–This article was last updated on 6 October 2021-
As a manager, one of the most tedious and tiresome jobs is checking expenses claims and approving or challenging them. There are two ways to approach this:
• You can struggle through it and do ‘the best you can’
• Or you can take proactive steps to make expenses easier, faster and simpler for everyone.
The key to making the expenses system simpler is quite simply to make the system easier for everyone. Here we explore how you turn your expenses management from a tricky job into a simple process.
Image: ©Natee Meepian's via canva.com
Use an Expense Management Software Solution
Using mobile technology and cloud technology, an expense management system can take all of the pain out of expenses. Instead of having to trawl through emails to find expense claims with scanned receipts attached, an online expense system will condense and simplify everything that you need into one place. This system will scan the receipt from a photo and pull the relevant details out into an easy to read table for the claim. Simply log in, view a simplified claim and approve or deny as appropriate.
Explain Policies and Procedures
Another great way to simplify your systems and make your management of expenses easier is to ensure that everyone understands the claiming system fully. Be sure to explain what they can and can’t claim for, how much they can claim and when they can claim. Ensure that this is clearly available on the integrated cloud-based expense system too, so there really is no excuse for failing to follow it correctly. Ensuring that everyone knows how to claim correctly will enable you to cut down on erroneous claims and allow you to process them far more easily as a manager.
Access Detailed Charts
While it is easy to see if any one claim is erroneous, the simpler element of expenses abuse to miss is the collective excessive use of claims by an individual. Using an integrated expense application will allow you to quickly and easily view the expenses of the whole of your team over a period of weeks and months. Doing so will enable you to easily spot when the expenses of certain individuals are greater than others. This red flag can allow you to review their spend and identify the small incremental charges that are adding up to an excessive overall use.
Reward Savings
Rewarding staff who make savings on your expenses is a great way to cut your costs because it incentivises them to think sensibly about how they spend. By transferring some of the rewards of saving on to your employees they will be more likely to look harder for a cheaper train or hotel room. If this saves you a small amount every time then you can easily afford to reward them with a voucher or small bonus that will be more valuable to them and cheaper for you. By putting the power and desire to make savings in their hands, you will be able to massively reduce the cost of expenses each year.
The best ways to make your management of expenses easier are to simplify your system and to make it foolproof. Doing so will bring your costs down and make for a happier team and an easier management role too.
