Every organisation, big or small gets to a stage where business expense claims become difficult to manage. These expenses are particularly hard to manage when using pens, paper and even spreadsheets. So if you’re lost underneath a pile of paperwork, receipts or struggling to find suitable documents for reimbursement, it’s time to take back control of expense claims management.
This blog will explore why companies lose control of their expenses, but more importantly, how to take back control with the use of automated expense claims management.
So what is a business expense?
A business expense is any cost associated with running a business. Within expense claims management, this refers to a cost incurred by an employee in the performance of their duties. If an employee makes this purchase out of their own pocket, they will need to be reimbursed.
For example, lets imagine an employee is attending a trade show as part of their duties. They drive to the event and stay overnight in a hotel. During their stay, they purchase food and drink. In the evening, they take a client out to dinner to discuss a potential deal. Each of these are expenses that need to be reported before being reimbursed.
In order to account for these business expenses, the employee will have to submit receipts, subsistence and mileage calculations for approval. Once approved, the data is sent to the finance and payroll teams. Because the employee paid for these expenses out of their own money, the payroll team will need to reimburse them.
Why expense claims management matters
Expense management is important to different members of the team for different reasons:
- Employees don’t tend to mind incurring expenses as long as they are reimbursed quickly. The faster the reimbursement, the happier the employee!
- CFOs need reliable expense management so they can get a complete and accurate picture of a company’s financial performance.
- Finance teams want a clear overview of expenses to manage risks and ensure compliance with tax & VAT regulations and accounting procedures.
Why it’s easy to lose control
From startups in their early days to well-oiled machines, expense management can quickly get out of hand. It doesn’t matter what size organisation you work for, receipts and paperwork can easily start to pile up. This is where it can be tough to stay in control of expenses.
Manual processes for managing expenses are vulnerable to human error. It only takes a small typo value or an unclear receipt for inaccuracies to creep in. The time taken to correct a claim can take the same amount of time as processing one – doubling both time and costs.
Paper receipts are easily lost, thrown away or damaged. When this happens, it can be very difficult to verify an expense. Compliance with strict accounting procedures or tax rules might also make it impossible to reimburse without the correct proof.
How to take back control of expense claims management
MyExpenseZone is one place for employees on the go and finance teams to manage expense claims with complete transparency, overview, and control. Key functionality includes:
Receipts: Our built in OCR scanner not only creates a digital version of paper receipts – but also extracts key information such as value of purchase, VAT, purchase date and currency, ready for processing.
Mileage: Tracking mileage manually can be a time consuming task. Using MyExpenseZone allows for mileage tracking. The distance and reimbursement are automatically calculated, allowing users to record a trip accurately, ready for reimbursement.
Subsistence: Ensure all employees can easily claim the correct allowance based on local regulations. Employees simply tap what the trip included, and the correct reimbursement is automatically adjusted.
Card purchases: MyExpenseZone is card agnostic. Allowing you to connect permissible bank cards and easily select transactions that need to be reconciled or reimbursed.
You will now be aware of how easy it is to lose control of expense claims management. However, you will also be aware of how easy it is to take back control. To take back control of your expense claims, you can contact us or book your FREE demo with a member of the team today.
