While corporate travel is a necessity in many organizations, it can also create frustration, headaches and can be unnecessarily expensive. There is often frustration expressed on the part of employees who travel for work, and employers tend to be no happier with the process.
Some things can be done to overcome T&E challenges, however. Modern technology offers many of the answers that people are searching for in terms of a more streamlined, efficient T&E process on both ends.
Implement Automation
The best thing a business can do to overcome the majority of T&E and reimbursement challenges it to introduce automation. Automation can help with everything from streamlining business expense receipt handling to reducing fraud and overspending. Look for automation platforms that have certain features. For example, image processing technology can be useful.
Image processing technology can help people upload and store their receipts on their mobile device. This is good for employees who don’t want to have to worry about keeping up with them. It’s then easier for the AP department as well because the system can recognize certain transactions and automate much of what they do.
Gain Control and Visibility
When spending is spiraling out of control, it’s usually due to a few possible reasons. It can be employee noncompliance, fraud, or human error. All of these issues can be resolved if an AP department and the CFO have control and visibility over what’s happening.
How do you make this happen, however?
Using manual processes such as spreadsheets is not the way to promote more control and visibility into T&E costs and activities. Instead, there is another place where automation is useful. Automated software solutions allow information to be available in one easy-to-access place. Red flags and alerts are more obvious when software is used, and it’s not a lengthy process to get the necessary information.
Reduce Policy Gray Areas
Finally, while automation can be an excellent tool for eliminating many of the hurdles that exist in T&E management, there’s more to it than that. A lot of the problems stems from poor or unclear policies. For example, certain employees may feel like they’re held to a different standard than others.
Some employees may have no idea what the policies are, or they may not be aware of changes that have been made.
There has also been an evolution in how employees travel for work. For example, it’s popular for employees to combine leisure and business, and more employers are also embracing this concept. But, what if the company travel policy isn’t updated to reflect this change?
Another example of a change that needs to be addressed is the growing use of apps in business travel. What are the rules for business-leisure combination trips as compared to a traditional trip for work? What’s a travel expense and what isn’t? What are the guidelines for using travel apps, and how should employees track their spending in these situations?
Key stakeholders need to ensure they’re regularly going through their policies, updating them as necessary and making them widely available to employees.
