluto allows you to issue virtual cards and physical cards and that immediately solves two things:

• No need for petty cash or out of pocket expenses;
• Real-time reporting of all the incurred expenses;

The spend management system allows you to issues cards for a particular employee, vendor, or even expense type. 

It also allows you to set the limits on the go, and see all the expenses in the real-time report. All that, while your employees can easily categorize the expenses and upload the physical receipts just by taking a photo on their mobile device. 

Reporting expenses manually is very time consuming, but having them all digitally stored and automatically reported solves the problem. 

Key takeaways

Expense reports are a crucial aspect of the financial bookkeeping of any business organization. Not only are they important for knowing how much money is being spent by the company, whether as a whole or for a specific project, but also for the purpose of reimbursing employees for business-related expenses. 

Plus, they also help you with budgeting, tax reporting, and cost control measures.

You can easily create an expense report using a premade or personalized template, but you’ll have a much easier time in the long run if you start using Pluto.