The human resource department forms the administrative core of any company. The more efficient and productive the HR team is, the happier they can keep the company’s employees. With people management being their main focus, it is only right organizations do whatever it takes to make other processes simpler for them. Expense management is one such process. 

44% of companies agree that HR integrations are a must for expense management tools. An expense management software can not only make expense reimbursement cycles faster but also ensure HR and payroll teams are benefited from it and they can use the travel and expense analytics to make smart and strategic decisions.

How Automated Expense Management Helps the HR Perform Better

Expense reimbursements are an integral part of human resources and payroll. It is up to the HR to reimburse employees on time, ensure there are no obstacles hindering employee satisfaction, and help the staff stay motivated at all times. 

An expense management solution can achieve all these things just by offering modern employees an effortless way for receipt management, expense reporting, and expense tracking.

Reimburse your employees faster

HR executives must have had employees remind them about reimbursements that are due. In fact, 20% of companies have claimed lengthy reimbursement times are a problem with expense management. 

Expense reporting software provides a mechanism to make the entire process faster by reducing the time spent on manual tasks. By completely automating the reimbursement procedure, there is no need for manual data entry, and time taken for approvals is drastically reduced with the help of email alerts. 

Regardless of whether it is business mileage or per diems, every expense can be recorded according to the company’s travel and expense (T&E) policies. With all the necessary documents and a digital trail of expenses under one platform, employees can send in expense claims quickly and HR teams can assure lightening fast reimbursements.

SUGGESTED READ: Can web-based expense management reduce reimbursement time?

Mobile reporting for modern employees

The idea of attending to administrative work at any time and any place with just the use of one device makes automated expense management tools all the more desirable. 

Mobile apps enable users to take pictures of paper bills as proof of documents. Managers are alerted about newly recorded expenses and smart approval workflows see to that all claims are approved and with the help of real-time policy checks, fraud is detected instantly. Not only is expense tracking easier, but with one-click expense reports containing the breakdown of spend and supporting proof, there is no hassle in submissions and HR teams can view these reports in real-time.

SUGGESTED READ: Five ways to make expense reporting easier for employees

Paperless expense management process

Manual processes involve a lot of paperwork and only result in tons of data entry, a large investment of time, and require careful maintenance of records. All this with no guarantee that the process will be error-free. 

An automated expense management system can seamlessly integrate with HRM modules. Data on salary reimbursements, information on cash advances & a number of approved claims can flow to HR teams. This ensures that there are no errors in between, and employees get accurately reimbursed on time. The process completely avoids the need for making copies and re-scanning documents multiple times. Furthermore, employee records are up to date at all times.

Get better deals for employees

Employee satisfaction and happiness is an important inclusion in HR’s list of duties. One way of ensuring your employees are happy is to help them save money in any way possible. 

Expense analytics help HR teams gain an insight into how much money is being spent on food, travel, and other categories. This way the company can negotiate discounts with the most preferred vendors and make good deals to benefit the staff. Creating these benefits for employees in the form of food coupons, membership cards, etc helps motivate employees to perform better and also helps them save. In addition, the company can cut costs by negotiating vendor discounts on business expenses.

SUGGESTED READ: Balancing expense policy compliance and happy employees

Make payroll more efficient

Thanks to big data, information collected through the software can be assimilated and compiled into analytical reports. With trends and statistics on the kind of expenses being recorded and the size of these expenses, HR teams can gain a clear picture of the behavior patterns of employees. This will further help them make decisions on whether or not to include certain expenditures as a part of employee salary structures. 

For example, if most employees are claiming cellular bills every month, the organization can increase the cellphone reimbursement allowance as a part of the salary. This will further help employees reduce their tax liabilities.

The bottom line

In addition to the above benefits, travel and expense management software are easy to use. New employees need not be trained to create and report their business expenses. It is as simple as making an account and they can start tracking and recording spend in real-time. 

As per certain market estimates, travel and expense management is the second most difficult cost to handle and monitor. In a Wakefield Research survey, 

“73% of employees said they were likely to look for a new employer if reimbursement cycles were constantly slow.”

Thus, it is vital to have a means by which employees are not struggling to make expense reports and organizations are able to sustain their workforce and keep them satisfied. Human resource teams work very hard to recruit worthy candidates and maintain employee life-cycle. A fully automated solution can help employees claim their money back faster and help cement a strong relationship between HR teams and the staff. Want to make your HR team more efficient?

‍Schedule a demo with us today to see how Fyle works!