End Penny-Wise-and-Pound-Foolish Audit Practices

With spreadsheet expense reporting, the burden falls on your accounting team to scrutinize every line item. If an expense is questioned, it is their responsibility to go and find the employee and the approving manager, get more information, and then approve/reject the expense.

That audit process may in fact unveil a violation expense such as:

• Laundry expenses
• Excessive meal, entertainment, and/or restaurant tipping
• Hotel in-room movies

But did you know that it costs an average $20.65 to process a single expense report? This figure is according to a study done by the Arbedeen Group. They found that for an organization with visibility, that cost drops to $12.51. That's an $8.14 savings per expense report, or 39 percent.

If, for example, you process 500 expense reports per year (at the higher $20.65 cost), that adds up to $123,900 in processing costs. But if you have visibility at the lower $12.51 cost, that only nets out to $75,060 − a whopping $48,840 in savings.

With an online expense management system however, the report workflow is automated and streamlined. The employee submits the report and attaches receipts. The report automatically moves to the pre-designated approvers. After approval, the report is sent to accounting for a final validation and processing. Studies show that companies can save up to 50 percent on expense review and approval time.

The expense management system is set up as per each organization's unique settings: approvers, currencies, GL accounts, expense types, rules and limits, and payment types. These are just a few standard examples; custom templates and fields are also available.

Learn how to automate administration and simplify expense reporting, here.