The Impact of COVID 19 on Expense Reporting

COVID-19 pandemic has brought many changes and of all the changes, working remotely is one of the most significant changes today. Employee travel and entertainment expenses are set off due to this pandemic, but remote work has led to the emergence of new employee expenses today.

Working remotely has increased the work-from-home expenses such as internet, electricity and so on. This article throws light on possible reasons and where organizations have room for improvement.

Expense Policies

Increasing work-from-home expenses paved path for claiming new type of expenses. Most organizations did not update their expense policies, creating confusion among employees on what is considered a legitimate expense.

Lack of expense policies resulted in limitations on the expense types to be claimed, even when expenses are reasonable, causing discontent among employees. Organizations have to adapt their expense policies to embrace the changing environment, and new policies have to be clear and enforced consistently across the organization. The solution that embraces AI-based technologies can help address the issue by applying rules across the organization without bias. Automated systems ensure that all claims submitted by employees are processed quickly.

Employees should feel they are treated fairly

Besides variances in corporate expense policies, you have to ensure there are no discrepancies among different employees in the same organization. Employees who are in management positions reported quick reimbursement time compared to employees who are in non-management positions. This is the pressing concern for easy-to-use, expense reporting capabilities with quick reimbursement at the company level.

Enforcing AI to expense management

AI-powered expense solutions enable businesses to move away from manual expense processing. Intelligent automation comes with rules and policies, and inconsistencies are eliminated, and processing expense claims quicken.

AI technology can help sort out this problem. AI looks at every transaction, every line item and reviews all claims against predefined rules. AI can access everything and reviews each transaction to identify abnormal patterns across a wide range of different users.

AI-powered systems enable businesses to define their rules based on specific criteria, allowing them to change regulations to adapt to the changing environment quickly.

Bottom line

This year we have experienced some of the biggest challenges in the workplace, and company practices are failing to keep up. Expense reporting is one such function, and the lack of communication about expense policies remains a consistent issue that needs to be addressed.

Expense management has become so complicated, requiring data-driven systems that allow for automation, visibility, and control over expenses. AI-based system means businesses can take a systematic approach that improves efficiency and employee satisfaction and minimizes finance team workload.

Clear expense policies help businesses take an agile approach to spend management. The features to customize policies, notify employees about policy changes, and automatically enforce policies to expense claims can help address the challenges of today’s business landscape.