expenses management


individual, business unit and corporate levels.”


Secondly, these solutions also have the innate capability to audit claims, which in turn provides a detailed picture to the employer on its major outgoings. Michael explains: “One of the key benefits incorporated in many modern expense systems is that they allow finance teams to drill down right to the heart of expenditure in their organisation very quickly. The ability to develop in-depth expense reports is a great weapon in the arsenal of business accountants, particularly when they are looking to streamline their organisation or have suspicions of expenses abuse.” Thirdly, some advanced platforms can enable employers to reimburse their employees’ expenses at any given time. Darren clarifies: “Most systems allow flexible reimbursement to employees which can be any period from daily to a single monthly reimbursement – no longer do employees have to wait for the next payroll cycle.” This is a huge benefit for employees who have to claim back a significant amount in expenses and may not be able to afford to wait until the next time they receive their salary to be paid back.


Finally, the latest expenses technology provides the ability to enforce pre-existing policies and procedures that organisations already have in place. Michael gives an example that is illustrated by webexpenses’ in-house platform. He said: “When we were designing our system, we included a feature that gives staff policy reminders while they are submitting their claims so there is no excuse for bending the rules. It’s extra features like these that play a crucial part in curbing fraudulent claims and making sure company policy is upheld.”


Conclusion With continual advances in technology, it looks like the future of expense management systems is wide open and there are additional solutions that are gaining traction. For instance, purchasing cards (also called ‘P-cards’) is a type of company charge card that is becoming more popular amongst businesses. The main difference is P-card statements contain detailed information about purchases including (but not limited to) a description, quantity as well as the amount and tax paid. Coupled with cloud-based


...CRITICAL THAT THEY ASSESS HOW IT CAN BENEFIT THEIR ORGANISATION


technology this solution is becoming an attractive option because it helps organisations better track the purchases it makes.


But whichever expense management solution an employer decides to pursue, it is critical that they assess how it can benefit their organisation. The appropriate questions need to be asked such as: is the workforce based in one office or in multiple sites, does the platform need to have multi-entity capability to integrate offices overseas or does it have to make reimbursements in a variety of currencies? The answers to these issues (plus many more) will have a significant influence on the kind of expense management solution that should be implemented. According to Kyle Ferguson, Chief commercial officer of Spendvision, the


provider of transaction management solutions, “UK businesses are in general terms at the more conservative end of the scale when it comes to changing their existing processes, even if doing so will save them money. For instance, businesses in Australia, Japan and the US have been more accepting of card-based payments and are ready to adopt cloud- based systems to help them manage their corporate spend across cards, mobile and beyond.” Kyle concludes: “Yet, just as one company might be surfing the clouds, a neighbouring firm may still be bogged down in a mire of paper and lost receipts. Here, jumping straight into using advanced technology would be a disaster. So getting the right match to ensure you get a good return on your investment is crucial.”


PP Five top tips for effective expense management


Spendvision have developed five top tips for organisations to consider when investing in an expense management system. l Calculate the cost of your current transaction and expense process. Prove the need to yourself. It is likely you are paying more to process the purchase of goods than the cost of the goods themselves. According to business analysts Aberdeen Group, in 2012 the average amount companies spend processing a single ‘expense report’ (the cost of processing an expense from the moment it is submitted through to audit) was £12. l Ditch paper and manual processing. The single most important thing you can do to clean up your transaction management system is to go digital. If you have user-friendly software to view, log and approve the money your employees are spending, you will save a lot of processing time. This may be from invoices, cards, telephones, cash, or other forms of payments such as contactless. You can also run reports using a variety of parameters e.g. by department or even a specific employee. l Choose an expense management system, which is tailored for your organisation. You will know your business needs better than anyone. For example, if travel is a big portion of your outgoings, consider incorporating your travel management company with your expense management system, which allows you to import travel bookings and capture card, cash or other spend incurred. l Make sure your system catches all your transactions. Having a central system means you can gauge exactly how much money your company’s employees are spending without waiting until the end of the month to receive the bank statements. Ultimately, knowing where your money is going means you can make better decisions, devise new policies to enable money-saving, such as bulk-buying, forecasting and planning, and analyse areas of overspend. l Make sure your system is both user-friendly, and your employees are trained in how to use it. Everyone, from the person making the purchase to the person approving it, should feel the benefits of your expense management system. As anyone who has filled in a travel or expense form or had to keep records for P-Card purchases will testify, finding, printing out and filling in forms, before obtaining sign off, is often a long-winded process. Happy employees will therefore be born from a system that automates all this.


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