Businesses often find it a challenge to keep costs down, particularly whilst inflation rates soar and the cost of utility bills dramatical rise. Designing an expense report will help track any business-related expenses that your employees incur, either through a company credit card or spending their funds.
These expenses might include spending related to work activities, such as a business trip, travel and transportation, meals, training and workshops, accommodation, business supplies and tools.
Implementing expense management software can automate the entire process and easily control your business expenses.
Why it is critical to keep spending under control
Keeping expenses under control is vital to the long-term health of any business.
While some expenses are recoverable via the tax system, much of it falls on business owners and can reduce your profitability.
There are several steps to take when implementing an expenses management system.
Manual expense management demands a lot of time, money, and effort.
An automated expense management system with ready-made templates and cloud-connectedness streamlines the spending and employee reimbursement process and helps you be more efficient.
Avoiding costly mistakes and duplicating
Using a digital expense management system helps employees follow the rules, eliminating potential risks such as overspending, double-entry and lost receipts.
By employing some of the latest technology, businesses can track employee spending and determine how the organisation will reimburse staff.
Many apps and platforms connect to existing cloud accounting software to automate much of the accounts process and apply specific procedures and policies to control this type of spending. If your employees have a daily allowance for meals whilst travelling, your system will account for those limits when reimbursing.
Make systems secure and compliant
You can limit user access to these systems and configure the software to prohibit employees from entering claims that breach organisational policy or HMRC expenses guidelines.
Senior management can review any disputed claims if breaches in certain limits or rules occur within the chain.
Collect data properly
A widespread problem with employee expense claims is that not all the necessary information gets captured correctly to prove claim validity.
The latest systems safely and securely store information on the cloud. Staff can quickly take pictures of receipts or invoices, so they do not have to get manually processed or stored.
Publish analysis of the data
Some expense claims may look ridiculous or excessive. If you publish specific data, claimants might see more sensible claims and allow you to reinforce rules surrounding expenses.
Transparency of expenditure when pursuing a new client or managing existing ones can help senior management see the cost of client acquisition or retention.
Businesses without automated expense software should explore the options available to help them save time and money and reduce the strain of managing expenses manually.
