Employees who work in the field often incur expenses related to food, fuel, stationery, etc. Since these expenses are incurred during company time and are work-related, they have to be reimbursed.
But the problem is how to track these expenses and verify their authenticity. After all, field executives never show up in the office, and managers have to track them remotely. This is a challenge that can be solved with automated expense management software.
It can track field expenses, calculate fuel reports, and let managers monitor field executives in real time.
Why You Need Automated Expense Management Software: 5 Benefits
Many businesses use obsolete accounting software to manage employee expenses. Some use spreadsheets to log entries manually, while others rely on pen and paper even in the 21st century.
These methods of expense management are prone to errors and aren’t feasible for a business with a sizable field workforce.
You need something that simplifies your job, eliminates the scope of expense fraud, and optimises spending. And that’s why you need employee expense management software.
It can seamlessly handle all your field expenses and payroll calculations while offering a slew of other benefits, like:
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Reduced errors
What if your field executives inflate the fuel expenses? How will you authenticate them, especially without automated expense management software? Just verbal discussion isn’t enough, and it’s not accurate either.
Well, what if you could check the time and location at which the employee claimed the expense was incurred? You can do it with expense management software.
You can also view the total distance an employee travelled and the routes he took. This lets you compare his expense claims with the distance data and check whether he inflated the fuel expenses or reported different routes.
Thanks to the high location tracking accuracy, the software doesn’t make any mistakes and eliminates any scope of misreporting of expenses by field executives.
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No more time wastage
Expense management software simplifies expense reporting, reducing time spent between steps like uploading receipts, approvals, and reimbursements. This allows field executives to prioritise their core tasks instead of unproductive work.
They can also do more work, visit more clients, and increase sales. This is beneficial for both the company and the employees.
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Better compliance and auditing
Expense management software archives all data, which can come in handy during auditing. All the receipts and bills are safely stored on servers along with employees’ reimbursement transactions.
This data can be retrieved for financial reporting or to identify any discrepancies. You can also see the spending patterns and see if any unnecessary expenses are draining the budget. Thus, the software promotes smart spending and better budget optimisation.
What to Look For in Employee Expense Management Software – 5 Key Features
Not every software out there is meant to fulfil the needs of every business. Every software has its strengths and weaknesses.
You have to decide which software best meets your business requirements and is able to sustain your workforce.
But there are some key features that every employee management software must have. Here are a few of them.
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Real-time Employee Monitoring
This is the main feature of any good automated expense management software, without which it’s basically useless. The software lets you view the live location of employees at any given time. You can check when they are active, on a break or travelling.
This lets you better verify the expense reports as you have your employees’ location and activity data. You can verify the duration of their breaks, distance travelled, stoppage reports and client visitations.
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Integration Capabilities
You don’t want to use a dozen applications when most of your field operations can be managed with a single solution.
Why use separate attendance tracking software when you can manage it alongside expenses, right?
In fact, most expense management solutions already come with payroll, attendance, GPS tracking, and order management modules.
And if not, make sure they are capable of being integrated with other software. This will let you handle all field operations on a single platform instead of switching between different apps.
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Data Analytics and Reports
Transparency is key when it comes to the expense reporting process. Both employees and managers should be able to track the reimbursement documents on time. With archiving and reporting, you can retrieve expense-related data anytime you want and analyse it to find anomalies or irregular patterns.
You can easily spot any overspending patterns and check if small expenses are compounding into unnecessary revenue loss. You should also be able to check employee performance reports, distance travelled reports, routes taken, and actual work hours completed on the job.
Conclusion
Automated expense management software is essential for any business with a field workforce. It’s no easy task to handle remote employees, but it can be worsened with the wrong software.
You need a solution that caters to all your business requirements. It should simplify your job of managing field workers, not aggravate it. To do that, you need a field service management solution like TrackoField.
It comes with essential features like attendance tracking, real-time visibility, custom reports, payroll management, and efficient expense reporting.
