Expense Management

The Business Benefits of Expense Management Software for Your Remote Workforce

With an ever-expanding population of remote workers, all-in-one expense management software is a business essential. Business expense management tools serve to keep track of employee spending, streamline the expense reporting and reimbursement process, and offer an avenue to wrap policies directly into the system.

In this post we’ll dive into remote work benefits and trends, the importance of expense management software, and why policy clarity is a must.

Understanding the Remote Work Paradigm

Believe it or not, nearly a quarter of the U.S. workforce is remote at least part of the time, and in times of crisis entire teams may be asked to work remotely. If you are new to managing a remote workforce, there are quite a few benefits. Studies have shown that remote employees are typically happier, healthier, and less stressed. Think about it, if you didn’t have to deal with the hassles of a commute every day, wouldn’t that improve your life? And from a cost perspective, your company will save on office overhead and real estate.

However, there are expenses to consider when it comes to remote workers that go beyond business travel. You will need to provide employees that do not work from the office with the proper equipment to do their job. This often goes beyond laptops and can include printers, monitors, basic office supplies, and headsets. Additionally, many organizations also offer a monthly stipend for internet and telecom bills.

Upfront this can seem daunting and expensive; however, if you think about it, reimbursing remote staff for a home office set-up, and then monthly internet and phone bills is likely to be far less than what you would be paying from a real estate perspective to have them occupy a desk in your office. For instance, it is estimated that employers pay an average of $1,200 per employee per month in New York City and just over $1,000 per employee per month in San Francisco. Whereas an average monthly reimbursement for internet and telecom typically hovers around $150 per month. That’s at least $850 of savings for each remote employee.

Expense Policy Clarity is a Must

Now, we’re not saying that remote employees will always save you money. In fact, we believe that it is 100% necessary to keep tabs on expenses and reimbursements to ensure company policies are being followed. As an organization, you must provide clear guidelines on expense policies.

In addition to simplifying processes, expense management software can also help with compliance attainment by enabling policies to be wrapped directly into the tool.

For instance, with TravelBank’s business expense app, your company can require receipts for all expenses or just those over a threshold of spend, such as $75 like the IRS requires. Employees can snap photos of receipts or invoices and submit them as an expense report. If a receipt is missing for an expense above your company’s threshold, the system will prompt the employee to provide documentation or they will not be able to submit the expense report. It can also provide billing codes in the app so expenditures are accurately tagged.

As a result, approving managers and accounting teams will have a much easier time reviewing expense reports as they will be organized by expense categories mapped to your general ledger, and will include a receipt and any other details your company requires. If a line-item in a report is out-of-policy, it will be easy to spot and the report can be sent back to the employee for additional detail with the click of a button.

User Experience and Feature Considerations

By streamlining expense management with a solution that automates reports, offers one-tap approvals, and provides visibility into your business spend, your organization will continue to operate like a well-oiled machine, regardless of if your employees are at home or in the office. As you look for a business expense management tool, key features to require include:

Automated Reports. Enable employees to instantly capture and categorize expenses based on receipt images. Once the report is ready, they can be submitted with one-tap or mouse click.
Expense Visibility. Improve visibility into your business spend with real-time insights and an analytics dashboard.
Faster Processing. Once expense reports are submitted, employees can be reimbursed in as little as 24-hours with a direct deposit feature.

Expense Management Software Supports Business Operations

Expense management is a major undertaking as it impacts many stakeholder groups including employees, finance teams, approving managers, the leadership team, and human resources. When you factor in that your team won’t be down the hall, it is even more essential to utilize expense management software to ensure operational efficiency.

As the business landscape continues to shift to a virtual setting, it is essential to empower your employees with expense management software that will support business operations, provide budget insights, and assist with expense compliance. Your team and your budget will benefit from streamlined processes and efficiency.

TravelBank is here to help and answer your questions. Contact us to set-up a time to chat.