Taking Advantage of the Benefits of Travel and Expense Management Automation

As technology advances, so does the global business landscape, and companies are increasingly turning to automated software to handle processes faster, more accurately, and with fewer errors. Among the many business functions ripe for automation, travel and expense management stands out as a particularly smart choice. With its high transaction volume, complex workflows, and direct impact on employee productivity and operational costs, automating travel and expense management not only saves time but also improves compliance. 

For businesses, especially those with large numbers of mobile employees traveling as part of their work, effective expense management is critical. Yet, relying on outdated analog methods—like handwritten mileage logs, paper-based expense reports, and multi-step manual approvals—only invites inefficiencies and errors. These outdated practices lead to slower reimbursements, inaccurate claims, and challenges in tracking and documenting expenses, especially during audits.

Instead of continuing to slog through the stone age, it may be time for your organization to take advantage of the benefits offered by incorporating technology into expense management procedures. Don’t be too hasty, though! Moving to an automated solution for managing travel and other business expenses doesn’t just happen overnight. In order to reap the benefits fully, your company should take time to properly research and prepare for the transition to automated expense management software.

Understand the Process You’re Auditing

Before you can truly begin the hunt for the perfect software solution for your organization, you first need to understand your current expense management process. Carefully evaluate the process your organization currently uses to facilitate business and travel expenses for its strengths and, crucially, for weaknesses and areas that need improvement. What problems does your organization see most often with its current system? Are errors going unnoticed or underreported? Does your current workflow often encounter bottlenecks or delays? Are employees not submitting or approving expense reports in a timely manner? 

After taking a careful inventory of your existing method for expense management, carefully consider how the introduction of software to automate procedures will impact the process, as well as the ways in which your employees will engage with expense procedures going forward. Anticipating this impact will help streamline that transition, and give workers an idea of what to expect from this status quo change.

Determine Return On Investment And Optimize Savings

Top-notch preparation for your organization’s switch to expense management software will also help optimize ROI on that software and maximize savings going forward. After carefully evaluating how travel and expenses are managed within your company, take a closer look at costs and time associated with your current procedures and processes. Then determine the ROI of the software solution you’ve chosen. 

Automating your travel and expense management doesn’t come cheap, but ultimately, it could be a money-saving move for your company. Unlike manual methods for travel and expense management, expense software allows for almost real-time reporting on employee spending data. This gives management and supervisors better and more accurate information on workers’ spending and reporting habits, helping them spot trends, and isolate possibly troubling behavior. Some expense software goes one step further by automatically flagging problematic and costly actions, such as submitting duplicate reports or trying to claim reimbursement on ineligible mileage, that might have gone unnoticed otherwise. 

Establish Consistency

Consistency is the key to efficiency, and expense management is not exempt from this rule! Before you can begin implementation of a new system, you need to establish a level of consistency for the procedures and processes employees handle on a daily basis around work and travel expenses. These tasks can include expense report submission, supervisory review and approval, and transfer to Accounts Payable for reimbursement. 

Technology relies on a rules-based system of controls. For expense management software to have the best possible impact on your company, it needs to have a solid foundation within the organizational structure of your company. While many expense software solutions will integrate with a company’s existing workflow, if your existing workflow is a mess, there’s only so much that automating it can do! Clearly map out your expense management functions before you implement automation, to better allow that automation to work appropriately and successfully streamline the process. 

Ensure Security

Depending on the industry you work in and the types of data your company handles, any software solution must be able to meet the standards of the laws and regulations you are beholden to regarding security and privacy of information. Not just any system will do in these instances where you must abide by strict protocols. Businesses who work in the medical field, for example, must comply with HIPAA regulations for safeguarding patient health information, or PHI; by extension, any app or software used while handling PHI over the course of their workday must also comply with these laws. 

Transitioning to a cloud-based, automated system can significantly streamline your travel and expense management by centralizing data and integrating it seamlessly with your payroll and accounting systems. While this shift offers substantial benefits both in the short and long term, it also introduces potential risks. Data and cybersecurity should be a top priority for any company, even those not bound by strict regulations like HIPAA. Sensitive information, once stored in a web-based system, becomes vulnerable to potential hacking or malware attacks, making robust security measures essential to protect your organization and its data.

As you consider how to transition to an automated method of expense management, make sure you stay aware of security requirements. The ultimate goal, no matter what solution you choose, is to keep moving towards a more secure environment for your company’s information.

Do it Right the First Time

Eschewing manual processes for automated systems helps save companies time, money, and increases efficiency—that is, if the transition is managed effectively. Onboarding your expense reporting and reimbursement processes onto an automated system is a complex process that can’t (and shouldn’t) happen all at once. Instead, roll out changes to expense management procedures by organizing them into stages. 

First, your organization should import all relevant company data. This could include employee files, client addresses, mileage logs, and other supporting information. Then take the time to validate all of this data for accuracy; you wouldn’t want to get too far into the process only to discover a problem and need to backtrack! Although expense software reduces human error by utilizing digital automation over human interactions as much as possible, if the software is going off of error-ridden information, you’ve already shot yourself in the foot. 

However, the most important step is yet to come! Once your system is all set up and ready to go, you must make sure your employees are given the resources to use this system to its full potential. Give your employees plenty of foreknowledge of how procedures and processes will change once new systems are implemented. Then, make sure to give everyone who will use or interact with the new software training on how to use it, as well as resources if they have concerns or clarifying questions. Don’t neglect this step! No matter how high-tech your new expense management software may be, if employees find it easier to stick with the old way of doing things, you’ve made this investment for nothing.

Finally, integrating your accounting and payroll systems with your expense management software is a critical step in the process. After all, completing reimbursement payments is essential (and your employees will certainly agree!). Failing to fully integrate payroll with your expense system could lead to delays in reimbursements, frustrating your workforce. However, by fully aligning your expense management software with your company’s existing accounting network, you can streamline the reimbursement process, ensuring that your employees are promptly and efficiently reimbursed for their efforts.

Introduce Automation with CompanyMileage

Automating your travel and expense management processes is a pivotal step for your company—one that can drastically reduce operational costs and save employees valuable time. But, like any big change, it needs to be managed responsibly. That’s where CompanyMileage comes in. As your experienced partner, we’ll guide you through every step of the transition, ensuring it’s smooth and stress-free so you can start reaping the benefits of efficiency, speed, and savings right away.

We’ll work with you to design procedures and back-end processes tailored to your business needs and handle the import of your existing data, minimizing the workload on your team. When your system is ready, we’ll provide comprehensive training for administrators and supervisors, empowering them to support your employees with confidence.

Our mileage reimbursement software, SureMileage, revolutionizes the entire expense management process—from trip logging to reimbursement—bringing unparalleled accuracy and automation to your organization and reducing the time spent managing expenses to just a few minutes a day for your mobile employees. Our software uses a unique method called point-to-point calculation, in which employees enter the starting and ending points for each work-related trip on their smartphones. From there, it calculates the best route between those points for reimbursement. 

At the end of each workday, employees just have to take a few minutes to finish organizing trips before they can submit reports right from their phones. Our QuickCapture feature makes this even easier, allowing workers to enter trip data with the simple tap of a screen when they arrive at their destination. 

Embracing automation for your expense management and mileage reimbursement processes can be one of the best things you could do for your business. That’s why we make that transition easy! Join hundreds of other organizations that are reducing their travel and expense management costs by up to 30% with the help of CompanyMileage. To learn more, contact us for a demo today!