Did you know missing receipts can put your company at risk with the IRS?
When it comes to travel and expense management, receipts hold great value. Receipts are the go-to solution to fix and clarify in case of errors. They are proof of expenses as well as records of expenses incurred by a business.
For an employee, receipts are required to claim business expenses legitimately. The absence of receipts may even rule out the possibility of getting reimbursed.
For an organization, receipts are extremely important for tax deductions and auditing. It can reduce the pain of calculating tax deductions and auditing. Receipts can be used by the IRS to also verify accuracy and confirm reported revenues by a company.
It is crucial for your businesses to understand the central role that receipts play in expense management. The leap to modern technological approaches has made receipt reporting, storage, tracking, and management a breeze.
SUGGESTED READ: How to create an IRS compliant expense reimbursement policy?
Why does everybody hate expense reports?
For employees to claim reimbursement, it requires them to submit an expense report. For expense report approval, an expense report must contain all the necessary details and receipts. The absence of receipts can reduce the chances of reimbursement on the expenses incurred. Thus, employees spend hours collecting, collating, and printing receipts. The entire process is tiresome with little to no benefit to the employees who have invested their own money for business purposes.
- Employees are less likely to stay compliant and report expenses if there are too many hassles involved.
- Most of the time, employees are unaware of the expense policies. This results in them further delaying the entire reimbursement process.
- Employees keep expense reporting for last-minute, which can also result in giving out incorrect figures.
- The mundane task can also cause a delay in submitting expense reports. The delay can hinder the finance team while trying to keep an accurate account of revenues and expenses.
- The chances of misplacing or losing receipts increase with delays in reporting.
- All these factors put together lead to a dip in employee morale and productivity.
SUGGESTED READ: Balancing expense policy compliance and happy employees
After receiving an expense report, the finance team has to make sure all expenses are tied to a receipt. The absence of receipts reduces the accountability of the expense reports. Receipts are also used by the account and finance team for reference to fix errors. For example, while reconciling corporate credit cards, the accountant can refer to the receipt of the expense to clarify and verify.
- This requires the finance team to have a repository of receipts to avoid losing evidence.
- Improper storage can cause displacement and damage to receipts.
- When you have a proper record, you can make sure accounting and auditing are done correctly.
- Even in the case of any inquiry, it can be dealt with swiftly. This makes the receipts all the more necessary.
For an organization, the creation, submission, and review of export reports is a vital part of an expense management process. However, it becomes a demanding task when you have to take care of fragile receipts which can get lost and damaged easily. In addition, even with the receipts attached, relevant details still have to be entered into the expense report form and reviewed.
This task, even though simple, creates an additional burden and takes up time. Fortunately, with advancements in technology, most of the mundane tasks in the process can be automated.
SUGGESTED READ: Automated Credit Card Reconciliation: How AI makes manual reconciliation a thing of the past
How to get employees to turn in receipts?
For companies that are employee-centric, the introduction of an automated solution in their workflow can be a good idea. Software such as a receipt tracker app can reduce your employee woes when it comes to expense reporting. Moreover, with the evolution of mobile applications, the software can be carried in their pockets wherever they go. This encourages employees to report their expenses and cuts out unwanted frustrations.
Receipts are essential, but tracking, organizing, and storing it can prove to be a challenge. Fortunately, automation and cloud technology have changed the way companies deal with receipt management. Combining the power of automation technology and mobile apps, developers have built tools to benefit both employees and employers. These apps are easily available and can be downloaded directly from the app store (for iOS users) or google play store (for Android users).
Most receipt trackers also provide the option to integrate with accounting softwares. With this feature, an expense report can be submitted from the app itself. When a business expense report is submitted from a receipt tracker app, it makes sure a receipt is attached to it. This ensures the finance team has a copy of the receipt in their database as well. This makes managing, organizing, and storing employee receipts easier for the finance team.
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Benefits of using a receipt tracking app
- It has become the fastest way to organize and report expenses quickly.
- The app uses OCR (Receipt scanner) software to scan and extract data automatically and accurately from receipts.
- The receipts are also stored in a unified system, thus eliminating the possibility of misplacing or losing receipts.
- It reduces manual entry to create expense reports.
- The receipt information reported is error-free.
What is the best app to keep track of receipts?
If you're considering automating receipt tracking for your business, make sure your chosen software helps you achieve the following:
Extract receipt data automatically
For an employee who travels or lot or incurs business-related expenses, a receipt tracker app can help them conveniently scan and save receipts. Here, the inbuilt OCR software can do all the heavy lifting for the user. This saves time and effort by scanning paper receipts and extracting relevant data (date, time, amount. etc.) automatically. With this feature, users can directly review and submit expense reports on the go.
Submit an expense report from anywhere
Whether it is a digital receipt or a paper receipt, the app provides the user with the flexibility to submit receipts from anywhere. Nowadays, most of the expenses incurred by a business are mailed directly to the customer’s mailbox.
For example, when an employee has taken an Uber cab to meet a client, the invoice is sent directly to the employee’s inbox.
Pro-tip:
You can eliminate the process of having to print and submit receipts while reporting business expenses with an automated expense management software. For instance, Fyle allows employees to track and submit expenses from everyday work apps like Slack, G-Suite, and Office 365. This makes it incredibly easy for employees to submit business expenses on the go.
SUGGESTED READ: Does your software truly make receipts digital?
Store all your receipts in one system
Long gone are the days of stuffing your wallets with receipts or turning your entire house upside down to find a receipt. Receipt tracking apps allow you to store and view all receipts under one centralized system. This also reduces the chances of misplaced, damaged, or lost receipts. Additionally, finding receipts becomes easy with the searchable feature.
Report single or multiple expenses
Whether it’s a single expense or a series of expenses, an employee can report expenses; however, they want it. If a user wants to collect receipts and then report all expenses at once, he/she can do so with features like bulk upload. Thus, reducing redundant and routine work.
Effortlessly access and manage receipts
With all the expense receipts under unified storage, accessing receipts becomes easy. With a receipt tracking app, the user can seamlessly manage all the receipts. Also, since everything can be done with a click of a button, making sure receipts are attached to an expense report becomes a one-click affair. This way, businesses are always audit-ready.
Effectively enforce expense policies
Most receipt tracking apps give companies the flexibility to incorporate their company expense policies. This ensures that whenever an employee submits an expense report, there is zero policy violation. Any violation can be flagged directly and corrected. Thus, accounting becomes easier when there is little to no violation from the start of the expense management process.
Expense reimbursement policy best practices for your business
Control employee travel and business costs with Fyle’s expense policies
How does a receipt tracker app increase compliance?
Receipt tracking apps have become an essential part of the expense management ecosystem. It makes the entire receipt tracking, organizing, and managing very easy. This can encourage employees to submit expenses on time and accurately. This also reduces the burden on the finance team to chase after employees to submit expense reports.
A receipt tracker app can change your employee’s attitude towards receipt management. This, in turn, can benefit the entire expense management process. Here’s how.
Get expense reports on time
With the help of a receipt tracking app, receipt storage and management becomes a breeze. Eliminating hours of manual work from expense reporting also encourages employees to file their reports on time.
Accurate expense reports filed by employees
When unnecessary work is taken off an employee’s plate, he/she can focus more on correctly filing a report. With a clear mind, there is less chance of errors getting overlooked.
Less room for duplicate claims and fraud
Receipt management apps can integrate with company policies. This means any duplicate, double-entry, or multiple claims can be curbed. The app leaves little room for expense fraud to take place.
Proper records for proofs of expense
The fragile receipts can get damaged even with careful handling and storage. Receipt tracking apps provide the solution by allowing all the expense receipts to be stored online. This protects the receipts and also provides accessibility from anywhere.
Why Fyle?
An ideal receipt tracking software is device-agnostic and makes receipt tracking effortless for both, your employees and your finance teams. Fyle is a modern expense management software that automates all your expense management processes within a centralized dashboard.
If you are interested in achieving higher employee compliance, schedule a demo with Fyle today!