5 signs by which you can recognise an outdated expense claim process

An efficient, digital expense claim process has many advantages. It gives you insight and control, and your employees get their money back faster. It's also less prone to errors and easier to comply with regulations. And if you choose expense claim software linked to business credit cards, you can save as much as 75% on expense claim processing time.

Yet many companies still don't claim expenses digitally but work on the basis of paper receipts. A time-consuming and error-prone process, especially for large-scale expense claims. And that causes frustration, according to market research conducted by MarketResponse on behalf of ICS at the end of 2023.

Do you think your expense claim process is outdated? In this article, we list 5 signs by which you can recognise it.

1. Expense claims are processed manually

Perhaps you recognise this situation. Your employees return from a business trip with piles of receipts. These all have to be manually entered into the system.

Also, receipts often have to be matched with expense claims. This takes time and creates a high workload for your finance team. In short, if receipts are processed manually, it is time to change this process.

2. Insufficient insight into expenses

A clear second sign is insufficient insight into expenses. According to market research firm Aberdeen Group, 10% of companies' total spending consists of business expenses. Yet companies have little insight into these expenses.

A real-time overview is usually missing, so the risk of going over budget is high. Insufficient insight can also lead to inaccurate reporting. With an online expense reporting system, you avoid these risks. You can see exactly how many expenses and claims there are.

3. Expense claims are submitted late

Are expense claims at your organisation often submitted late? Chances are this happens because the expense claim process is not easy to use and takes up a lot of your employees' time.

The consequence of an outdated expense claim process is that the finance team is flooded with expense claims at the end of the month. With a modern system, you speed up this process and it makes real-time processing of claims possible.

4. Employees do not adhere to the expense claim policy

It is important that your employees know what kind of expenses they are allowed to claim. Yet in practice, employees are often unaware of the rules.

A modern expenses solution automates these rules. If an expense doesn't comply with the rules, it's automatically rejected. This prevents unnecessary costs.

5. Missing receipts for expense claims

Without receipts, you are nowhere when processing expense claims. Missing receipts make any organisation vulnerable to fraud. Digital expense claim systems can help prevent this.

With a modern expense claim system, credit card expenses are linked directly to receipts. As a result, the finance team no longer has to sign off credit card statements, and receipts no longer get lost.

Do you recognise one or more of the above signs of an outdated expense claim process? Then it's time to switch to a modern expense claim process.

Simply switch to a modern expense claim process

Many companies think that switching to a different expense claim process is difficult.

But it doesn't have to be. With the right approach, you can make sure it goes smoothly.

For example, there are a number of important points to consider:

• First of all, it's important to invest in the right expense claim software that automates your expense claim process.
• Make use of business credit cards and link them to your expense claim software. This gives you insight into your expenses, employees no longer have to advance expenses, and virtually all purchases are insured.
• Also make sure you give employees clear training on how to use the new system. In doing so, an automatic validation process helps reduce manual entry errors.

Want to know more about modern business expense processing? Then read more about the benefits of linking business credit cards and expense claim software.