Employee expenses are the second largest controllable cost at every organization. As a best practice, organizations usually have enough predictability around the type of travel expenses incurred by certain employee groups. While we can predict how the organization can control expenses, it is not manually feasible to control employee travel expenses when on business travel. Enter Per Diems/Per Diem rates.

Per Diems are a fixed non-reimbursable allowance paid to employees during travel. Traditionally, Per Diems only included daily stay. But modern business travel demands are increasing and hence, demand more than just stay. Today, ideal Per Diems include non-reimbursable allowances for

• Daily lodging
• Meals
• Incidental expenses
• Transport

Per Diems not only streamline the internal processes but also help employers with the following during employee business travels:

• Avoid spending leaks
• Accommodate predictable expenses
• Help employers set the right expectations for employees
• Provide a hassle-free travel experience to employees
• Ease tedious expense reimbursement cycles and eliminate the need for physical receipts and unwanted back and forth
• Limit financial administration as employers don't have to manage approvals separately

Challenges for Per Diems for modern travel expenses

Per Diems are a sure shot way to manage business travel expenses. However, it brings along a few challenges that cannot be ignored by employers.

• Per Diem rates are dynamic, i.e., they are different for every country/state the employee is traveling to. To add fuel to the fire, they also change almost every year depending on the country or state's financial budget. (Check out San Diego Per Diem 2019)
• Per Diem rates are distinct for every employee group of the same organization. They are dependent on additional factors like the reason for travel, employee's department, employee's level, etc.
• As Per Diem rates are so dynamic, it becomes tedious for employers to tweak expense policies to accommodate new rates manually. Simultaneously, employees find it strenuous to keep with changing rates, hampering their experience significantly.
• Every organization has to come up with their own mechanism to handle Per Diem exceptions. If these policies are even a tad bit ambiguous, they lead to unwanted supplementary effort from the finance team. As for employees, they either open doors for potential expense frauds or losing money in the process.

Managing Travel Expenses Per Diem rates

Expense reporting as a process has revolutionized, thanks to technology and automation. Automation has given organizations a safe space to personalize employee expense reporting. When it comes to automation of Per Diems, the impact is no different. Below are a few benefits of automating Per Diem rates for employee business travel expenses.

• Automation enables real-time manual tweaks in policies or processes, thus effortlessly taking care of the dynamic nature of Per Diem rates.
• Since expense reporting software duplicates any manual process into their system, handling exceptions are a breeze.
• Smarter expense management software also automatically collects Per Diem rates of different countries/states and saves time for your finance team.
• Modern employee expense reporting is all about the experience. Automation takes care of the same through mobile apps for employees who are always on-the-go, turning expense reporting real-time.

SUGGESTED READS:

What are the tax rules for per diems?

International per diem guidelines for 2020

Everything you need to know about a per diem expense report

Should you provide per diem pay for weekends?

Travel Expenses Per Diem rates with Fyle

At Fyle, we’ve built an advanced travel and expense reporting software. We understand and facilitate the Per Diem needs of every organization. Move further to know how Fyle can ease Per Diems for your organization.

Effortless setup of custom Per Diem rates

Custom fields for Per Diem expenses

Seamless reporting for Per Diem expenses

Fyle doesn’t just help you manage Per Diems. We do a lot more.

Schedule a demo with us to understand how we can help you transform your organization’s travel expense management.