Best Expense Management Tips for 2022

Today, some businesses are adopting a flexible and hybrid approach to working. Expense receipts for setting up home office are set be rivaled by claims for mileage and travel. The hybrid work model indicates that payroll and accounting teams are going to have a wide range of claims to contend with constantly.

In reality, while comparing anonymously gathered expense data in 2021, it has been observed that claims have doubled. So, how can you monitor this? In order to help you get the expense management off to a flying start, here are best expense management tips to aid you optimize and boost the workflow, keep staff satisfied, and minimize the amounts of stapled pieces of paper into the workplace.

Remain compliant

When we talk about payroll and accounting solutions, are they compliant with the GDPR and EU regulations? Cloud-based expense tracking software requires securely storing and processing the data as per regional privacy rules. It is not a simple thing to get right when you are in a single location, and even becomes complex if you are operating out of various countries.

So, when you are doing business from several locations around the globe, you must ensure that your expense solution is compliant with the local tax regulations and is adaptable to the local languages. Mistakes can be time-consuming and expensive. It has been observed that on average a single expense report takes around 20 minutes to correct at a cost of $50 USD.

Tax regulations change every year. When you multiply that across all the global markets, suddenly the compliance with tax regulations become more difficult to handle. So, do you have an expense automation platform that can monitor and adapt to the transforming regulatory needs?

Importance of digital transformation

Today, companies are exploring the advantages of digital transformation. With remote and hybrid working models, the payroll and accounting services have the opportunity to go digital. Now it is the time for you to adopt digital expense management software. In order to address the requirements of a flexible workforce, the services need to cover each finance-related method for workers and businesses. There is no need to insist each client or employee to visit the workplace just to submit expenses.

Automation to boost acceleration

With digitization of managing expenses comes speed and automation. An increasingly frictionless operation makes expense tracking quicker and convenient. Think how fast your workers can get reimbursed for the expenses and consider how you can increase it with the help of automation. The critical question is what you and the finance department can do if the applications automate mundane tasks? What work can add more value to the business?

Streamline mileage per diem

As people return to the workplace and start resuming the pre-pandemic corporate travel, it is crucial that you make monitoring and recording expenses easy to do on the move. Just as workers may be traveling less, it does not indicate that you must cut down on the features in the expense management platform. When you and other people travel for work, the mileage and per diem should be included in the expense application.

It must be easier to record and implemented to the localized units of measurement like miles/kilometers. Having a good expense management tool for monitoring business miles along with per diem eases the workflow for employees on the go.

Use corporate credit cards

Business credit cards help organizations track spending and simplify the reporting procedure for workers and eliminate the need for employees to cover expenses and wait to get reimbursed.

For workers, business cards aid maximizes the cash flow by offering terms before the payment is needed, while easing the record keeping by centralizing the spending data. Companies which don’t want to offer permanent cards to the staff often may consider single use or dollar amount cards with high amounts.

To sum up

Many workers find expense management a bit of chore, specifically when it includes time-consuming and tedious methods, such as downloading/printing forms, attaching the receipts, mailing claims via the post. It is not fun on the receiving side either, when the claims come rolling in by email, and they are basically improper, improper, goes missing, or wrong receipt is attached. Hence, there are delays in getting the reimbursement issued via the payroll software.

So, by adopting these five expense management tips, it is easier for you to streamline the workflow and move towards a more accurate and simplified recording method, saving business time, and making sure that claims get processed effectively in 2022.