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Ro Mota

Boosting Company ROI: The Power of Expense Management Solutions

Boosting Company ROI: The Power of Expense Management Solutions

 

In today’s dynamic business environment, companies of all sizes are constantly seeking ways to optimise their operations and improve their bottom line. One often overlooked aspect that can significantly impact a company’s ROI is expense management. Traditional manual expense processes are not only time-consuming but also prone to errors.

However, with the advent of expense management solutions like Capture Expense, companies can revolutionize their expense management practices and unlock numerous benefits that directly impact their return on investment (ROI).

In this blog post, we will explore how expense management solutions can boost a company’s ROI, backed by facts and figures.

1. Time Efficiency and Productivity:

According to a study by the Aberdeen Group, companies using automated expense management solutions reduced the time spent on processing expenses by an average of 67%. This time-saving translates into increased productivity for employees, including finance teams and other stakeholders involved in expense management. By streamlining and automating the entire expense process, from capturing receipts to reimbursement, companies can focus their valuable resources on core business activities, driving productivity and ultimately boosting ROI.

   2. Cost Savings:

Expense management solutions offer significant cost savings potential. For instance, a report by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) found that companies can save an average of 10-12% on their travel and entertainment expenses by implementing an automated expense management system. This cost reduction is primarily driven by eliminating manual processes, reducing errors, and enabling better expense control and policy compliance. Moreover, expense management solutions help identify areas of excessive spending and highlight cost-saving opportunities, further contributing to increased ROI.

  3. Fraud Prevention and Compliance:

Expense fraud can have a substantial negative impact on a company’s financial health. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), expense reimbursement fraud accounts for approximately 14% of all fraud cases reported. Expense management solutions play a crucial role in combating fraud by implementing robust controls and automated approval workflows. By leveraging AI-powered algorithms and machine learning, these solutions can detect suspicious patterns and flag potential fraudulent activities, ultimately safeguarding company assets and enhancing compliance. Mitigating expense fraud not only protects the company’s bottom line but also enhances its reputation and trustworthiness, positively impacting ROI.

  4. Data Analytics and Insights:

Expense management solutions provide companies with access to a wealth of data that can be leveraged to gain valuable insights. These solutions offer comprehensive reporting capabilities, allowing companies to analyse spending patterns, identify cost-saving opportunities, and optimize their expense policies. According to a report by Certify, companies that utilize expense management solutions with advanced analytics features can achieve an average of 46% greater compliance with their travel and expense policies.

These insights enable companies to make data-driven decisions, allocate resources effectively, negotiate better vendor contracts, and drive overall financial performance, leading to improved ROI.

  5. Integration and Scalability:

Modern expense management solutions seamlessly integrate with other business systems like accounting software, HR systems, and ERP platforms. This integration eliminates manual data entry, reduces errors, and ensures data consistency across different departments. Moreover, as companies grow, expense management solutions can easily scale to accommodate increasing expense volumes and support expanding teams, resulting in improved operational efficiency and a higher ROI.

 

In Summary:

Expense management solutions, such as Capture Expense, have proven to be invaluable tools for companies seeking to boost their ROI. By automating and streamlining expense processes, these solutions save time, reduce costs, prevent fraud, provide valuable insights, and seamlessly integrate with existing systems.

 The facts and figures presented highlight the tangible benefits that companies can achieve by adopting such solutions. Embracing expense management solutions is not only a strategic move but also a smart investment that can yield significant returns, enhancing the overall financial health and success of an organization.

If you’d like to have a chat and see how we can take the hassle out of Expense Management, just get in touch. Book a Capture Expense demo and see how it can work for you.

The Power of Control: Why Spend Management Needs Control

business expense tracker, automated expense reporting, company expense tracking, expense reporting software

The Power of Control: Why Spend Management Needs Control

 

Effective spend management is crucial for any business looking to optimise its financial resources and drive sustainable growth. While it may be tempting to adopt a more relaxed approach to spending, establishing robust controls is actually a vital component of successful spend management. In this blog post, we will explore why control is a good thing when it comes to spend management and how it can benefit your business in the long run.

 

1. Preventing Overspending:

One of the key advantages of implementing control in spend management is the ability to prevent overspending. Without proper controls in place, organizations may experience a lack of visibility and accountability, leading to unchecked expenses that can quickly spiral out of control.

By establishing spending thresholds, expense policies, and approval processes, businesses can ensure that expenditures remain within predefined limits. This enables better cost control, prevents unnecessary spending, and promotes a culture of fiscal responsibility among employees. With control mechanisms in place, businesses can proactively manage their budgets, avoid surprises, and allocate resources strategically.

2. Enhancing Compliance and Policy Adherence:

Control in spend management also plays a crucial role in promoting compliance and policy adherence. By defining clear spending policies and enforcing them through robust controls, businesses can ensure that all expenses align with company guidelines, legal requirements, and industry regulations.

Establishing control mechanisms such as pre-approvals, expense categorizations, and audit trails helps identify potential compliance issues and flag any non-compliant expenses. This not only reduces the risk of financial irregularities and fraud but also strengthens the overall governance framework of the organization. Control ensures that employees are aware of spending guidelines and are more likely to make informed decisions within established boundaries.

3. Streamlining Approval Processes:

Controlled spend management facilitates efficient approval processes, saving time and enhancing productivity. Manual and ad-hoc approval methods can lead to delays, miscommunications, and bottlenecks, slowing down the entire expenditure cycle.

By implementing a structured approval workflow with defined roles, responsibilities, and escalation paths, businesses can streamline the approval process. Automated approval routing through spend management tools ensures that requests reach the right approvers in a timely manner, accelerating the decision-making process.

Moreover, control mechanisms enable better tracking and visibility of pending approvals, reducing the chances of expenses falling through the cracks. Employees can track the status of their requests, allowing them to plan accordingly and avoid unnecessary follow-ups. The result is a more efficient spend management process with reduced administrative overhead.

4. Data-driven Decision Making:

Controlled spend management provides businesses with accurate and reliable data, empowering them to make data-driven decisions. With well-defined controls and robust tracking mechanisms in place, organizations can gather comprehensive expense data and gain insights into their spending patterns, trends, and opportunities.

By analysing this data, businesses can identify areas of excessive spending, negotiate better vendor contracts, optimize budgets, and uncover cost-saving opportunities. Data-driven decision making enables businesses to allocate resources strategically, prioritize investments, and drive operational efficiency.

While some may perceive control as restrictive, when it comes to spend management, control is an essential element for success. By establishing control mechanisms, businesses can prevent overspending, promote compliance and policy adherence, streamline approval processes, and make data-driven decisions.

Controlled spend management not only ensures financial discipline but also helps businesses achieve better cost control, improve operational efficiency, and drive sustainable growth. It’s time to embrace the power of control in spend management and unlock the full potential of your organization’s financial resources.

What is open banking and how does it make expense management easier?

What is open banking and how does it make expense management easier?

 

In today’s world, businesses of all sizes are looking for more efficient ways to manage their expenses. One of the latest and most significant developments in financial technology is open banking, which can revolutionize the way companies manage their expenses.

So what is open banking, and how does it make expense management easier?

Open banking is a regulatory framework that allows financial institutions to share customer data with third-party providers through APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). This framework enables banks and other financial institutions to share transaction data and other relevant financial information with authorized third-party providers such as expense management platforms.

With open banking, businesses can connect their bank accounts directly to their expense management platform, giving them access to real-time transaction data. This makes expense management more efficient, accurate and reduces the risk of errors.

Expense management platforms that support open banking can also automate the process of categorizing transactions, making it easier for businesses to track their expenses. This helps businesses to identify areas where they can reduce costs and improve their financial management.

Open banking also enhances security by using tokenization technology, which enables secure access to financial data without requiring the actual account details to be shared. This protects businesses from the risk of fraud or data breaches.

The benefits of open banking are not limited to expense management. It also enables businesses to access a wide range of financial services, including loans, savings accounts, and insurance. This makes it easier for businesses to manage their finances and make more informed decisions about their financial needs.

Open banking is a game-changer for businesses of all sizes. By integrating their expense management platform with open banking, companies can streamline their expense management, improve financial efficiency, and reduce the risk of errors or fraud. As more businesses adopt open banking, we can expect to see significant improvements in financial management and security across industries.

At Capture Expense, we offer an expense management platform that supports open banking, enabling businesses to take advantage of the benefits of this new technology. Book a demo today to learn more about how our platform can help your business manage its expenses more efficiently and securely.

Why Manual Expense Tracking is Holding Your Business Back (And How to Fix It)

Why Manual Expense Tracking is Holding Your Business Back (And How to Fix It)

Spreadsheet expense tracking can be a significant hindrance to a business’s success.

As a business owner or finance manager, you know that tracking expenses is a necessary part of running a successful business. However, manually tracking expenses can be a time-consuming and error-prone process that can hold your business back in several ways.

Here are some reasons why manual expense tracking is holding your business back, and how to fix it with a modern expense management platform.

Manual Expense Tracking is Time-Consuming

Manually tracking expenses involves collecting receipts, entering data into spreadsheets, and cross-checking information to ensure accuracy. This process is not only time-consuming, but it can also be tedious and prone to errors. For businesses with a high volume of expenses, this can become an overwhelming task that diverts time and resources from other important business functions.

Solution: A modern expense management platform automates the expense tracking process, allowing employees to quickly and easily enter expense data into a central system. This system can then automatically process and categorise expenses, saving time and improving accuracy.

Manual Expense Tracking is Prone to Errors

Manual expense tracking is inherently prone to errors, whether from mistakes in data entry or lost receipts. This can result in inaccurate expense reports and cause delays in reimbursement or approval processes. Additionally, manual tracking makes it difficult to identify fraudulent or erroneous expenses, leaving your business vulnerable to financial losses.

Solution: A modern expense management platform can help minimise errors by automating the data entry process and validating expense information against pre-defined rules. This system can make flagging suspicious expenses much easier, alerting administrators to potential issues and thus improving accuracy and reducing the risk of fraud.

Manual Expense Tracking Limits Visibility

Manually tracking expenses in spreadsheets or paper forms makes it difficult to gain a complete and accurate picture of your business’s spending patterns. Without real-time visibility into expense data, it can be challenging to identify trends, track spending, and make informed decisions about budgeting and forecasting.

Solution: A modern expense management platform provides real-time visibility into expense data, allowing businesses to make informed decisions about spending. With customizable reporting and analytics, businesses can gain insights into spending habits, identify cost-saving opportunities, and optimise their overall financial performance.

Manual Expense Tracking Delays Reimbursement and Approval Processes

Manually tracking expenses can cause significant delays in reimbursement and approval processes, leading to frustration and dissatisfaction among employees. With a manual process, employees may need to wait several days or even weeks to receive reimbursement, which can negatively impact morale and productivity.

Solution: A modern expense management platform streamlines the reimbursement and approval process, allowing employees to submit expenses quickly and easily, and administrators to approve or reject expenses with just a few clicks. This can significantly reduce the time and resources required for expense reimbursement and improve employee satisfaction.

In conclusion, manual expense tracking can be a significant hindrance to a business’s success, resulting in time-consuming processes, errors, limited visibility, and delays in reimbursement and approval. By implementing a modern expense management platform, businesses can automate the expense tracking process, improve accuracy, gain real-time visibility, and streamline the reimbursement and approval process, ultimately leading to improved financial performance and overall business success.

See the solution in action by signing up for our webinar, taking place on 23rd March 2023. In this live product demo, we’ll show you how Capture Expense allows your people to raise, submit and approve expenses at any time, from any location and streamlines the way your organisation manages spend. Sign up here.

The Importance of Mobile Expense Management for Remote Teams

The Importance of Mobile Expense Management for Remote Teams

By streamlining the expense reporting process, remote-first businesses can save time, money, and improve their bottom line.

As more and more businesses adopt remote work, mobile expense management has become increasingly crucial for companies to keep track of their finances. With employees working from various locations, it’s essential that expense reporting is streamlined and easily accessible from any device. In this blog post, we’ll explore why mobile expense management is vital for remote teams and how it can help businesses save time, money, and improve their bottom line.

Ease of Access

One of the primary advantages of mobile expense management is its ease of access. With employees working from various locations, it’s important that they can submit expenses quickly and easily, no matter where they are. Mobile expense management allows employees to easily submit expenses through their smartphones, eliminating the need to wait until they return to the office to submit expenses. This not only saves time, but it also helps ensure that expenses are reported in a timely manner, which is crucial for accurate financial reporting.

Reduced Costs

Another advantage of mobile expense management is that it helps reduce costs. Traditional expense reporting methods, such as paper-based expense reports or manual spreadsheets, can be time-consuming and prone to errors. Mobile expense management eliminates the need for manual processes, reducing the time and costs associated with manual data entry. Additionally, mobile expense management allows for real-time tracking of expenses, reducing the risk of duplicate or incorrect expenses being submitted.

Improved Accuracy

Accurate expense reporting is essential for businesses to stay financially accountable. With mobile expense management, employees can easily attach receipts and other relevant documentation to their expense reports, ensuring that all expenses are accurately documented and recorded. This eliminates the need for manual data entry, reducing the risk of human error and ensuring that expenses are accurately reported.

Improved Workflow

Mobile expense management can also improve the workflow of remote teams. By automating the approval process, expenses can be approved quickly, reducing the time it takes for employees to receive reimbursement. Additionally, mobile expense management provides real-time visibility into expenses, allowing managers to see the status of expenses in real-time and make any necessary adjustments.

 

Increased Productivity

Finally, mobile expense management can increase the productivity of remote teams. With the ability to easily submit expenses from anywhere, employees can spend less time on manual expense reporting and more time on their core responsibilities. This not only saves time, but it also helps improve the overall productivity of remote teams.

In conclusion, mobile expense management is essential for remote teams. Its ease of access, reduced costs, improved accuracy, improved workflow, and increased productivity make it a valuable tool for businesses of all sizes. By streamlining the expense reporting process, businesses can save time, money, and improve their bottom line. To learn more about mobile expense management, contact us today to schedule a demo.

HMRC Mileage Rates for 2022

HMRC Mileage Rates for 2022

 

Did you know you can reduce your tax bill by knowing the most up to day HMRC mileage claim rates? Even if you have a company car, you can still save on taxes through the HMRC fuel rates.

You can use this guide to help you on your business travel finances.

 

What are the HMRC mileage rates and what should I know about them?

 

These mileage rates allow employees of a business to claim travel expenses when using a vehicle. This doesn’t just include fuel costs, it includes wear, road tax and insurance. Obviously it’s a little difficult to work out the general wear on someone’s car, even more so if you have to keep track of more than a couple employees. So HMRC uses a system which uses pence per mile instead of just fuel rates (known as Mileage Approved Payments (MAPs)).

As you don’t usually have to pay taxes on business expenses MAPs make it so you can make sure you’re paying the right amount of taxes. Even when you incur business vehicle expenses from a personal account, this mileage allowance also makes sure these expenses are exempt from tax.

 

Cars and Vans – UK Business mileage rates for 2022

 

The current mileage rate is the same as previous years, except there are different expense policy rates for cars and vans vs motorbikes and bicycles.

For cars/vans, the business mileage rate in 2022 is 45 pence per mile before you hit 10k miles. After 10k miles you can only claim 25 pence per mile.

Hybrid cards use the standard rate of 45p per mile, whereas electric car mileage rates are 4p per mile as electricity is not seen as fuel. This rate stays consistent for electric cars, even about 10k miles.

 

For example, if you’ve driven 12,000 miles for work in the last year you could claim:

10,000 x 45p = £4,500

2,000 x 25p = £500

£4,500 + £500 = £5,000 total tax free reimbursement

 

Motorcycle rates in 2022

For motorbikes, you can claim back 24p per mile when you use your bike for business travel. This remains the same no matter how many miles you travel.

For example, you drive 6,000 miles on your motorbike for business:

6,000 x 24p = £1,440 total tax free reimbursement

 

 

Bicycle rates this year

If you ride a push bike for work, perhaps delivering food or just to do local trips, you can have 20p per mile award for tax free reimbursement to cover insurance and general bike wear. This has no cap and can be claimed for an unlimited amount.

 

 

What trips count under the HMRC Mileage Allowance?

 

Examples of valid trips:

  • Travelling between offices
  • Travelling to a different location such as a conference or exhibition to conduct business
  • When you can’t get a job done without travelling to this place, for example a colleague has broken down
  • Driving to a client
  • Driving to anywhere outside of your usual office space in order to do your job

 

Examples of invalid trips:

  • Your daily commute to your fixed office
  • Travelling less than 10 miles to another location for work (seen as too close)
  • Toll payments
  • A trip where you primarily do personal errands and not work errands

 

There are lots of others, so make sure to check out HMRCs website for the full list to make sure you are compliant.

 

 

How are mileage tax rates calculated?

As most companies reimburse employees monthly on their expenses, companies must keep track of total mileage over the tax year. At the end of the tax year you need to compare the actual amount paid to the number of miles driven. Once you’ve used a mileage calculator, the HMRC does not require any information or reporting as long as you do not go over the approved MAP amount.

 

 

 

 

How can I increase my mileage allowance?

 

If you drive a colleague to work, you can actually get a further mileage allowance. Mileage rates increase by 5p per mile when another employee travels with you in your car.

 

For example say you drive your college a total of 70 miles a month in carpooling (840 miles per year):

840 x 5p = £42

That’s £42 extra you can receive tax free.

 

Ready to Revolutionise Your Business?

Unlock the power of hmrc approved mileage rates, streamline your expense report reminders, and experience firsthand how our integrated expense solutions can simplify your expense audit. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to shape your future.

Book Your Demo and step into the world of hmrc mileage rates.

How to Keep Track of Expenses for Small Business

How to Keep Track of Expenses for Small Business

 

Currently, 1 in 5 finance teams still use manual expense reports to manage operational spend (Spend Journal, 2020). This means using software like Excel to input data and manually create expense reports, maybe using a downloaded excel expense report template or creating one from scratch. Either way, with the advancement of technology this is an insane statistic, as it means so much time is held up in processing reports manually. Why do small businesses insist on using excel when there are much better solutions out there that overall save money?

Here are a few reasons you may still being using excel to manually process travel and expenses:

It’s highly available and accessible

Almost everyone has Excel installed as part of the Microsoft Suite, and if not you can access it online via Google Sheets. However just because it’s easy to access doesn’t mean it’s the best fit.

Lots of people know how to use it


You don’t have to learn something new, or pay someone to try a new piece of software. It’s not only self explanatory but most people have used it for many years, meaning it requires no time to begin using. However with expense automation software like
Capture Expense, the ease of use of the software means very little training is required, mainly only for accountants.

Works on a small scale


You’ve not had any problems yet because your business is only a certain size, so why change? Unfortunately this is not forward thinking and when your business grows, as it should do, you can suddenly find you are having to put a lot more time into the expense process than planned. Not only will you have to do more chasing of receipts, but checking of errors and discrepancies. This snowballs and it’s a part of the business you don’t want to be spending time on as it grows.

 

Has always been the way you do it


Just because you’ve done it one way for a long time doesn’t mean it’s the best way! Even trying something as a simple demo can give you an insight as to how much better it can be with an expense management package.

Now on the flipside, what are the issues you may be facing?

Receipt storage hassle and lost receipts

Keeping track of many receipts is a chore and a burden, and bad management leads to greater inaccuracies and less Tax reclaim. This is a loss which is totally avoidable, and T&E management software really helps with this.

Poor visibility of spend


40% of companies have little or no visibility into how money is spent (
Spend Journal, 2020). This tends to be from a lack of comprehensive and useable data. As we all know in the technology age, data is incredibly valuable and is lucrative industry, so why are you not paying attention to your own company data. Apps like Capture Expense not only help you input data correctly, but visualize and categorize the data for analysis.

Out-of-policy bottle necks and reiterating policy to employees


Two thirds of employees haven’t read their companies expense policy (
All Star). This is understandable, it tends to a document which is overlooked when you’re first given it. However, this leads to a much higher rate of out of policy claims and a need to reiterate the policy to employees. One great thing Capture Expense does is provide custom policy reminders on applicable forms to ensure claims are filed correctly in the input process. For example, when putting in a mileage claim, a custom policy reminder can pop up reminder what they can and can’t claim back on.  

Lack of expenditure control


How do you stop someone from spending too much when they have unlimited funds essentially on card? Expense management software can help create caps for spend, so they won’t spend more than they can claim back.

Overestimated mileage


Manually interesting mileage data can lead to way overestimated fuel costs, so using a program which has HMRCs rates automatically implemented and routinely updates eliminates this issue.

Backlogged reimbursement and chasing staff to submit claims


Due to the lack of automation in manual expense processing, you can often end up with big backlogs of reimbursement, as well as having to chase staff to submit claims on time. This is both stressful and a time intensive job. Using Capture Expense helps reduce backlogs due to the aid of automation, and due to the ease of use of submitting claims using the software it means chasing staff no longer becomes an issue.

Duplication and errors


One key issue with using software like Excel to manage T&E’s is the high change of duplication and errors. This can be due to having multiple versions of the same document, or not seeing the discrepancy between a receipt and the data input into a form. Capture Expense uses technology to check receipts against input data for accuracy, as well as maintaining consistency across all platforms, including both desktop and mobile.

Difficultly with Remote Workers


With Capture Expense being available both on desktop and mobile, staff can submit claims anytime, anywhere. With all the data saved securely on the cloud, it can be kept up to date and consistent, no matter where it is being sent from.

 

Of those who use software to help them process expense claims, only 10% of expense approvals are automated (Spend Journal, 2020). This is a very low number, even with the addition of technology and software to speed up the process. However, it isn’t enough as it’s all well and good using software to help you input your data, but if its just as slow as using an Excel template because nothing is automated, what is the point?

This is why you really should use expense automation software. Contact us today for a free demo to see for yourself how easy it is to set up and use and begin your journey of better visibility over money spent as well as reduced time spend on expenses.

White Label Software Solutions in Expense Management

 

 

White Label Software Solutions in Expense Management

As a business owner, you may jump to fixing problems yourself with DIY solutions.

However, making a custom solution from scratch is often a disaster because you may:

  • Slow down your time to market as you have to take on something completely new.
  • Continue to make mistakes others have made, when there are people out there with more practise and expertise, having ironed out those problems.
  • Watching money go down the drain on tools and solutions which already exist in other formats.

So what’s a better idea? Well to use a white label solution of course. White label products/services are packages which as made by one company and sold by another. The reseller can then customise the product with branding, logos and their identity. This helps create customer association to the product. And while the reseller benefits from not having to worry about the manufacture, the producer can focus on more cost effective ways to build up the product without having to worry about its marketing.

Almost every product can benefit from these white label solutions, and expense management is no different. It allows companies to use and implement important expense management automation with their own branding and layouts, increasing their portfolio and adding massive value.

Consider the following factors if you’re still not convinced if a white label solution is right for you:

  • It makes your clients happy. Your consumers have an end goal in mind, and a white label solution can help them get there quickly and easily. Customers may be forced to look for answers elsewhere due to the extra months (or even years) it takes to develop your own solution. You may avoid this by providing a ready-made solution that suits their demands right away.
  • It helps you save both time and money. Creating a solution from the ground up requires significant financial and human capital resources, not to mention time. While a custom solution may appear to be the greatest option at first, the effort may soon disrupt internal business processes and blow budgets. Even if you believe you can create it yourself, you must account for marketing time. Consider how long it will take to architect, develop, build, and test the solution. If you need to deploy quickly, skipping any of these procedures could put you even further behind. When time is of the importance and you need to act quickly, it may be more cost-effective to invest in an established solution.
  • It’s simple and quick to brand. If you’re attempting to come up with innovative ways to improve your business, white label solutions can help. Because white label products are typically fully integrated and ready-to-use, branding is a breeze. You don’t have to worry about time and money spent of R&D. You can then add your own branding and identity before getting back to work.
  • It allows you to concentrate on your company’s main strengths. In many situations, the solutions that businesses aspire to develop on their own are much beyond their areas of expertise. Stretching your resources to do anything outside of your core strengths is not a good idea. To determine whether a white label solution might help you achieve your goals more efficiently, take a thorough look at the solution you require and compare it to your available resources. Pre-packaged solutions allow you to put your trust in the experts in the field you’re interested in, and avoid making the same mistakes that others have.

White label solutions allow you to use your company’s distinctive branding to offer a product or service without having to invest in infrastructure or technology. As a consequence, you can concentrate on developing your brand and marketing your services while streamlining your consumers’ conversion process.

Capture Expense offers API solutions for customers which means you can expand your software portfolio in an instant. By adding your own branding and marketing, you can greatly increase software value with no real added work.

Contact us today to discuss this further or if you have any questions. We’d love to hear your thoughts. 

Using Trainline to travel in the UK?

Using Trainline to travel in the UK?

 

One of the many travel tools you might be using to travel for business is the trainline app, and you may be wondering how you can use it in conjunction with an expense management tracker to make your life easier.

Travel expense management is a huge part of any business and using the train line UK is an easy way to book tickets and plan your journey. But what do you do once all is said and done?

Corporate card reconciliation

Capture Expense uses Open Banking to give you a feed of your corporate card spending, you can simply attach the invoice from the trainline app onto the transaction from your card feed. This automation makes the process a lot faster and accurate as you don’t have to create the expense yourself, it does it automatically, so you’ll never miss an expense again.

screenshot of travel expense management screen with carbon emissions calculator

CO2 calculator

 

One of the many benefits of using Capture Expense as your expense management software is we automatically do calculations to work out the CO2 produced for each journey. This helps your company keep track of your climate impact. Why does this matter? Because a study by the European Investment Bank shows that being transparent about and reducing carbon emissions can have a positive impact on reputation and market demand for any business. Even big brands like IKEA are investing millions on millions on reducing their climate impact, but you can help drive that change by simply understanding your climate impact from travel with our integrated system.

Process expenses more quickly

Because our software automatically creates a feed of card transactions you can easily attach expenses from travel such as trainline, expenses tend to be more accurate as there is less room for error with code doing most of the work for you. This means expenses can be submitted more quickly, meaning they will also be accepted at a better rate as well! This means money back to you (or your employees) meaning everyone is happier.

screenshot of expense once management software dashboard displaying statistics

Better view of spending

With a more accurate and detailed view of employee spending, you can help improve understanding of spending within your company, allowing for new insights on how to streamline, or reduce costs. This means better overall spending and profits.

Contact us today to learn more, or get a free demo to try it out for yourself.

What is an Expense Policy, and do I need one?

What is an Expense Policy, and do I need one?

 

 

An expense policy is a document created to outline the rules laid down by the company on types of expenses employees can claim back on, and how to submit such an expense. Every company is different, so every policy reflects this in being unique, however they largely contain two parts, travel and expenses and how to claim.

Travel and Expenses

T&E outlines what expenses can be claimed back on when your employees travel for business, as well as recommended suppliers and methods of transport. It’s important to have a document which highlights this so that you can effectively control and manage expenditure, and ensure everyone in the company is on the same page.

Why should I create a business expense policy?

It can sometimes be a little unclear on what people can make an expense claim on, and an expense policy clears this up. A concise clear policy not only increases accurate claims but reduces confusion which can often lead to frustration and mistakes. It can even limit expense fraud. Not only will your employees be happier, but it means your finance department can gain better control and insight over expense forecasts.

First things first

It may seem daunting to start, but there’s plenty of help and support out there on where to begin. There are plenty of free to use templates online, or you can chat with us to create a totally unique policy just for you. Once you have this down, it can be easily implemented into Capture Expense so that you don’t even need to remind employees of what they can and can’t do, it will automatically show up in the app when it is relevant.

Create multiple policies

Different departments and even different branches will require different policies, so with Capture Expense you can assign different policies to these sections. You can also add policies for travel, card payments, etc. Whatever you want to add a note or caveat to, you can.

Set maximum spend

You can also set maximum expense amount limits, allowing for greater control over company expenditure. You can set overall rules or more defined specific rules, depending on your unique needs.

Automate the process

Using a smart expense management product is the key in ensuring expense policies are successful. When using Capture Expense the whole process becomes integrated and fluid, meaning errors, duplication and out of policy expenses are reduced. This not only speeds up the expense process but saves you money and time in the long run.

Get started today

It’s never to late to join the future. Technology has made it so we have super computers in our pockets, so why are you still using old documents and excel templates to process your expenses? Get in contact today to see what we can do for you and the future of your company.