Say goodbye to manual expense reports and other dinosaurs
Expense reports can take some time to get processed, especially if there are errors or discrepancies. However, when an employee submits an expense report, he or she is usually expecting to get reimbursed sometime in the current decade. If your finance team is struggling to process expense reports in a timely manner, then it is time to review and update your expense process.
Manual processes are “so yesterday”
It’s no joke -- manual expense reporting slows down the process before it even begins. With each step, someone has to physically touch the expense report, whether it be to enter a line item into a document or look through a stack of receipts. It can be easy to justify the manual process by saying this only takes minutes to do each task, but minutes quickly add up to quite a few dollars in the long run.
Speaking of that stack of receipts, even right now precious paperwork is making its way through your office to the finance department. Something might be getting lost, never to be found again, making reconciliation unnecessarily hard. The entire process just feels old and tired.
Read this report to learn more about the true costs of paper-based invoice processing.
It’s time to join the 21st century
Trading in your manual process for an automated one will add the needed speed to save your finance team time on expense management. Saving time equates to many great things, including saving money and providing timely reimbursements.
Automation also helps with decreasing errors, which circles back to time savings, and consequentially, less frustration. Much like humans, manual processes are fallible because they are carried out by humans. If there is any error or discrepancy, it often requires the expense report to be returned to the sender, and the process is started all over -- plus the added bonus of aggravation. Enabling a system that ensures line items match and totals add up correctly makes life that much better.
Speeding into the future
Moving from a manual to an automated system means not just giving employees the ability to capture and submit expenses inside and outside the office, but also increasing ease of use. It means gaining the opportunity to improve visibility into spending company-wide, in real time. Not to mention, it keeps the expense management process moving forward towards both speedier processing and reimbursement times, which keeps employees happy.
Expense reports require receipts, even with automation and mobility. But with an expense management system, like Concur Expense, mobile phones can become tools that can create faster (and error free) expense reports. By using their mobile phones to capture and submit photos of their receipts, employees can easily submit expenses while on the road. And, capturing receipts digitally eliminates any potential of losing receipts on the road or in the office.
Ready, steady, upgrade!
All the arrows are pointing towards upgrading to an automated and mobile expense reporting system. Increasing your processing and reimbursement time makes for happier employees, and happier bottom lines. Seize the opportunity before you become ancient history.