Tips to Streamline Employee Expenses & Reimbursements

We all know that managing employee expenses and processing reimbursements can be time-consuming. There is nothing worse than spending your time chasing colleagues for information relating to a coffee order.  Here, we outline our top tips to streamline the management of business expenses within your organisation

Ensure your expense policy is clear & communicated

An expense policy is the go-to document for employees and employers to understand how business expenses are managed within the organisation. Your expense policy should be clear and accessible so that everyone can read and understand their obligations. 

Once you’ve developed a clear, concise policy, you need to make sure it’s communicated and brought to life. Discuss it throughout the organisation, make it a key part of new staff inductions and ensure that staff receive regular updates on it. Provide clear and tangible examples to ensure that it is easy to understand. Make sure that staff have a point of contact if they want to ask questions or discuss the policy in more detail. 

Outline the approval and reimbursement process

To be effective, the process and procedures outlined in the expense policy must be clear, simple and easy to follow - eliminating unnecessary steps will save your employees time and headaches. Talk with your employees to understand their needs and what parts of the process take longer than expected or are just unnecessary and simplify where possible.

No one wants to dig through pages of documents just to understand how your organisation handles the reimbursement of expenses. Within the expense policy, employees should be able to see at a glance how to submit a claim for approval and what the reimbursement procedures are. Include diagrams of workflows and approval processes with timelines, key contacts and required documents.  

If you're looking for a better way to process out-of-pocket expenses faster, Weel's reimbursement tool allows employees to add their reimbursement requests from their phones. Approvals can be made in seconds and funds paid to your employees bank accounts on the same day.

Automate repetitive tasks 

Expense automation is a growing area for a reason: it ​​transforms the manual reporting process into a more cost-effective system. This means you can focus more of your time on what really matters.

Expense automation software has the capability to automatically submit, approve and record expenses. You create the predetermined requirements and rules for approving and paying employee expenses. With Weel's expense management software like Weel, you’re also provided with real-time insights into your business’ spending which can help to inform budget controls. 

Use the right technology and software integrations

Your employees don’t work in a vacuum and neither should your expense policy. Finding the right technology and software that works for you and your business can streamline expense management. Try to establish a single source of truth - one platform that employees can use to request pre-approvals, upload receipts on the go, file expense claims and request reimbursements.

With many organisations still using offline, paper-based solutions for expense management, moving to a technological solution can seem daunting. Take time to explore what solutions are available that solve the key issues your business and employees face in managing business expenses. Review any potential solution closely and consider the costs of moving over. If possible, ask others in your organisation to trial a new solution so you can see what works in practice.

Focus on what really matters by using expense management software like Weel

With Weel, you can automate repetitive tasks, set card controls, budgeting rules and approval workflows, ultimately freeing up your time to focus on the things that matter. Book a demo and find out how we help your business save time and become more efficient.