Whether you’re a small start-up or a large multinational business, the basic challenges of managing employee expenses remain the same. It’s manual, time-consuming and very inefficient. For example, it’s estimated that around $2.8 billion is lost each year by US employers to expense fraud and a 2018 global survey identified expenses as one of the chores that are taking up more than a quarter (26%) of employees’ time.
To combat this, financial administration needs a simple and efficient way to reimburse workers for any business costs – from planes to coffee. This is where automated employee expense management comes in.
By removing admin clutter and confusion, companies can go back to basics – creating a simple and efficient way to reimburse workers. In this article, we will discuss three ways companies can manage employee expenses easily.
- Plan: Expenses Policy
- Manage: Maintaining Financial Control
- Monitor: Improving Efficiency
- Manage Employee Expenses Easily With Webexpenses
Plan: Expenses Policy
The foundation for any effective expense management is an active and enforced expenses policy. A document that clearly and concisely sets out the basic instructions on:
- How to make a reimbursement claim
- What can be reimbursed
- Spend limits on reimbursable spend
One problem with a traditional approach is properly communicating your policies with employees. A policy document tends to be glanced at once and then fade from memory.
When policies are changing over time – with revised limits and rates – it becomes a constant battle to ensure these rules are effectively communicated and followed. Cloud-based employee expense management software solves this problem by allowing a policy to be integrated into the process.
Learn how to create an effective expenses policy that is fair for all of your employees.
Manage: Maintaining Financial Control
Once the expense policy is created, it is imperative to actively enforce your policies. This is the crux of the problem caused by inefficient paper-based methods of expense management.
A digital employee expense management system converts paper receipts into a digital form, allowing for a completely digital process with accurate data. The information is instantly accessible and automatically checked to ensure policy compliance.
On-screen notifications and checks automatically provide claimants with policy reminders and alerts whenever limits are breached, automatically enforcing your expense policy in real-time.
Automating your business expenses management removes many of the menial and repetitive tasks, and could, in turn, reduce processing times by an average of 25%.
Monitor: Improving Efficiency
By switching to a digital process, finance teams gain access to smart reporting tools and integrations for expense audits that provide real-time information on all company expense spending so any problem areas can be immediately visible.
A common problem with traditional expense management is the way that processes are liable to deteriorate over time. For example, enforcing company expense policy, approval, or expense reporting. Without access to accurate information, it’s difficult to spot growing problems or identify performance issues.
This is a major benefit of moving to a digital approach. Reporting tools allow finance teams to access real-time information on employee expenses from across a business.
Expense reports that would take hours to collate by hand in a traditional method, can now be digitally compiled in a matter of seconds.
This gives finance teams the data – like patterns, trends, and spend visibility – required to keep improving performance. By identifying spikes and hot spots, teams can address potential issues before they become costly problems.
Manage Employee Expenses Easily With Webexpenses
In summary, the inefficiency and complexity that has made expense management a traditionally difficult area can be a thing of the past! Today, the combination of mobile technology and automated processes creates a simplified and streamlined process.
It removes the administrative burden from finance tools and allows them to get back to basics. It ensures a fast, simple, and effective way to maintain your company policy and easily reimburse employees.
Try a free demo of Webexpenses business expenses software suite today and see how much difference automation makes! Or, learn more about expense management automation and why you should automate business expenses in our comprehensive guide.
