Posts in category: Productivity

Business travel demand has picked up steadily after the pandemic, leading to companies having more expense claims to process than ever before. 

While the rise in business travel demand may signal that your employees are getting more productive, it is also worth noting that that means more work for your finance team and management. 

Employees on the move may send lengthy email threads, excel sheets, and receipts, asking for reimbursement. Eventually, the company may find that it is taking weeks to process a single request due to how tedious it is to manage business travel expenses manually.

To avoid getting into that situation, companies need to be proactive in adopting a mobile-based expense reporting solution.

Here are all the benefits associated with using an automated expense management application accessible via mobile phone for employees.

Painless reimbursements for the employees

Results of our latest poll asking business travellers if they consider mobile expense reporting to be a necessity. 

Employees typically get reimbursed only if they submit a physical copy of a receipt. These receipts are inconvenient to carry around, and they may further become damaged or illegible after a while. Even taking a photo of the receipt and mailing it comes with its own set of problems. 

For instance, the finance team must manually check the authenticity of the receipt & whether it complies with travel policy, verify the amount requested, and approve the reimbursement, often after consulting with the management, which can take weeks. 

With a mobile-based expense reimbursement solution, employees can snap photos of the receipt on the go, and the system takes care of the rest. The solution’s OCR functionality allows it to read all the crucial parts of the receipt, such as the amount, vendor name, taxes, items/ services purchased, etc. 

Once that is done, the solution checks if the amount complies with the company’s travel and expense policy before processing the reimbursement request. All the finance team must do now is approve or deny the reimbursement request based on the automatic report generated by the solution. Companies can use such a system to reimburse employees in minutes instead of weeks. 

Audit readiness with error-free reporting

When business travel expenses are managed via spreadsheets, errors may crop up. For instance, a small typo can turn a soft drink worth $5 into an expense that costs the company $50. 

When employees use a mobile-based expense management solution to report expenses, there is zero chance of error. This is because the receipt details are captured automatically by the system and stored safely in a digital vault, where there is no chance of any alteration.

Thanks to this functionality, the finance team can guarantee there will be no surprises during audit season. 

All your data is intact

There’s no guarantee what will happen to the information you have stored away in email threads or spreadsheets. Making matters worse, employee travel and expense data stored this way are also hard to access.

Companies need a cloud-based expense management solution to end this inconvenience and ensure that all the receipts, the status of a reimbursement claim, policy violations, etc., are easily visible and accessible on a single platform. 

With the help of a solution that can be accessed via mobile, companies can stay up to date on how their travel budget is being spent. Companies can provide access to this information based on employee designation. 

Travel & expense policy compliance and fraud prevention 

One of the most challenging aspects of managing expenses manually is ensuring policy compliance. Often, employees may end up spending money beyond their approved limit and claim reimbursement that is out of policy, leading to losses for the company. 

Automatic policy compliance enforcement is the way to ensure compliance with your travel policy. When employees take a picture of the receipt, the system automatically flags out of policy expenses, preventing employees from making a claim.

However, if the company chooses, employees can claim reimbursement for out-of-policy expenses after stating a reason. The manager/ finance team can approve or deny the claim based on the reason mentioned. 

Another hurdle in expense management is fraudulent claims, such as submitting an expense many times. The system automatically catches these instances and alerts the management of the suspicious activity. 

Easy granting of per diem and cash advances 

Companies often give out per diems or cash advances for their business travelers, so they don’t have to spend out of pocket. But getting approval for these can be time-consuming, and there is unnecessary stress involved in following up repeatedly with various teams to ensure that the cash advances are granted before an employee takes off for a business trip. 

However, things are different when you have an expense management solution. Employees can quickly raise requests for per diems and cash advances; if they are valid, the finance team and management can quickly approve the same.

Overall, there is far less time wasted on such a trivial matter. 

Advanced and real-time reporting

No matter where the employee is, the manager can get real-time alerts on spending. Crucially, the management can view advanced reports on expenditures, such as teams that spend the most, employees who violate travel policy frequently, etc. Such detailed insights can be valuable not just for audits but also for managing employees’ payroll. 

Other than that, the real-time insights provided by a mobile-based expense management system can facilitate thoughtful spending. This is because receipts are hard to track, while every dollar spent can be viewed based on spending category, date, etc., in the app. 

Conclusion

A mobile-based reporting solution can streamline your expense management process. Employees anywhere in the world can snap photos of their receipts with their phones and raise reimbursement requests in a few minutes.

Similarly, companies can verify these receipts, ensure 100% policy compliance, and process reimbursement claims in a few minutes rather than taking weeks. Additionally, mobile expense management makes sense for organizations that give out per diems/cash advances, as employees can quickly raise requests through a few clicks.  

Sounds fascinating? Try ExpenseOut, the leading mobile-based expense reporting software, free for 14 days. Schedule a demo. 

Typically, employees who travel for business purposes submit reports for the miles / kilometers driven to the finance team. The finance team then verifies the reports manually and approves the reimbursements.

Even though the process is straightforward, many things can go sideways.

Employees may submit fake receipts, the finance team may not be able to have total visibility over the actual distance traveled or the amount spent per kilometer, business travelers may get reimbursements for personal trips, etc.

The list of potential problems is endless, but in this digital age, thankfully, organizations have the option of investing in mileage tracking software that can alleviate all these issues.

Benefits of implementing mileage tracking software 

Using mileage tracking software, companies can get an accurate idea of how much their employees spend on fuel, the distance they have traveled, and how productive their business trips have been.

Essentially, the software is active on the employees’ phones and uses live GPS data to provide the management and finance team with real-time mileage information.

Here are all the benefits of implementing such a solution.

• Automatic and accurate tracking

 The GPS integration with the software allows it to gather accurate mileage data. The data is then automatically prepared as reports, which can be accessed in real-time by the finance department and the management. Notably, the software can accurately track round trips and trips with multiple stops.

• Less time for mileage claims

On average, each employee spends 7 minutes preparing expense reports. Then, the finance team and management must verify each report before approving the reimbursements.

However, with effective mileage tracking software, you can streamline the process, significantly reducing the time spent on expense reimbursements. Therefore, business travelers can get quicker reimbursements for the distance they traveled, and the finance team doesn’t have to worry about fraudulent reports.

• Elimination of fraudulent expense reports

Mileage tracking software with GPS integration can go a long way in boosting policy compliance. The management can always be aware of the employees’ whereabouts. Using this information, the finance team can ensure that business travelers aren’t reimbursed for personal trips.   

• Integrated system

The expense management software with mileage tracking can be integrated with any ERP or accounting system. This can save time for the finance team by eliminating the need for them to upload mileage data manually. Also, mileage tracking software can be integrated with payroll software to reimburse employees automatically along with their salaries.

• Advanced reports

It is essential to review mileage expense reports to improve the reimbursement process. Advanced reporting helps the finance team in the organization to get better insights from mileage expense data. With the information, they can identify departments or individuals that don’t comply with travel policy, cut back on fuel costs, reward employees who are most productive, etc.

Conclusion

Mileage tracking software removes the risk of potential fraud or reporting error and helps your business save time and money. Plus, you can make expense reporting easier for your employees. Ultimately the mileage tracking software can make the workforce efficient, helping the finance team save time by eliminating mundane tasks.

Start optimizing your organization’s mileage spend. Book a free demo with our product specialist today by reaching us at [email protected].

Also, you can read how we helped a client boost policy compliance by 50% in employee mileage claims.

Remote work has become the new normal during and in the wake of the pandemic.

More and more companies are hiring remote employees to save on overhead, improve flexibility, and foster creativity with a global workforce.

There are numerous advantages for both employers and employees, but it will also bring new challenges like time zone differences, different tax laws, and living costs. That said, perhaps the biggest challenge faced by the organization is managing employee expenses.

Employees who work remotely may find it difficult to obtain the company’s funds for necessary expenses, and finance teams may find it challenging to manage these expenses.

This blog will take a closer look at the key challenges of expense management for the remote workforce and how an expense management solution can solve it.

Common challenges to managing employee expenses for the remote workforce

While working remotely offers many compelling benefits, it also brings certain challenges:

• A temptation to overspend
• Lesser control over spending for the finance team
• Security issues due to a lack of transparency in spending
• Slow reimbursement for expenses
• A lack of trust due to poor visibility over spending

So, let’s explore better ways to deal with your remote expense processes. Whether you’re already fully remote or heading that way in a hurry, you can keep moving quickly and manage your employee expenses without compromising on security.

• Allow employees to claim expenses from anywhere

When working remotely, keeping track of receipts and sending accurate and timely reports can be near impossible for your employees.

You can empower your business travelers to submit their expenses from home, other work locations, client offices, during their commute, or right from the office by digitizing the expense management process. With a cloud-based expense management solution, employees can access their accounts from a desktop or mobile phone, scan the receipts, and submit expenses directly.

Here are some other features that help your employees record their expenses without any hassle.

• Your employee can scan receipts immediately using the auto  scan feature from their mobile, via an app. Or they can upload their receipts to the software’s e-vault, so that the system can take crucial information from it, such as vendor details, prices, taxes, etc. and prepare an expense report automatically.

• For a remote workforce, especially salespeople, who drive to meet customers, the distance traveled can be measured using the GPS feature, and fuel reimbursement can be immediately processed.

• Make policy compliance a breeze

Most companies have failed to come up with a smooth and efficient way to ensure policy compliance when it comes to the expenses of their remote employees. Consequently, they find it difficult to process expenses quickly and with complete trust.

To resolve the issue, companies with a remote workforce can make use of automated policy compliance.

With the right solution, you can setup policies that consider the different tax structures for remote employee expenses, location of the employee, designation, role, expense requirements, etc.

Also, the system will notify employees when they submit non-compliant expenses, eliminating a lot of busywork and expense fraud.

• Prevent and detect expense reimbursement fraud in a mater of moments

Your employees can easily submit fraudulent expense claims when they work remotely. Research also shows that, despite our shift away from paper for most business processes, some organizations still follow the traditional method of expense management. They allow their employees to submit the physical receipts to claim expenses, making them more prone to commit fraud.

Incorporating an expense management solution can simplify the process, making it easier for employees to claim the right amount and follow policy, because of the automated checks in place and the approval workflow that can be configured into the system.

• Approve reimbursements/expenses faster

The expense management solution will help you expedite your expense approval processes with accurate policy enforcement, preventing excessive expenses and building accountability for the employees. A manager can review and/or approve expenses instantly when expenses are submitted.

If an expense is out-of-policy, the manager or the finance team can verify the receipt attached to the report and decide instantaneously whether to process the reimbursement, all in a matter of minutes, as opposed to the several days it used to take for a reimbursement claim to be processed.

Besides, managers and finance teams can quickly approve per diems & spending limit expansion and pre-approve expenses, without the employee having to set foot in the office.  

Conclusion

Businesses can seamlessly manage remote employee business spending with strategic automation and clear policies around expenses. We know this because, at ExpenseOut, we make it happen. ExpenseOut is an efficient expense automation software that strikes a healthy balance between control and flexibility. Digitize and automate expenses to save time and money with our powerful features. We help businesses simplify their finances so that they may focus on expanding their business. Take the free trial and see how economical, simple, and scalable our solution is.

When you have employees on the field doing sales calls, site inspections, collecting payments from customers, or just about anything to do with the company, it is vital to know where they are and how productive their day has been. It is even more important to check whether they report expenses, mileage, and time spent on each task a

As a manager, you can’t manually travel to every site your employees work at and check on them because that would be both time-consuming and financially unsustainable.

Then, how do you ensure visibility into your team’s movement and daily performance without blindly trusting them to send you accurate reports?

This is where automation with ExpenseOut comes in.

The all-in-one automated tool for mileage, expense, and time tracking

With employee tracking software ExpenseOut installed on employees’ phones, there is little an employer must do to guarantee performance and accurate reporting of miles and the places visited and the level of productivity achieved.

The tool uses the phone’s GPS to gauge the time and distance traveled automatically. Notably, the employer can set minimum amounts of mileage the employee has to cover. The app rejects entries that don’t comply with company policy, or asks for a reason, depending on the manager’s preference.

With ExpenseOut, companies can track data like how many customers an employee has visited in a day and when the employee started and ended his day, and whether the employee has met the minimum attendance requirements.

Here is how these ExpenseOut capabilities will contribute to your company saving tons of money and time.

Perform thorough activity analysis

With our employee tracking app, companies can get actionable insights on how much time was spent productively and how much of it was squandered going to unnecessary places or lingering in a place too long.

Improve policy compliance

You will get alerted when an employee has started their shift late or gone to an unnecessary location according to preset policy. Further, it’s possible to keep track of whether employees spend the optimal amount of time at each location and only use the acceptable amount of fuel.

Keeps you updated on the live location

With the live GPS data, you can ensure your employees are safe, driving within the speed limit, and are reaching their targets with regards to the visits they’ve conducted. As a result, the employee can maintain peak productivity while ensuring their wellbeing.

Helps with effective resource allocation

When you have the travel and productivity data of every employee, you will accurately gauge where your employees need more help. Along with sending reinforcements to your employees if you see a dip in productivity, you can also offer feedback on where they can improve.

Saves the company money and time

You no longer have to spend hours poring over self-assessments and reports from employees. Also, gone are the days when you have to anxiously call or check on the employee by going over to where they are supposed to be. The system does it automatically and provides you with easy-to-read insights that you can leverage to assess employee performance and pay bonuses and salaries.

Builds trust

Having ExpenseOut monitoring your employees is a win-win situation for the management and the employees. This is because keeping an eye on the location and productivity in real-time builds trust in the leadership that the employee is making optimal use of company time. Similarly, when an employee knows that the management is watching, he is bound to make intelligent decisions.

Conclusion

ExpenseOut is just right for you if you are in the market for an employee tracking tool that keeps you updated on employee activities and movements in real-time. With it, you will never again have to worry about fraudulent performance reports and shoddy work from people on the field. Try ExpenseOut free for 30 days.