Why are companies adopting expense management apps for their employees?

In many organisations, whatever their size and shape, the process for managing the reimbursement of expenses is a slow, unwieldy and unhappy one.

With the average business taking about 10 days to process personal expense claims, it’s no wonder that employees are dissatisfied.

For many employees, a key pain point is the tedious process required to make a claim. There is often a complex form to complete, a claims deadline to meet, and an associated amount of approval documentation to provide, to support the claim.

Another point of contention, driving colleague dissatisfaction, is the fact that they need to use their own money in the first place, to fund company expenses. And when there is a delay in being repaid, it just adds insult to injury. 

Forward-thinking employers are increasingly tapping into the value provided by expense management apps, harnessing technology to remove the pain from their expense claims process and improve colleague satisfaction.

Employees are in your business to contribute their skills and expertise, to add their value, and be part of your firm’s success. But their role is not to fund incidental expenses from their own pockets. More than ever, the cost of living crisis means that your employees’ personal liquidity is under strain, so don’t be surprised if the suggestion that they pay and then claim for a business train fare or hotel stay, is met with indifference. 

How can I modernise our expense management process?

Help is here, and technology is at its heart. Modern employee cards and expense management apps are transforming ‘after the event’ expense claims, and ruling out the need for an exhausting reimbursement process.

With an employee payment card for company expenses you can remove the need for your colleagues to personally fund work related payments. Expend records your expenses instantaneously and allows you to set spending policies across employee cards.

Employees' expenses are instantly visible to management, creating transparency and removing many of the burdensome compliance steps in a paper-based process.

The employee card, a Mastercard, has universal acceptability and provides more than just a payment mechanism. It can easily be integrated into accounting software applications such as Quickbooks or Xero to provide an instant view of spending data. This removes the need for the submission of expense claims data, which can be a costly and error-prone process.  

You can set spending limits on cards, restrict ATM withdrawals or online transactions, and even block spending in certain sectors, such as pubs or bars - leaving no room for misuse.

And, in circumstances where an out-of-pocket payment may be required, an AI driven expense management app can capture receipt details in real time; provide instant approvals for repayment, and integrate with payroll, to ensure prompt low-fuss reimbursement. 

Save employee time and operational costs

Expends’ expense management app software provides a range of time saving benefits, including, push button selection of expense categories, and online submission.  

And, given that one of the key costs in many businesses is ‘opportunity cost’ (the chance to be doing something more worthwhile for the business), the software can free your people up to focus on their core roles.

Reduced processing time

Digital verification of expenses means reduced finance team contact with individual claims. It also speeds up the management of receipts, reconciliations of reimbursements and payments to employees.

Most importantly, for the employee, the implementation of an expense management app can save the disappointment and frustration of missing the monthly claims deadline, and having to wait another month to be reimbursed.

Disclaimer: This is not legal, accounting, or tax advice - it's simply a guide. If you need help, check with your accountant or contact HMRC directly.