When spent amounts are entered, approvals are made, and claims are then submitted for reimbursement into a myriad of disparate systems, it’s easy to see how employee expenses can become unmanageable. A smarter process allows employees to easily submit costs and enables finance teams to confidently review expenditure. The aim is not to prescribe any more rules. Rather, it is to simplify, speed up, and clarify the process of expense management for everyone, every day. It also needs to provide finance teams with a strong archive to help them plan budgets and audit expenses.
Why Expense Processes Need an Upgrade
Still, many firms use email, spreadsheets, paper receipts, or all three. These techniques may result in loss of information, approval delays, duplicate claims, and poor visibility of spending by these companies. These activities are brought together, and a consistent sequence of activity from purchase to reimbursement is developed through a well-designed process.
How to Build a Smart Employee Expense Process
Here are tips to help you create a smarter employee expense process:
1. Make Submission Simple
In the submission period, account for only a few minutes, if at all possible. An expense reimbursement form template can provide a uniform format for employees to document expense dates, dollar amounts, expense category, business purpose, and any related paperwork. Digital forms can also cut down on paperwork, help identify missing information, and put completed claims into the hands of the right person to check.
2. Start with Clear Expense Rules
Prior to using company resources, employees should be properly informed about what they are eligible for. Establish basic rules to clarify allowable benefits, maximum amounts, required receipts, levels of approval, and reimbursement deadlines. Keep the rules easily accessible and review them regularly so that employees know what to do without having to guess.
3. Build Strong Approval Checks
A quicker process shouldn’t compromise the protections offered to the business by errors and/or inaccurate claims. Here are some helpful guidelines to follow:
- Respect requests for company policy or local regulations for a receipt.
- Define or match costs to a project, department, or cost center.
- Don’t submit work that is already posted before paying for it.
4. Use Technology with Purpose
Technology is best when it’s used to address a problem rather than creating another complex system. Expense tools can take in receipts and manage them, automate approval chains, and furnish reports for finance groups. Decide, before you pick a tool, what it has to offer based on your company’s size, policies, accounting system, security, and budget.
5. Help Employees Get It Right
However, no system can be designed to function properly if employees aren’t aware of how to use it. Provide a brief overview to new employees of the process and examples of a typical pricing claim, an uncommon expense, needed documents, etc. If questions arise, provide a single source point of information.
The bottom line is that a smarter employee expense approach blends clear-cut guidelines, effortless submission, sensible approvals, and valuable technology. It can streamline administrative tasks and provide businesses with greater control over expenses and help ensure a more streamlined reimbursement process for employees. Address the larger pain points first, incrementally address them, and create a “grows with the company” process.
