A guide to getting your business to ‘love’ expenses
Imagine if your company didn’t have such a bad relationship with expenses. Imagine if expense management wasn’t something to be dreaded if it was so simple and easy that it could actually be…enjoyable.
That is the dream and Webexpenses wants to show that this can now become a reality for any organisation that handles employee expenses. As part of our ‘love expenses’ week, we want to show how a loathing of expenses can be turned on its head.
It may seem overly optimistic but a Webexpenses poll suggests that our attitudes are already starting to change. One-third of respondents in the survey admitted they ‘love’ expenses, while 75 percent of the haters were using old paper-based systems.
Because our negative views are borne out of bygone business age, one where expense management was a slow and messy task involving the manual processing of mountains of paperwork.
The emergence of digital management systems has replaced a reliance on those old methods with fast, efficient, and simple digital processes - removing past pain points.
So here’s a look at some of the practical ways your organisation can turn a loathing for expenses into something a little closer to love.
Pain-free travel claims
This has always been one of the trickiest areas to manage with a paper-based system. It’s a hassle for employees, faced with the task of having to ‘guesstimate’ distances traveled, and also for the finance teams trying to work out if they’re accurate.
A digital system such as Webexpenses removes this headache by using a smartphone app to record the exact route and distance of any road journey. It’s simple for employees and provides the accurate data needed to verify claims.
Reduce processing times
One of the frustrations for employees has always been the time it takes for their verified claims to be paid. It’s an organisational lag caused by the need to manually process bundles of paper claims.
Switching to a digital system means moving over to fast and automated ways of working with the need for paper virtually eliminated. Companies who change over to Webexpenses will typically reduce the time it takes to process their claims by 25 percent.
Looks do matter
The bottom line for any expense management system is that it’s fast and efficient but as a tool that’s used on a daily basis, it’s also important that it looks and feels right.
For Webexpenses, that means a constant process of improving and tweaking the user experience with a clear and crisp designer look and a development team who are guided by user feedback and suggestions.
Make it a snap to record expenses
A major reason for the dread of expenses has been the time consuming and fiddly process of making a claim - collecting crumpled receipts and manually filling out forms.
A digital system allows any paper receipt an employee receives to be instantly converted into a digital form and uploaded to their user account. It means that rather than a deluge of claims at the end of each month, they can be updated as and when it’s convenient.
So in a week when we show Valentine’s affections for our partners, why not take a fresh look at the relationship your company has with its expenses. With the right tools and a fresh mindset, organisations no longer have to endure the dysfunctional relationships of yesteryear.
You can find out for yourself why more and more companies are moving over to Webexpenses by taking the system for a trial, here.