Expense management trade secrets

Keeping a lid on your expenses

In last month’s poll we asked you ‘how honest are you about your expenses?’ and shared some advice on how you can stop ‘expense fiddling’ from taking place in your workplace.

This month, we look at ways you can make further savings in your expense management process, aside from stopping ‘expense fiddling’ in its tracks, you can make the entire expense management process altogether more cost efficient by following our 5 top tips.

1. Assess best practice

Independent studies are widely available which examine closely how leading firms approach expense management. Those studies have formed a clear view of a set of common best practices which lead to optimum effectiveness and maximum savings.

Why not start with viewing our WDT Case Study

2. Automate the process

Thousands of companies have scrapped cumbersome, time-consuming manual expense management processes in favour of easily installed automated processes which are simpler to operate, de-personalise expense claims and approval and save considerable time and effort.

In an economic downturn, we expect organisations to focus closely on reducing unnecessary costs, and individual employees to be more conscious of the money they spend in doing their jobs. In this respect, the political world could certainly learn some positive lessons from the UK's leading companies on how to simultaneously reduce costs and increase employee engagement through more effective travel and expense management. Nick Pannell, Travel and Expense Consultant, MobileXpense UK

3. Integrate the workflow

From pre-authorisation and travel booking, through claim and approval, right up to accounting, reimbursement and management information… in many organisations, these are separate processes. Forward-looking companies have found ways of using low-cost technology to integrate these into a seamless, single workflow.

4. Outsource the hassle

While it’s possible for businesses to design their own expense management solutions, companies have found that maintenance, update and operation of in-house solutions is considerable. By using highly flexible outsourced solutions, available to users 24/7 and 100% tailored to their own structures, processes and policy frameworks, companies have reduced complexity and achieved real savings in admin time.

5. Create clear policy

Research shows that companies often avoid setting clear travel and expense policies because of the need it creates to manage them! Automation has proved critical in solving this dilemma - flexible automated solutions effortlessly manage any degree of complexity in expense policy. Organisations which have adopted automated expense management tend to have clearer, more transparent and more enforceable travel and expense policies. And that makes it much easier for their employees to behave accountably and responsibly.

Poorly defined and inefficiently managed expense policy exposes organisations to misunderstanding and even manipulation. Nick Pannell, Travel and Expense Consultant, MobileXpense UK

If you’d like to discuss how Ceridian could help your business reduce costs and increase employee engagement with automated expense management, then please contact 0800 0482 737