Mobility is the Base of Effective Expense Management

from our US office

Management in the oil and gas industry is dynamic and complex. As a manager in this industry, you have to juggle multiple high-level projects at once right? You must be able to effectively balance business expenses and cash flow while managing a dispersed workforce, mitigating risks, and complying with regulations.

On top of it all, time really does equal money in this context. Similar to the airline industry, fixed costs in the oil and gas industry are high. And because the price of oil has dropped from about $100/barrel in 2011 to about $70/barrel in 2018, every minute wasted has a big impact on generating revenue to cover costs.

Therefore, one way to survive in a market that demands managers to be time and money sensitive is to create efficiencies everywhere possible.

So, why is mobility the foundation of effective expense management in oil and gas?

Mobility is centered around efficiency, something that is highly valued in a work environment with numerous moving parts. Managers are often responsible for visiting job sites, filling out paperwork, managing employees, and, overall, making sure that the entire operation runs smoothly.

For example, there are often hundreds of employees moving away from their homes and into temporary accommodations to be closer to local job sites. This means that hundreds of employees are also submitting travel, hotel, food, and other everyday expenses for reimbursement. Mobility can save time, money, and error in managing these expenses.

Imagine that, an employee checks into a hotel and receives an invoice for their stay. Instead of holding onto that receipt until they submit their expense claims, they can take a picture with their smartphone and upload it to a single, streamlined expense report. The manager can double check this report, send it to supervisors for approval, and later submit it to accounting for reimbursement without the time and effort of logging invoices onto a computer. Not only will this save time for the managers, but it will also help to reduce delays in payment for the employees.

In conclusion, mobility can help to remove some of the more tedious and mundane tasks for managers to focus their attention on more important matters. Mobility can also help to boost employee morale by streamlining operations and reducing operational delays.

Keep in mind that it's important to shop around for an expense management system that works for you and your employees. Look for expense apps that are user-friendly and compatible on various devices.

 

To see how an advanced expense reporting solution could benefit you and your employees, request a demo of webexpenses.