If you haven’t yet moved your expense management to the cloud, then we’ve put together a short list of the reasons you should consider it.
Expense management is a factor in all businesses where employees travel for their work or are based remotely.
The challenge is always to make the processes around it more efficient by reducing the time required to capture, submit, approve and reimburse expenses – and a key way of doing this is by going paperless.
As more and more business processes, applications and other operational technologies move to the cloud, it makes sense that expense management should follow suit. So if you haven’t yet moved your expense management to the cloud, we’ve put together a shortlist of the reasons you should consider it.
By moving to a cloud-based expense management system where workers can simply snap and submit expense receipts using a smartphone app (as well as a tablet or PC), managers can review and approve online, and accounts staff can reimburse easily. There’s simply no more need to keep stacks of paper receipts stapled to a printed expense claim sheet (and less to get lost or misplaced).
A clear benefit of replacing the tedious, error-strewn and slow process of collecting and approving piles of paper receipts is a huge time saver. Expense receipts can be snapped and submitted on the go, instead of waiting to be logged and submitted later.
For the approver, an email alert acts as a trigger to review expense reports in the system – made easier by visual indicators of anything suspect. For the accounts teams? Instead of the usual mountain of expense claim processing at month-end, when accounts reconciliation happens, expense claims can be submitted and approved directly. Plus, with expense management software integrated directly into Dynamics 365 Business Central, there are further time savings as no re-keying is required.
Time savings made in one area can quickly translate into wider-improved efficiency through the organisation. For those on the road travelling, they’re spending less time compiling expense reports; a line manager or supervisor can approve expense claims online in real-time whenever it suits; the accounts team can issue payments and reconcile accounts more smoothly and automatically without having to chase claims. The improvements make for a more efficient expense management workflow overall.
Mistakes will happen. A paper-based expense system is prone to errors, accidental or not, and there are very few organisations that haven’t experienced claims containing a dubious or vague expense description, or one which contravenes expense policy guidelines. In such cases, the claim needs to be questioned by the accounts team or supervisor, leading to needless wasted time and potential confusion all round. By ditching paper and adopting cloud-based expense management processes, there’s less room for error.
These are just four ways in which your business can benefit from moving your expense management processes to the cloud. If you need help going paperless, contact us on 0345 257 1173 or email us at enquiries@totalenterprisesolutions.co.uk.
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