–This article was last updated on 8 October 2021-
Research shows that employees who regularly overclaim or underclaim on business expenses could be costing the UK economy around £1.6 billion each year. The 2017 study, which anonymously questioned 1,000 workers, revealed that 36% of employees who drive a company vehicle or who are entitled to claim back mileage allowance have overclaimed, and 17% deliberately overclaim on all of their expenses on a monthly basis.
The main reasons cited for overclaiming were employees not being paid enough and employees losing receipts and working on the basis of what they remembered spending, rather than the actual figure.
On the other side of the coin, a lot of employees chose not to claim at all, with the result being that they’re losing out on money which is rightfully theirs. This can result in a downturn in morale and an increased employee turnover rate.
There have been reported instances of employees postponing or cancelling meetings to avoid paying the cost themselves, while a large number of employees claim that they feel “financially unstable” due to having to take on large or sometimes unexpected business expenses which they say either aren’t paid back to them or that take a long time to be processed.
Paul Baker, the vice president of customer management at Allstar Business Solutions, said, ‘It is of no doubt that our research has revealed some shocking findings and it appears overclaiming is a very big problem for British businesses. Not only is it costing individual companies, it is also having a much bigger impact on our wider economy as a whole and people don’t seem to care that it is both dishonest and illegal.
The results of this research highlight the very real problem that a lot of businesses have, when it comes to taking control over what their employees claim for, and how much they claim for. Clearly, it’s in the best interests of companies to get a hold on expenses and make sure that no one is overclaiming and that those who aren’t claiming, are given the right tools to be able to claim back the money they are owed.
So, What’s the Solution?
Cloud-based expense management solutions, such as ExpenseIn, utilise the latest technologies to make the process of filing an expense claim extremely easy, quick and immediate. There’s no more need to worry about where you’ve placed those petrol receipts, as you simply scan the receipt there and then and upload it to the system. Business is changing along with the rest of the world, and the truth is that there really isn’t a reason for business expense claims to be costing your business a fortune, or for your staff to be confused and out of pocket.
Source: http://smallbusiness.co.uk/overclaiming-expenses-costing-economy-2540020/
