Travel and entertainment costs represent a large chunk of the budget for most businesses. In fact, they are the second largest business expense, just behind payroll.
You would think that businesses would take the management of these expenses very seriously, given that they spend so much money on them but, surprisingly, not all of them do. Most businesses still manage their reimbursable expenses using antiquated methods like pen and paper or spreadsheets.
The problems with manual methods are many:
- Receipts need to be retained for review but often get lost or destroyed. Receipts are delicate and can fade after sitting in a wallet or car for a few days.
- Employees forget details of the expense by the time the accounting department starts asking questions.
- It takes time to add up receipts by hand and verify all the information.
- If employees are behind in their expense reporting, it can be difficult to get reimbursed by clients.
Online Expense Management Is Easy!
Cloud based expense tracking services like ours offer employees the ability to upload receipts just by snapping a picture. This image is attached to the expense entry and employees can make notes justifying the spending all on one screen.
The service offers employers the ability to run reports sorted by employee, the project the expense was recorded against, the customer the expense was purchased for, or several other options. Expenses can be categorized by the type of spending like entertainment, travel, office products, etc.
By tracking business expenses online, tax reporting can be quicker, employees can be reimbursed faster, and fraud can be easily caught or even totally eliminated.
More and more small businesses are catching on to this important trend. In 2014, 25% of all businesses used cloud-based expense tracking software as opposed to 8% in 2013, according to a recent survey.
Let us show you how to update your expense recording and reporting processes! Give us a call!
