Fight those January blues by streamlining your expense system

The third Monday in January, deemed 'Blue Monday' has been identified as the most depressing day of the year for workers. It’s a combination of a post-holiday lull, together with bank balances drained by festive costs.

It’s something that can affect business productivity as the general slump within a workforce means you start 2018 at a snail’s pace. If you’re not careful, it’s a slumber that can prove difficult to snap out of.

So this is an ideal time of the year to find ways of making work that making work process less wearying - to identify employee pain points and to eliminate them.

And a common post-holiday task that employees tend to dread is the monthly task of collating the information required to submit a claim for any out-of-office costs.

If these weren’t cleared before the holiday break, there’s likely to be a daunting bundle of receipts that will need converting into an expense report.

Painstaking process

It’s a slow and cumbersome task with most companies still using traditional methods to manage their employee’s expenses - a combination of manual processes, paperwork and Excel spreadsheets.

A 2017 survey, commissioned by Webexpenses, found that the average amount of time it takes for a worker to put together a reimbursement claim is 41 minutes.

This is a chore that employees no longer have to endure with the emergence of a digital expense management system which automates the entire process.

Webexpenses provides employees with a smartphone app which allows them to instantly convert any paper receipt they receive into a digital form. It means that expense accounts can be updated as and when any costs are incurred.

Streamlining systems

It removes the need for a tedious and error-prone monthly task and with a more efficient system in place, employees receive reimbursements much faster than before. Webexpenses typically reduces processing times by 25%.

It’s a simple way to help lift that post-holiday gloom amongst a workplace and to create a fast and efficient business framework that’s ready to handle whatever challenges 2018 has to offer.

The benefits of moving to a digital setup are spread throughout an organization. It means finance teams no longer have to process mountains of paperwork by hand.

They have the tools required to properly manage and monitor reimbursement costs; to identify and challenge any attempts to exaggerate or falsify expenses.

For bosses, it means leaner and more efficient businesses which are better protected against the threat of expense fraud and non-compliance. It’s

It provides an organizational fix that doesn’t just help freshen things up for January but offers a permanent solution. The cloud-based nature of a digital system makes it completely scalable - able to grow and evolve with a business.

So if your company wants a simple way to relieve the January blues, freshening up your expense system is an ideal way to lift the collective mood and get your organization into shape for 2018.

Find out how your business can benefit from Webexpenses by requesting a free demo.