Centralize Your Travel Expenses

With a Web-based expense management system, you can obtain visibility through sound analytics. For example, do you know how much your service department is spending on parking for field visits? On a more granular level, do you know how much each employee in that department is spending?

In a recent Aberdeen Group study, 51 percent of respondents listed “reducing travel and entertainment costs” as their top priority. That pressure comes from paper processes which can be remedied with an online expense management system.

The first factor in reducing T&E costs is system set-up. This is the administrative screen in which your finance team sets the rules of company spending within expense reporting. These can include:

• Employee ID
• Expense report ID
• Approved expense types
• Approved expense limits
• Required receipts for dollar threshold amount

Behind the scenes, there is another powerful tool you can use: reporting and analytics. You can compile information that can be used to identify trends, compare actual vs. projected spend, and identify recurring purchases. Companies can use this data to negotiate volume-based discounts to control costs.

For example, a huge percentage of spend goes to last-minute plane tickets and hotel bookings. With better spending insight, you can negotiate with vendors, amend your travel policies, and work with your employees to save money and gain efficiencies. In large organizations, this can add up to significant savings — considering the number of employees spread across business units, regions, and offices.

With a mobile interface, busy traveling execs can upload receipts on the go. They simply take a picture of the receipt and upload it to attach to an expense report at a later time. They also have immediate access to view reports, to filter through submitted and unsubmitted reports, and identify action steps.

Let us show you how expense management software can streamline your expense submissions and approvals, here.