an expense-management software solution that would work seamlessly across the entire array of businesses and employees.”
What benefits has it seen in terms of cost and time savings – and are there other advantages? “The benefits in terms of time-saving have been extraordinary. Processing claims that used to take up to two weeks per month, now takes just two days. Incorporating the WebExpenses system has brought admin and processing cost-savings of 20 per cent. It also helps identify where savings can be made. “Honister has recently been
audit only between 1 and 20 per cent of claims. And the survey revealed that 4.2 per cent of companies do not audit any of their claims. We also asked organisations to
share details of how long it took their employees to be reimbursed for their expense claims. Half of those companies polled said they paid their employees back in less than a week. A quarter said the reimbursement process took two weeks and one in eight said they took a week to reimburse.
SUMMARY Our survey shows that both corporate card and expense management systems are now in common use, underlining that sophisticated management techniques are being employed to manage expenses and payments. The prevalence of companies in the financial sector and those with a large number of employees and high turnover suggests that it is these organisations that are more likely to implement expense management systems and formalised corporate card programmes. n
Our thanks to the Institute of Travel & Meetings (ITM) and AirPlus for their help in distributing the survey to their members and clients, and members of the Buying Business T group (www
.linkedin.com). 34 Buying Business Travel 2012 In association with
focusing on costs, and the WebExpenses software helped facilitate that by making it easy to see exactly where our companies are spending money and where cost-savings may be made. “Before introducing this
system, all the expenses information had to be entered manually each month, so there was no continuity. However, this software enables us to analyse all the data much more effectively. Now you can just go into the system and bring up a whole year’s worth of claims for one employee, which can be split up by mileage and so on.”
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Is there any particular feature you would highlight as of particular benefit? “Two features have been of particular benefit to us. First, the mileage verification tool has proved to be essential in curbing waste. Previously, we basically relied on employees to give a true recording of mileage when claiming for travel expenses – this was often a rough approximation of the most direct route, which leaves the door open to excessive or inaccurate claims. WebExpenses uses GPS tracking and postcode data to provide precise distance calculations for each journey.
“Second, the fact that the
tool polices claims using an automated, menu-based system means that it contributes to the HR function, because it encourages voluntary compliance by treating everybody equally and making expenses completely transparent. We have all the claims on a dashboard so the whole history of claims is instantly visible. If one department is claiming far more than other departments for, say, travel and accommodation, the system instantly exposes this discrepancy. “Prior to the system, each of the
group companies had a different policy. Now everyone uses one central policy and everyone is treated the same – including the directors. As a result, departments that might have previously pushed the boundaries on expenses have fallen into line.”
What would make expense management even better/easier for the company? “From a company perspective, the aim is to spend as little as possible on T&E, while trying to ensure the job is carried out being fair to its employees, and ensuring they are not out of pocket from doing their day-to-day job. From an employee perspective, they want to get back as much as they can to cover costs. In an ideal world, pre-trip approvals [which WebExpenses now incorporates] would help to reduce cost on one hand, but they would require more approval and time spent by managers on the other. “A strong policy, constantly
being reviewed to ensure compliance and understanding, while also sharing information with the employees as well as senior managers and directors, may be a way to further improve expense management. “I believe transparency and
understanding is the best way forward in managing what can be a very large cost risk area within an organisation.”