Partner Article

More efficient expenses processes needed, says expert

Employees are being left out of pocket by inefficient expenses processes present in many workplaces.

Spendvision found that 77% of respondents used their own personal cash or credit card to pay for business expenses, and more than 50% of respondents do not claim for all their expenses.

Chief operating officer at Spendvision, Shane Bruhns, said: “The aim of this study was to assess the efficiency of current expense claims processes and how this impacts both the employee and the employer.

“The results show that many employees don’t get around to claiming all their expenses - even though they often pay for things with their own money instead of company cash, because their current claims process is far too complicated and time-consuming.”

Respondents cited a number of factors that cause them to not make an expense claim, including lost receipts, not having enough time to complete the claim process or simply forgetting to file expenses.

It was also found that 55% of organisations still used paper-based expense claim systems, which is shown to be more time-intensive for the employee and the administrators in the accounts department.

“Having to wait so long to be paid back for business-related transactions can be extremely demoralising to a workforce, especially given the harsh economic climate,” continued Bruhn.

“By doing more to streamline the expense claim process, organisations can drastically cut the cost of processing each transaction, and what’s more, with the right payment tools in place, organisations can keep a close eye on what employees are spending - reducing the need for employees to use their own money for business expenses in the first place.”

A key issue raised from the research was that although it may seem beneficial for organisations to delay the remittance of expenses, such inefficiency could actually be costing them more than they save.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .