The importance of Expense Management Software
Today’s businesses are embracing more flexible, hybrid approaches to work, which means expenses for home office furniture and equipment are set to be rivalled by claims for travel, subsistence, and mileage.
Accounting and payroll services and departments will be faced with a consistently varied range of claims under this hybrid model. When we compared anonymously collected expense data between 2020 and 2021, we found that claims had more than doubled year-over-year.
How will you keep track of it all?
Fear not! To help you get your expense management off to a great start in 2022, we’ve compiled seven top expense management tips to help you streamline and improve your workflows, keep your employees happy, and reduce the amount of incoming paper in the office.
Here they are in no particular order:
Decide what works and work with it
You know your business better than anyone else. Solving problems in other areas of your organization, such as sales and marketing, is done to benefit the business and add value. Even though expense management may not generate income, you can get real value from cost-effective solutions in terms of time and money saved.
How? The best expense management solutions integrate with your existing systems. Consider a solution that integrates seamlessly with what you already have, not something that goes against it. Adding to the complexity of your expense management and payroll processes is the last thing you need.
Be bank card agnostic
Maybe rethink changing banks or getting new credit or corporate cards in order to improve your expense management process. Changing providers isn’t necessary, and it’s easier to use a solution that already supports all existing cards rather than switching providers. Having the flexibility to pivot means you won’t be tied down to a single solution in the long run.
Get on board with the digital transformation
Workplaces are changing. Many organizations are exploring the benefits of digital transformation. Accounting and payroll services have the perfect opportunity to go digital as hybrid and remote working continue to grow in popularity.
Now is the time to implement a digital expense management solution. You need to cover every finance-related process for employees and businesses to meet the needs of a more flexible workforce. Why must every customer or employee submit expenses in person?
Increase automation to increase efficiency
Automation and speed go hand-in-hand with digitizing expense management. Frictionless functionality makes expense management faster and easier.
Consider how fast your employees are reimbursed for their expenses today, and consider how fast it could be with increased automation. If your tools automate repetitive tasks, what can you, the finance team, do? How can you add value to your organization?
Prioritise user-experience
During the journey of digital transformation, there are a growing number of new software solutions and processes for employees to learn. They don’t want to endure yet another training session for yet another new system. Make sure that the expense management solution you choose is intuitive and user-friendly.
As a result of the global pandemic, many people have acquired digital literacy skills to the extent that they have grown to expect increasingly simple apps and software. Managing expenses is often perceived as a thankless task, so its functionality must guide users, making the process as easy as possible and without the need for extensive training.
Simplify mileage and per diem
It’s essential that you make recording and tracking expenses on the road as easy as possible for employees returning to the office and resuming pre-pandemic travel. Because employees might travel less (to begin with, at least), you shouldn’t cut down on your expense management tool’s features. Mileage and per diem should be included in your tool if you or your employees travel for work.
It should be simple to record and adapted to local units of measurement – such as kilometres or miles. People on the move benefit from the convenience of a reliable and secure app for tracking business miles and per diem.
The closing balance
It’s no secret that most employees find expense management a bit of a chore, especially when it includes clunky and time-consuming processes like downloading and printing forms, attaching receipts, or mailing claims. On the receiving end, when claims arrive by mail or email, and they’re unclear, or a receipt is missing, or the wrong receipt is attached, it’s not fun. Then there are the delays in getting reimbursement issued through the payroll system. Surely, there’s got to be a better way?
By following our 7 top expense management tips, you can streamline your workflows and move towards more simplified and accurate reporting processes, saving your organization time, and ensuring expense claims are processed more efficiently in 2022 and beyond.
