Learn the best ways to manage your expenses | Expense Management (3)

Many companies struggle with the issues of timely expense submission. Employees are often slow to file expenses, causing frustration on the side of finance managers. Based on various studies, a single expense claim can take up to 20 minutes to file, including filing approval and review. On top of that, 19% of claims are filed incorrectly and it can take, on average, another 18 minutes to fix those errors, causing significant delays in the reimbursement process. A Conferma report showed that 2 in 5 employees have experienced their own cash flow issues due to slow reimbursement processes.

Historically HR and finance have not been the best of friends mainly due to a perception that one cares about people and the other about money. Still today in many organizations, human resources and finance are two distinct business areas and sometimes with nothing related to each other.

Not all businesses provide a company car for employee business travel. When employees use their own vehicle for a work-related journey, a mileage expense claim form must be issued, completed, and processed. 

Mileage expenses make up a large part of the travel expense report. Some employers require you to drive your vehicle for business travel to manage its professional mission and offer you mileage allowances in exchange for using your vehicle. Other companies often provide such benefits in the form of a per-mile reimbursement plan or a fixed amount per vehicle.

The expense report is used to prove any work-related expense incurred by employees. Also called business expenses or expenses claim, the expense report is used for the reimbursement of the employee. It also enables the company to prove the expense, when requested by tax authorities, for example.

What is Electronic Archiving? Digital archiving refers to the storage of documents on a computer-readable digital data carrier. This can involve paper-based documents, but documents that already exist in digital form can also be archived, for example, e-mails. This is also referred to as electronic archiving.

Auditing Expense Reports checklist A comprehensive expense report audit checklist is vital for efficiently reviewing your employees’ business expenditure and preventing expense report fraud.

The role of a financial controller (FC) can be difficult to define. This integral and senior accounting position combines pure accounting, finance strategy and leadership. The FC generally reports to a finance director or CFO and is responsible for the accounting operations of an organization, making sure they run smoothly. A key player in the organization, they keep an eye on the company’s finances ensuring that there are no surprises at the end of the quarter.

What is Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software? OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software automates the traditionally laborious process of extracting data from printed or written text. 

Accounting application: how to choose the right one? As your business grows and your financial data evolves, the need for an effective accounting application is brought into sharp focus. 

Expense fraud remains a pressing problem for companies globally, especially with the economic downturn brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. With an estimated 13.2% contraction of the economy in the latter half of 2020, the onset of the pandemic has brought about Singapore’s worst economic recession to date.¹ Expense fraud further contributes to significant economic losses for companies that fail to detect it, making it more crucial now than ever to tackle this challenge.

What is a discretionary expense? Expenses, whether for potential audits or to save money. The term discretionary expense indicates a cost that is not essential to the functioning of a business or organization. In a corporate or organizational environment, this kind of expense is associated with improving standing with customers, clients, and/or employees, and is often considered important for long-term profitability. However, it remains a type of spending that is not strictly necessary, meaning that the business could still function even if all discretionary spending stops. A business or organization has the “discretion” or choice when it comes to this kind of expense, for example, meals at restaurants or entertainment costs. It is important to have an efficient system for filing and tracking these and other kinds of expenses.