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5 Tips For Staying On Top Of Expense Reporting
Expense reporting is one of the easiest tasks to fall behind on. It wouldn’t be too bad if the person processing expense reports could just take claims at face-value. But they have to check every item on the claim to make sure it’s a legitimate expense. T&E fraud is one of the easiest ways for dishonest employees to steal from a company, and so you have to remain vigilant. Unfortunately, that means more work for the employees approving expense claims and long wait times for honest employees waiting for a reimbursement check.
If this sounds like your company, then you need a better strategy for staying on top of expense reporting. Here are five tips to make that happen.
1) Automate Everything
This is the number one best move you can make to improve your expense reporting system. Automation drastically speeds up processing. It’ll enforce company policy automatically, check for duplicate or suspicious expense claims, and the easy-to-access records simplify audits. Plus it’s easier for employees to make claims since they just upload receipts to the submission portal. It’s a win-win for the company and for employees.
2) Clarify Your Policies
Take a good look at your company’s policies to make sure that they’re clear and complete, then make them available to all employees. If the policies are easy to find and understand then there will be fewer questionable expense claims. It’ll also make it easier to use automation since you use your company policies to customize your T&E software.
3) Insist on Deadlines
After you’re using automation software there’s no excuse for falling behind on deadlines or losing track of expense claims. To submit their expenses, employees simply forward email receipts to the system or snap a picture of paper receipts on their phone. Make sure your employees know that it’s important to submit documentation quickly so the system can process the claims and get their money to them in a timely manner.
4) Hold Yourself Accountable
Employees submitting claims aren’t the only ones who should be taking care of expense reporting in a timely fashion. You’ll also want to process claims quickly. This lets you balance our accounts more often, which in turn gives you the opportunity to check that the T&E system is working as it should. Quicker processing ensures you get a better real-time view of company spend. Plus, it means that any errors that do creep in are caught quickly.
5) Keep Good Records
Good record keeping is essential, especially in any department that handles company finances. And it’s much easier to keep good records if they’re in a digital format. Paper can get lost and printing on receipts fades. And unless your filing system is extraordinarily good, finding the right files when you need them takes time. Automating your T&E reporting system gives you a system that automatically stores digital records which are easy to access and search.
If you’re ready to get on top of things with your own expense reporting process, we’ve got you covered. Our Travel & Expense automation software will digitize your expense reporting, save your company money and time, and give you better oversight to prevent fraud or wasteful spending. Get in touch with NextProcess today to schedule a demonstration of our software and see exactly how we can help you achieve your T&E processing goals.
