What does the expense reimbursement process look like within your company? Are you relying on manual expense processing and losing time, money, and productivity?
Historically, expense management systems have required employees to have their receipt, fill out an expense report for each individual purchase, submit the report(s), then wait (sometimes weeks) to receive their reimbursement.
It’s a tedious process that most employees complain about on end. But expense management doesn’t have to be that way.
Implementing automated expense management can help to speed up the expense reimbursement process tenfold, making your employees happier and increasing cost savings and efficiency for your company.
Expense report automation is user-friendly, prevents policy violations, and makes navigating reimbursement a breeze for everyone involved.
Here are 4 ways your company or small business can use workflow software in their expense reimbursement process.
1. Ditch the paper forms.
Stop making your employees spend hours upon hours filling out paper forms for company expenses, just so they can be rightfully reimbursed. Instead, move to an online expense claim form that your employees can easily fill out and submit digitally, right from their desk or where they’re at on the go.
Online expense submission and processing eliminates the hassle, giving valuable time back to your employees. Not only that, but it makes it easier for your finance team to track business travel expenses, per diems, corporate credit card charges, and other expense data all in one place. You may also find that there is less room for error in interpreting expense policy when manual processes are modernized.
2. Include receipt upload.
Reimbursement is typically contingent on submitting a receipt for business expenses, and an employee is simply out of luck if they happen to lose it. Because this can be frustrating for employees, why not make it easier, and allow them to snap a photo of their receipt as soon as they get it.
Then they can easily upload their receipt into their digital form in real-time and be on their merry way. Paper receipts and manual data entry are becoming outdated, leaving more room for errors and less for productivity. A better solution is to streamline the expense reporting process from the second a receipt lands in hand. Management platforms with the added functionality of mobile receipt uploads are the perfect expense management solution.
3. Approve more quickly.
When your company receives expense report submissions digitally, you’re able to go through and approve them more efficiently. You can set your forms up to automatically send notifications and email submissions to the people who need to approve these expenses so they may be input into a spreadsheet.
Having expense data in a spreadsheet can help you manage your cash flow effectively. It allows members of your finance team to go in each day, approve or deny new employee expenses, input their name so the company knows who managed it, and quickly send an approval or denial response to the employee. The right accounting software can eliminate time-consuming tasks to ensure your team is focusing on what’s important.
4. Reimburse more quickly.
Once an approval has gone through, an automation can be set up that sends it to the accounting department, and the money can be put back into employees’ wallets sooner than before.
Manual reimbursement processes can take weeks for an employee to be reimbursed. When it comes to large work expenses, this can be tough on the employee when they have to wait long periods of time to see that money go back into their pocket.
Alternatively, you can use expense reporting software to put together an automated workflow that allows employees to see their approved reimbursements more quickly. Set up direct deposit, consider using company credit cards, and more.
Don’t let your employees wait weeks on end before they see their reimbursement. Putting together workflows that allow them to more quickly and easily submit expense reports will help to streamline the entire process and make it move more smoothly for your employees and your company.
How can I speed up reimbursement with automated workflows and expense management software?
Creating a new form and putting together new automated processes and workflows can help you track expenses, ensure policy compliance, and improve the experience of your employees, accounting team, and CFO. We’re all for it.
In fact, with our workflow software, you’ll be able to easily revamp your entire expense reimbursement process into something that works better for both you and your employees. Watch the demo to learn more about how our software works so you can hit the ground running when you sign up.
