Don’t let your expense reports become a game of clue

Do your company’s expense report reconciliations look like a crazy wall? If your finance team is starting to resemble a group of detectives, then it’s time to give your expense system a second glance. Fortunately, advances in technology have made automation and cloud technology more mainstream than ever. That means automated expense reporting software is accessible to businesses of all sizes.

Alleviate the chain of custody

Is automation really necessary for a small business? Absolutely. A single manual expense report passes through many hands before it is filed and put to rest. It starts with the filing employee, who has to physically enter the expenses into a spreadsheet or document and attach the corresponding receipts. From there, it goes to an approving manager, who also has to sift through and review, before passing it along to the finance department.

Once the report makes it to the finance department, a review and reconciliation takes place. If all necessary paperwork is in order, then the expense report is entered for reimbursement. But most of the time, a receipt is missing, a line item is allocated incorrectly, or there are lasting questions. The expense report then has to go back through the chain of custody until all issues are resolved. A single expense report can end up costing way more in time than is the amount being claimed for reimbursement.

Automated expense reporting eases this pain by making it easier and faster for an employee to submit a report. In addition, the report is more easily accessible to all approvers and reviewers, saving them from passing a stack of papers back and forth.

Learn more about how effective spend management boosts performance.

Keep track of associative evidence

Lost receipts can put a crimp in expense report filing and reconciliation. While your employees don’t intentionally try to lose receipts, it easily happens when traveling. Can someone bag this evidence please?

If only it were possible for employees to simply take a picture and submit their receipt right there on the spot.

Fortunately, the technology is available and more accessible than you think. With Concur Expense, your expense process gets an upgrade in both automation and mobility. Employees simply take a picture of their receipt, submit for approval, and the system takes it from there. No lost receipts, no lost expense data.

Eliminate the cross examination

With automation and mobility comes accuracy. The system does the heavy lifting, adding up columns and organizing receipts, which saves time (and ultimately saves money) and aggravation for both the finance team and the submitting employee. Expense reports are approved faster and reimbursements are timelier.  By utilizing cloud technology, reports are accessible by all players, anytime, anywhere. This leads to all-around happy employees.

This case is closed

Put your expense report investigations to rest and make the move to an automated and mobile expense system.  Your team will be happy to hang up their detective hats and get back to their “real” jobs.