Managing employee expense claims can be time-consuming for employees and employers with no value added for affected parties, employers will drive productivity if they make the process more efficient. Most companies operate on the basis of their employees submitting consolidated expenses via manual invoices to make claims. Which chart of account does the taxi cost map into, is one of the pressing questions employees ask the management account department. This may seem like a very simple question but it can be a headache for the management accounts department. Whereas travel expense looks like a simple expense, employees through no fault of theirs can incur more complex business expenses, making the work of the management accounts department difficult. It would have been a simple process if the number of staff in the company is less than 3.
Time consumed in processing employee expense claims
When dealing with more than 3 employees with a long list of expense claims, the processing becomes time-consuming. It gets worse if the expense lines on the invoice are long, taking considerable time to consolidate. For example expenses for food – 5 lines, expense on fuel – 5 lines, expenses on the flight – 2 lines, accommodation – 2 lines and Travel – 5 lines. If the business is VAT registered, how do you claim the VAT back on receipts you can not make head and tail off? What if the receipts are not attached to the invoices or some of the receipts are missing? All these questions are answered below.
Some development
It is a step in the right direction for companies who have upgraded their systems to a cloud-based management software where receipts and claims are processed online, they provide a partial solution to the problem. This is a step forward but is the process convenient enough for the employees to easily make their claims? This may have resolved the problem of the various invoices management account staff need to comb through but does it make the process of managing any easier for employees to claim their business expenses? Do employees dread undergoing the task of making expense claims because of the complex systems in place? Delays in making expense claims by employees and missing receipts can also affect the accurate reporting of the business finances.
Benefit to employers
Employers may find it convenient for employees not to claim their legitimate expenses because of complex systems in place or because the employees never got round to making the claim. For employee retention, that is not a good sign. Employees are important stakeholders for the business and need to be motivated, they should be given the tools to perform their duties without any hindrance. Employees shouldn’t be out-of-pocket for fulfilling their duties in the workplace. Happy and satisfied employees contribute to the success of a business.
Employer and Employee Partnership
“The future relationship between employer and employee will be more like a partnership than it has been in the past.” Napoleon Hill (Think and grow rich).
2018 has seen the partnership between employer and employer make a huge difference for companies surviving and those that are not. To make grow that partnership, companies can start by making certain tools and systems easy for staff to use. One of the tools is the expense claim system, it makes it easier for employees to make expense claims.
Below are some ten unique features of our existing expense claims tool that will make your employee claims an easy process. The availability of automation applications and robotics has made 2018 and the future of automation a requirement for business efficiency.
1. Record expenses anywhere
We can all easily forget about the fuel purchases we made an hour ago. More so, we easily forget where we placed the receipts. Now your employees can record your purchases on your phone. There is no need to keep the receipt until you get to your desk. It is rare to find someone without their phone on them in 2018. Majority of us keep our phones with us wherever we go. There is also no need to search on your internet browser; manage your expense claims efficiently via an app on the phone. Accessing the app is easy, once you gain access to your phone you can select the app and you are good to go. Equip your employees to record expenses at any location where they have access to the WiFi network.
2. Auto scan receipts and submit claims
Enable your employees to scan receipts from fuel stations, restaurants, taxis into the expense claims app. There is no need to comb through the garbage to find missing receipts. Save your receipts, access them at any time and submit your claims. Your management team can also access the receipts at any time if they need to refer. In most instances, there will be no need for the management accounts team to interrupt your employee’s work because they can not make sense of the employee’s expense claim. Auto scan works on most smartphones, access through the Google or ios apps. The company makes savings on physical storage space, the time taken to file receipts and invoices from employees.
3. Set Per Diem rates
The Per Diem rates are set for departments based on the budgets. Per Diem rates are chosen for each department and country per requirement. The option to set rates on food, accommodation costs and for different departments is also available. Choose different rates for different countries. Setting per Diem rates for different projects is another beautiful feature. Restrict and customise the Per Diem menu for the appropriate employee and department view. Management can keep track of Per Diem expenses to ensure that they do not overrun. Easily manage variances without any surprises. Employees will only spend within set rates and make expense claims within those rates.
4. Claim expense in any currency
Our expense applications support all currencies. Easily convert expenses into the local currency, it has never been easier to record expenses in any country. An employee who visits clients in the United States can easily record taxi costs from the airport the application will easily convert into the local currency of the company based on the exchange rate, another feature on our software. No restriction is placed on employees from making claims on expenses in other currencies. Management accounting teams will not have to spend valuable time converting costs from different currencies, all the conversion are done for them.
5. Digitally store receipts
I have lost count on the number of times I have forgotten to take my receipts out of my pocket. Luckily in most cases, I notice before my clothes end up in the washing machine. Not sure if you have noticed, but some receipts do fade out after a period, good for the security of our details though. Digitally stored receipts do not fade out and are safely stored in the cloud. There is neither the worry of how to account for the data if there is an outbreak of fire. Digital prints are kept for as long as you want, just like the digital print of the internet. This is a good feature for easy access and traceable for auditors. They can access the receipts at any time of the year. It is also easy to reference for tax inspectors who want to trace expenses over a long period.
6. Bill customers straight away
Easy access to the receipts and digital storage infrastructure makes it easier for our software to access any records. Instant invoices are created from the receipts to customers for projects being undertaken. Lawyers can bill any project undertaken for a client directly to the specific client from the related expenses incurred. Completely eradicate time wasted in locating expenses related to specific customers. Consultants can do the same, charging travel costs directly to clients. Send directly related expense reports to your clients and build trust, assure clients that they are billed per actual projects are undertaken.
7. Send receipts from anywhere
Receipts uploaded to our app does not have to be in paper only. Most service providers provide digital receipts, hence the reason for creating a function that does not ignore other receipts. Forward receipts from email or upload from cloud storage applications like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and iCloud. Save time for other important strategic responsibilities in the business.
8. Review and approve expense claims
Enable line managers to approve and authorise expense claims before passing them on to the management accounts department for payment. Managers can easily review and ask any questions before they approve expenses, setting all parties mind at ease. Management accounts department is relieved of the valuable time spent chasing managers to approve expenses. Loss of expense claims in the process is a thing of the past. Employees will have the trust in the employee expense approval process.
9. Charge multiple chart accounts from the receipt
Charge itemised lines on receipts to multiple accounts. There is no need to manually account for the itemised lined claims. Automate your itemised claim lines, freeing the accounts team the valuable time in summing up and consolidating similar or multiple accounts. We use trusted third-party technology to convert receipts into text format. Manually recording expenses to multiple charts of accounts can be mundane. For the accounts staff, this does not add value to the business but rather time-consuming. Our expense claim applications will take away the errors and make accurate records into your books. Completely eliminate concerns of over and underpayments of employee expenses.
10. Status of expense claims
Employees want to know what the processing stage their expense claims are at. Employees have access to updates on their claims with feedback on whether it has been approved, declined, voided, awaiting payment or paid? In most cases, staff will have to chase management accounts staff to know the status of their expense claims. Employees can view what stage and status their expense claims are at, in the process. Build trust between employer and employee relationship and assure your employees that the expense claims process works by keeping your employees in the loop.
Conclusion
Employee expense claim and indeed expense management tools have moved on. Employees want to be equipped with automated functions releasing them to concentrate on their key day to day tasks. Use applications that gives you the functionality of ensuring that no expense is missed, enabling employees to record anywhere. Digital records of receipts do not only allow accurate bookkeeping but also makes it easy for auditors to access and promotes traceable for the business. Shareholders have confidence in the financial information reported as result. Set limits on expenses, ensuring that employees know in advance about how much allowance they are allowed to. Different currency expense is not a restriction to the functionality of our expense software either. Our expense software manages employee expenses and automates bookkeeping systems building trust between employers and employees. The features explained doesn’t have to be used on your chosen application if it does not conform to your company policy. The company has the option to use the features the best suit their needs. Other integrated applications exist that will automate areas in your business that is crying out for automation. Please visit us to read more.
Joseph Nsiah
Business Systems Consultancy firm – Friendly Professionals delivering Business efficiency systems
