When your employees have reimbursable out-of-pocket expenses, you should strive to make the reporting and approval process as seamless as possible. Automated expense management is needed if you want to keep employees happy. Upgrading to a system that allows for a much more streamlined process will keep employee morale high and your expense tracking will be more accurate and efficient.
Challenges with Traditional Expense Management
Under a traditional expense management model, employees typically have to save receipts and fill out a form to submit to the HR or finance teams. This is a redundant task that is not likely to be related to the employee's main function in your organization. This can cause delays in reimbursement, not to mention the human errors and inconsistencies that can happen in a paper-based system. It places an administrative burden on the employee, as well as your HR and finance teams.
How Automated Expense Management Works
With expense reimbursement automation, these challenges are eliminated. Using a cloud-based system, employees can quickly record and upload their receipts with their smartphone or other device. A manager receives an alert and can approve the expense quickly. When the system is integrated with payroll, the amount the employee is owed is automatically added to their very next paycheck.
With receipts and approvals stored in the cloud, it eliminates the need for a cluttered paper trail at both ends. It also speeds up the process and reduces the wait times for reimbursements.
Benefits of Automation for Employee Satisfaction
Switching to an automated expense management system will result in reducing reimbursement wait times and minimizing reimbursement errors. Because everything is managed through a centralized online system, the submission and approval processes are much faster. A manual data entry task is eliminated, which reduces the risk of errors and discrepancies from HR and finance teams. Your employees are reimbursed more quickly, which has a big impact on morale and productivity.
Impact on Employee Morale and Productivity
Research has shown that employees can suffer financial hardship if an employer's reimbursement system is too slow and inefficient. That can have an obvious negative impact on morale in the workplace. When employees are paid back quickly, it builds trust and lets them know that you appreciate their sacrifices for the company.
Saving receipts and filling out forms for reimbursement requests creates an administrative burden on employees that is no longer necessary. The amount of time spent on these administrative tasks is minimized with an automated system. This allows your employees to stay focused on more mission-critical aspects of their jobs, resulting in increased productivity.
Operational Advantages for Employers
Automated expense management also reduces the workload for HR and finance teams. Manual data entry is largely eliminated, which improves financial accuracy. Reimbursements are added directly to the payroll system, so the employee is paid back quickly. The reduction in errors means that your organization will stay within regulatory compliance.
A streamlined system allows you to have more financial control over company spending. Analyzing reimbursements and expense tracking lets an organization discover inefficiencies or methods that can reduce costs.
All-in-One Automated Expense Management with Payday
Upgrading to an automated reimbursement system is a great way to improve payroll efficiencies while reducing errors. Reducing administrative burdens improves employee satisfaction and productivity. All it takes is the right cloud-based system to integrate with your existing payroll software.
Request a demo of Payday's expense management software to see how it can benefit your organization.