With companies digitising all around, it is high time to pick a smart and efficient expense management solution. However, there are several criteria to consider before you choose…
Companies all have at least one thing in common: they have to manage their employees’ expenses. For most of them, this management isn’t optimized. However, a 2015 joint study by HRS and the GBTA (Global Business Travel Association) Foundation has shown that expense management takes up to 20 minutes per employee, and costs 53€ to the employer. Multiply this by the number of expenses claimed each month and you get prodigious costs for the company. Now may be the time to go digital.
Towards the digitization of professional expense management
Just imagine: employees (painstakingly) fill Excel spreadsheets. These are then sent (electronically or physically) to their manager, with all the paper receipts (except those which were lost). It is then the managers’ turn to (painstakingly) check and validate these expenses. But the travel expenses’ journey doesn’t stop there: the spreadsheets and receipts must now be sent to the accounting department for the employees to (finally) be reimbursed!
We all agree this is a tedious, trying, and time-consuming process which can easily lead to human error. However, “time is money,” as they say: the more time your employees spend filing expenses, the less productive they are. Moreover, their errors can cost you a lost and make some expenses invalid according to the tax administration.
Fortunately, there is Jenji: a smart digital expense management solution. With their application, the employees save time, and the company saves money.
First: define your needs
The first step before choosing any software solution is to define the needs it must address.
Many professional expense management solutions are available. To avoid a headache when picking one of them, you have to set down clear requirements. It will allow you to specify criteria the solution will have to meet:
- Efficiency and time management
- Budget constraints
- Real-time optimised expense monitoring
- Easier control and verification
- Integration into your company’s software (your ERP, for instance)
When the requirements document is created, it must be followed by a (re)definition of the internal policy on professional expenses. Who verifies/validates the expenses? What type of expenses can be reimbursed? Do you want to set up ceilings on purchases? How long should expense management take on average? These questions could, or rather should, lead you to the software solution that best fits your context.
Why choose a smart digital solution?
There are several reasons why a company chooses a smart professional expense management solution. It may have to do with human resources. Indeed, the more employees claim expenses, the more time is spent managing them, and the less available employees are for tasks with higher added value.
This type of software solution may also be chosen to save time. Indeed, with a digitised solution like Jenji, time spent on expense management is halved.
Finally, it is also a very good way to avoid using paper documents, as well as human intervention of any kind and the human errors it entails. Everyone’s role is clearly defined and expenses can be monitored in real time. What’s more, digitisation makes for better control of expenses, for instance if spending ceilings are exceeded or if employees claim the same expense several times.
Essential options an expense management solution should offer
Now your needs and your expense management policy are clearly defined, you can (finally) choose your new expense solution. Don’t compromise! Check the features before the price. A professional expense management solution worth its name should offer:
An SaaS application
When you create an account, it has to be as available from your computer as from your mobile. Jenji allows you to manage your expenses from the web at app.jenji.io or from your smartphone by downloading our iOS or Android application. This will allow your employees to claim their expenses wherever and whenever they can, as soon as a paper receipt is available.
A cloud-based application
To backup your data, choose a cloud-based solution. Data entered in Jenji is stored on Amazon AWS servers located in France and Ireland.
Easy expense claim
Choose a solution that allows you to claim expenses in only a few clicks. With Jenji, you can take a picture, batch import several expenses or automatically create an expense by transferring an email containing your invoice.
A Smart solution
If the solution is “smart”, it is because it uses artificial intelligence. OCR (Optic Character Recognition), a considerable amount of time is saved on expense management. Using a simple picture of a paper receipt, our internally developed tool recognises, extracts and fills in the expense claim form in only 4 seconds and is 99,98% accurate.
Your employees car optimise further their expense claims by setting up default parameters (mode of payment, currency, and country).
Easy expense control and verification
Since employees, and especially managers, save time thanks to expense management digitisation, it is important to choose a solution that facilitates expense validation. With Jenji’s validation workflow, everything happens in real-time! You can allocate tasks to controllers (who will control expense validity, notably with regards to company policy), validators (who will validate these expenses for good), and “accountants” who will process accounting exports (to your chosen ERP) and reimbursements.
Moreover, to even better control your expenses, you will also be able to set up ceilings for each expense categories, but also alerts to avoid duplicate expense claims.
A Customisable and easy to integrate solution
To optimise professional expense management, the best way is to use a solution that is adapted to your context and your environment. Flexibility, adaptability and compatibility are essential. As much as possible, Jenji creates a tailor-made solution that integrates into all existing ERPs thanks to our internally developed APIs.
Freedom from paper receipts
One of the biggest inconveniences of expense management is having to deal with paper receipts. They deteriorate, become unreadable, pile up, get lost, etc. It is hard to store them correctly to present them in the event of a tax audit. However, if you don’t have a digital safe with probative value to the eyes of the tax administration and the URSSAF, you are legally required to keep these receipts as proof of expenses.
Fortunately, Jenji thought of everything! With Jenji Vault and in partnership with Docaposte—a subsidiary of the La Poste group, you can store your digital receipts for six years and thus be lawfully paper free!
With all these elements in mind, you should now be able to choose your new expense management solution!
For more details on Jenji, don’t hesitate to contact the Jenji team at sales@jenji.io. We will be glad to assist you in setting up your project !
