Johnny Vowles, CEO & Founder, Expend, discusses the benefits of automating expense management
We all love a ‘golden oldie’. When it comes to the likes of Bowie, Queen, the Beatles and Kylie that is. The same can’t be said for traditional expense management methods.
Expenses are dull — plain and simple. From sieving through hoards of paper receipts to analysing multiple Excel spreadsheets, we can certainly think of 100 things we (and you!) would rather be doing.
Amongst other things, conventional expense management methods are time-consuming and inefficient, prone to human error and don’t give complete visibility of spending.
In the UK, people claim about £843 every year in out-of-pocket expenses, which amounts to £27.3 billion across the whole workforce. That’s according to OnePoll research commissioned by Expend in 2018.
Of this, £109 goes unexpensed each year on average — which amounts to UK employees not claiming over £3.5 billion! It’s not just about money either. Collectively, over 2 million years of business working days are lost each year to UK employees filing company expenses.
Clearly, the old way isn’t the best way. So, what is the best way to consolidate and streamline business expenses?
Automate them, of course!
- Manage all your expenses on one simple platform
Imagine how much simpler your life, and the life of the entire finance team, would be if you could view and control all spending in one place. If you could see purchases as they happen and process expenses in seconds, rather than sorting through mountains of expenses at the end of the month.
A full-spectrum expense management platform that works on any device — for any expense type, payment method, currency and business — is just the ticket. Expend offers the only universal expense management software for businesses, handling everything from reimbursable claims and card purchases to invoices or mileage claims.
So, why continue to pay multiple subscriptions and juggle different apps when you can consolidate your company expenses into a single easy, fast and flexible platform like Expend?
- Integrate expenses with your accounting software
Sometimes, we just like to stick with what we know. And for most of us, that means using either QuickBooks or Xero. But consolidating and streamlining your expenses means making less work for yourself, not more. As such, you’ll want to make sure your expense management process integrates seamlessly with your chosen accounting software, so you’ll barely have to lift a finger.
With Expend, you can map your expense software to QuickBooks and Xero in minutes, allowing you to sync all your transaction and expense data. All changes are then updated automatically — even when adding a lost receipt from months ago!
- Set budgets and control spend with prepaid business cards
With over 51% of employees having to use their personal credit card to pay for company expenses — and only 3.2% of them getting reimbursed on the same day — a prepaid card for business expenses offers the ideal solution. For both you and employees.
A prepaid card gives you more control and employees greater flexibility. You can set budgets, restrict ATM withdrawals or online transactions and even freeze the card remotely — leaving no room for misuse. And for employees who make payments regularly, a prepaid card means never having to wait around to get reimbursed again.
What’s more, Expend’s prepaid Mastercard® will automatically capture accurate expenses as and when they happen to help save everyone a lot of time and effort. Plus, you can even keep track of and monitor cash that’s owed to the business.
- Make uploading receipts easy
Two of the most common reasons for expenses not being reimbursed are losing the receipt or missing the deadline. Automating the expense process solves both these problems easily.
Through a combination of Expend’s expense manager app and prepaid Mastercard®, accurate transaction information is captured directly at the source — meaning there’s no need for employees to scan receipts or wait for them to process. You can then create accurate expense reports instantly.
Expend works with existing corporate and personal cards too. Through the app or dashboard, employees can easily attach receipts to create and submit their expense claim in seconds! Automatic receipt-chasing emails will even remind them, so there’s no chance of missing the deadline.
- Upgrade your mileage tracking
There’s no doubt about it: mileage claims are an absolute pain. From creating the journey map and calculating the distance to working out the appropriate fuel rate and real value, mileage logs can often be pretty questionable.
Expend is the engine you need to automate mileage claims — taking all the work out of the process. All employees have to do is search the database for their vehicle, select the customised policy rate, enter their journey details and Expend does the rest!
Return journeys can be added with one tap while trips can be split into multiple legs and billed to different clients. All changes are instantly synced across Expend and seamlessly integrated with your accounting software package, such as Xero or Quickbooks.
Expend is on a mission to solve the expenses problem for businesses and employees. Start your 30-day free trial today to see how we can automate and streamline your process. Alternatively, chat with us online or call us on 0203 828 7711!