Once you file a few expense reports at work, a couple of things become clear.

First, expense management software is designed for and sold to finance departments to keep employee spending in line. Often, it feels as if no one did any user testing with everyday workers.

Second, many of the people who approve your expense reports think that if the process is noxious enough, then you won’t submit as many expenses.

This is not too cynical of a read. Geoff Charles, the vice president of product at Ramp, which makes reporting software, said in an interview that finance executives had told him that they liked making people jump through hoops.

Even so, we dare to dream of a day when expense reports just happen: You spend money at work, the software starts a report automatically and approval occurs without our ever touching it.

The good news is that the software companies share that dream. If everyone hates their tools a bit less, they win, too.

Expense reports are a necessary evil. Securities laws require a certain amount of financial reporting for public companies, and tracking what a company spends is part of this. Tax laws matter, too, since certain items are deductible at different rates.