Monthly Archives: October 2021

An employee’s expenses can sometimes be a good indicator of their productivity. 

“John spent 5$ on gas for the business meeting.”

“Karen had lunch with an important client and spent 50$.”

“Mark flew out for the director’s meeting after paying 227$ for a flight ticket.”

And so on. 

In all these cases, the employees made good use of the resources made available to them by the company by closing deals, going on sales calls, and even traveling to another state to attend a business meeting. 

Now, what about the aftermath of making the expense? Many companies don’t realize how—right after making an expense that boosted company productivity or revenue—employees experience a lull in their productivity due to a very much preventable issue. 

The pain of expense management

Employees, especially those who are on the field a lot and spend out of pocket for company-related activities, waste an excessive amount of time reporting their expenses and getting reimbursed for them. Undoubtedly, spending countless hours collecting receipts, preparing expense reports, and getting approvals from various people in the company—only to wait several days for reimbursements—will take its toll on employee productivity and happiness. 

The link between automated expense management and productivity 

Here is how automated expense management software helps employees work efficiently and only on tasks that matter to the company.

Employees no longer have to carry around outdated paper receipts, prepare expense reports, submit them to the management, and wait around for the finance team to approve their reimbursements. 

With software, such as ExpenseOut, employees can record all their expenses on their smartphones. All they need to do is scan their receipts using the OCR functionality. Once that is done, the receipt is automatically stored in a digital vault. Notably, the expense software reads the receipt, checks its authenticity, and adds the details automatically to an expense report, which the manager and finance team can access at any time. 

The manager and finance team can then easily approve or reject the expense based on company policy, meaning that reimbursements will reach the employee in a matter of minutes after the submission of an expense report. The software can even be customized to automatically reject all expenses that don’t comply with company policy. 

Since this entire process takes place over a user-friendly app, it saves employees the trouble of manually preparing an expense report with a clunky spreadsheet and following up with everyone regarding their reimbursement status.

Clarity over T&E policy saves time

With expense management software, the manager can set budget limits based on spending category or employee designation. 

For instance, the management can allow junior salespeople only to book economy-class flight tickets while authorizing senior salespeople and managers to book first-class or business class flights. Similarly, companies can set limits on how each employee or department can spend on travel, food, accommodation, etc. 

When there is a preset budget, and the software doesn’t allow non-compliant entries, the finance team will save a lot of time by not having to manually verify that every transaction aligns with company T&E policy. Also, there is no question of employees overspending and losing valuable time trying to justify their expenses.

Cash advances can be a lifesaver

Another great way companies can keep employees productive and happy is by using cash advances sent using expense management software when there is a known expense. With a cash advance, the employee no longer has to pay out of pocket and spend tons of time preparing reports and waiting around for reimbursement from the finance team. 

Real-time insights from expense management software can facilitate smarter decision-making.

The expense analytics and audit can provide companies with actionable data on how to improve employee productivity. For instance, companies can identify expenses that had the most impact on the bottom line and encourage that while discouraging activities that didn’t produce a sufficient return. 

For instance, if a company finds that meeting potential clients at their offices is cheaper and more effective than taking the client out to a meal, the management can push for more meetings in the client’s office.

Also, if your company has on-field employees who depend on expense management software to track mileage and claim their travel reimbursements, you can get a good idea of how productive your employee is on a given day and provide feedback for them to improve. 

Conclusion

Are your employees truly productive? Are your employees focusing as much as possible on their core tasks and not wasting time filling out extensive reports? Are your employees reimbursed as fast as possible after an expense, so they don’t waste valuable time following up with the finance team or dragging around crummy paper receipts? 

The answer to all these questions can be a yes if you have an automated expense management system. To see how much of a profound impact it can have on boosting employee productivity, try ExpenseOut free for 30 days. 

If you are in the market for an expense management solution, you have a difficult choice to make. There are countless solutions claiming to be powered by the latest technology. To make matters worse, each of these expense management solutions has glowing reviews from a sea of seemingly endless customers.

Now, how do you decide which of these solutions will be optimal for your specific needs?

You could need the expense management solution for your remote employees, or you could need it only for on-field employees. You may even need it to be applicable for all your employees, whether in the office or working remotely or representing your company on the field. 

To cater to these diverse needs, you need a customizable solution that automates most expense management. Most importantly, you need a solution that doesn’t burden you by being difficult to use or by being pricey. 

Here, we outline how to pick such an expense management software that the whole company loves. 

Powered by the latest technology

Look for an expense management solution with Artificial intelligence (AI) or similar capabilities, such as machine learning (ML). Doing so ensures that the software you pick to manage your company’s expenses does away with the tedious work. 

There are solutions in the market that can automatically detect and reject fake expense claims. Using AI/ ML, these solutions can ensure that no receipt is submitted twice, no receipt that violates company policy makes it to the manager’s / finance team’s consideration unless the management wants to make approvals on a case-by-case basis, and no duplicate receipt gets accepted. 

Another functionality you need to be on the lookout for is OCR (Optical character recognition). Using the same, your expense management software can allow employees to scan receipts and store them in a digital vault rather than carrying around old crummy receipts whose authenticity can’t be verified.

Advanced analytics to prevent fraud and misreporting

Expense misreporting costs companies millions of dollars every year, so you need an expense management solution that is equipped to identify fraudulent expenses. You know you have the right software when you can view employee/department-wise spending in every category in an easy-to-read interface. 

You have hit the jackpot if your expense management solution can analyze your expenses to find patterns of overspending, fraud, or negligent reporting of company expenses. 

Seamless reporting, tracking, and reimbursement of expenses

Your expense management software needs to help you do away with outdated, time-consuming spreadsheets. This means your expense management system can’t be cluttered with incomprehensible data. Instead, it should provide you with the ability to automate the reporting process along with the reimbursement part.

With the right software, employees can automatically generate expense reports vetted for policy compliance by the system. The manager can look at the easy-to-read report to quickly approve the expense, following which the finance team can settle the reimbursement claim—all within a matter of minutes. 

Getting a solution that makes your life that easy is vital if you want to be productive and focus on your core responsibilities rather than worrying about whether an employee went the distance that they claimed they did while performing some on-field activity for the company. 

Highly customizable for your business needs

Your expense reporting needs could either be hyper-specific or generic to the point they can’t be defined. Consequently, you need a solution for managing expenses that can be customized to your needs, irrespective of whether it is for on-field, remote, or office-based teams. 

For instance, if you want to monitor whether your on-field sales teams’ mileage claims are accurate, you need a solution that can track the distance they have gone via their phones. 

Similarly, if your needs are specific to business travel, you need a solution that allows employees to input travel-related expenses. Further, if your employees want to treat your clients to a nice meal, your software needs to allow temporary, preset spending policy exceptions. 

A solution that works for everyone

The expense management software that your purchase needs to be suitable for meeting the requirements of everyone who uses it. For the employees, it needs to be a non-burdensome app/ site where they can log in their expenses in seconds and get it approved instantaneously. 

For the manager, it needs to be a platform where they can view expense reports easily, verify policy compliance simultaneously, and approve expenses swiftly.

For the finance team, the expense management software must be a source of actionable insights regarding the company’s T&E (Travel and expense) alongside being a handy tool for preparing for audits and processing reimbursement claims speedily.

Value for money

Your expense management software shouldn’t end up being a financial burden. Look for a solution that scales with you, preferably one with a free trial that can slowly be scaled to incorporate a few paid users before implementing the solution for the entire company. 

Conclusion

ExpenseOut ticks all the boxes for an expense management solution that delights the finance team, employees, and management. With it, your company can seamlessly report and track every expense, reimburse employees instantaneously, and do away with fraudulent expenses once and for all. If you want to learn more, reach us at [email protected].