How to Automate 5 Key Business Processes in 2022

Since 2009, remote working has risen by 159%, and now, within the current climate, 84% of remote workers prefer working from home. This means the demand and importance of having automated business processes are essential if businesses want to succeed in and out of the office.

Using suitable technology, businesses can automate repetitive tasks, make the transition to remote working easier and more adaptable, whilst switching to a paper-free process.

There are five key areas within a business that can help Finance and HR teams transform business processes. What do all of these digital solutions have in common? They can be automated, which means:

• Removing manual processes
• Focusing on saving time and cost
• Improving employee experience
• Reducing employee workload

So, what are these 5 business processes and where should you start?

1. Automating business spend

Business spend covers any cost made within your business. You can expect to see business spend fall into two categories: operational spend and employee spend.

What’s the difference between the two?

Operational spend refers to a set of costs beneficial for an organisation to run such as shipping, office maintenance, and third-party vendors.

Whereas, employee spend includes the goods and/or services for which your employees claim on a regular basis. Expense categories include, mileage reimbursement, client entertainment, and travel accommodation.

How do you automate all of your business spend?

2. Expense management

Employee spend can be automated using a digital Expense Management solution. Users can submit and manage claims on the go, whilst approvers can view, track, and approve claims simultaneously. Alongside this, finance teams can use an Accounts dashboard to analyse, report, and forecast on business expenditure.

Tip: Expense Audit is an additional tool that will make sure all employee expenses are approved based on your company policy. It provides duplication checks, reduces overpay, eliminates expense fraud, and increases tax reclaims. The audit check frees up your fiinance teams time, allowing them to focus on paying expenses.

3. AP Automation

Operational spend can be automated with a digital AP solution. It automates the process - from PO request to invoice, to invoice delivery into your finance system, all the way through to approval.

 

4. Payment + Reimbursements

All employee expenses need to be reimbursed. After employees have submitted their expenses through a Mobile App, approvers and accounts teams will be notified to approve and reimburse the payment.

Accounts teams can use a tool like a Payment module to automate the reimbursement. This will help to:

• Diminish lengthy administrative tasks
• Keep track of payment statuses
• Gain full visibility of employee spend

5. People management

Onboarding new hires

Digital, cloud-based onboarding software focuses on creating good initial impressions for new hires. According to Techjury, “A great onboarding experience ensures 69% of employees stick with a company for 3 years”.

With this in mind, automating the onboardee process can help support long-term retention. Why? Onboardees can access all essential documentation within one platform. It follows the entire onboardee experience, allowing new hires to:

• Access their offer letter
• Complete important details
• Follow essential readings and video
• View company documentation

This in hand offers a more organised, cost-efficient process for HR teams. It allows them to:

• Reduce administrative tasks
• Remove paper-based documents
• Streamline the process between recruitment, HR, and onboardee
• Improve productivity for new hire

Core HR data

Once new hires are settled within their new role, it’s important to have a centralised, easily accessible system in which employees can update their personal information and submit and check their leave balance.

Now, more than ever, an automated process is key. It’s predicted that 32% of employees worldwide will remote work by the end of 2021. What does this mean? Employees will need to access their data whether they are in the office or working remotely.

Switching to an automated process does just this. Regardless of their work location, it allows employees to:

• Request and track annual leave
• Receive real-time updates
• Update personal information

Whilst HR teams can:

• View their entire teams' data
• Oversee absence requests
• Track and approve annual leave
• Create custom reporting

Ready to get started?

There’s one easy way to streamline your business management processes: Choose a provider that can do it all for you.

Webexpenses offers more than expense management. Included in Webexpense’ suite of digital business management systems are: Expense Management, Invoice processing, Reimbursement and Payment, and Expense Audit.

And, as part of the ELMO Group, Webexpenses has a full suite of HR modules including HR Core, Learning Management, Onboarding and COVIDsecure.

If you’d like to explore any of Webexpenses solutions, please get in touch with the Webexpenses team.