-
Get Ready for 2019 -Here Are 5 T&E Goals To Set For The New Year
What are your goals for the new year?
As a company, the expense reporting goals you set for 2019 will help determine whether you improve a key company process or just continue on as-is. For most companies, how they handled expense reporting didn’t change much in the last year. Even though they struggled with problems in handling expense reports and had areas they wanted to improve, most didn’t implement any changes.
If you want to make 2019 the year you finally take control of T&E, now’s the time to start planning. You’re not going to achieve any goals for improvement unless you have a clear idea of what you’re going to work toward. Here are five goals to get you started.
1) Implement An Automated System
Switching over to an automated system is the number one way to improve travel and expense reporting. In fact, automation is a key part of achieving every goal on this list.
Manual expense reporting is a tedious process. Receipts get lost or damaged, they take time to sort and process, and enforcing policy compliance can seem impossible at times. Automating lets you streamline your expense management system and deliver improvements for all your processes and practices. Check out our product page to learn more about what expense report software can do for you.
2) Reduce Costs and Improve Performance
Expense reporting can be an expensive system, mostly because it takes up so much time. In 2016, PayStream Advisors found that the average cost to process a single expense report in a manuals system was $26.63. The cost went down to $17.31 for a partially automated system. In a fully automated system, it costs just $6.85.
Automation speeds up T&E report processing and reduces costs. It also improves performance in other areas as well. For example, the system can automatically enforce the company’s travel policy and drastically reduce errors. This also has the added advantage of helping your company fight T&E fraud.
3) Improve Data Gathering and Visibility
Companies often struggle to use the data they gather from managing expense reports. Manual processes or outdated software make it difficult (or even impossible) to track expense data. In contrast, automation provides real-time visibility into every aspect of expense report processing and data.
Improving data gathering and visibility gives you insight into how much employees are spending, where the money’s going, and other data points. This information leaves you better equipped to examine metrics related to travel expenditures and to improve strategic planning.
4) Update Compliance Controls
The more your employees travel, the more important it becomes that your company has control over expenses. It’s hard to enforce your company’s policies, though, when employees are given the freedom to make their own travel arrangements.
An automated system lets you enforce spend limits and other policy controls automatically. It lest you build regulations into the system and customize them to fit your company. When you implement a T&E automation, that’s a good time to update your compliance controls to make sure the policies you’re enforcing match your company’s and employee’s needs.
5) Become More User-Friendly
We’ve mostly talked about how cumbersome manual T&E reporting is from the company’s side, but it’s also a hassle for employees. Many systems are so frustrating and time consuming that employees don’t even submit reports, which results in a loss of $390 per year for an average employee in the U.S. That can lead to employees feeling dissatisfied and exploited. If employees leave the company over this, it’ll end up costing more than to have reimbursed their expenses.
Automated T&E software makes submitting expense reports very easy for employees. They can access the system anywhere, upload receipts directly to the system from smartphone or email, and track their claim in real-time through the system. Automation makes things easier both on employees handling expense reports and on employees submitting the reports. It’s a win-win for everyone.
If you’re ready to see how T&E software can help your company meet goals in the new year, contact us today to learn more and set up a free demo.
