Travel and expense management software (aka travel and expense automation) allows busy executives to complete travel and expense reports on any device with minimal effort.
Corporate travel and entertainment (T&E) is the second-largest controllable expense for companies (after payroll and benefits). Because it makes up such a large chunk of a company’s spend, travel expenses shouldn’t be managed using paper records, crumpled receipts stapled to paper expense reports, or even Excel spreadsheets.
In fact, managing expenses manually makes everyone involved in the process miserable. It hurts productivity, employee happiness and your bottom line.
By implementing software that automates expense management, businesses of all types and sizes can streamline operations, cut costs, and reduce tasks that waste time and cause frustration.
Travel and expense automation, on the other had, saves considerable time, improves accuracy, and reduces the time it takes to reimburse employees for their expenses. This makes everyone happier!
Table of Contents
- Same Content in Video Format
- What is Travel and Expense Automation?
- Roadblocks to Travel And Expense Management Software
- How Travel and Expense Automation Makes Everyone Happy
- User Requirements for T&E Automation Software
- What Does Expense Management Software Include?
- Bottom Line – Travel and Expense Management Software Makes Everyone Happier
Same Content in Video Format
We know that some people learn better from videos than from reading. So we created this video that has the same content as this article.
If you prefer to read more about how T&E software makes everyone happy, you can do so below the video.
What is Travel and Expense Automation?
Travel and expense management software digitizes and automates the process of recording, tracking, approving and paying for reimbursable expenses incurred by your employees.
It is configured to follow your company’s expense management policy. So the software also helps assure that your company isn’t overspending on a particular area.
Expense management automation also comes with analytical tools to help managers make smarter spending decisions. It also helps organizations ensure compliance and accountability by accurately tracking and reporting on all expenses.
No fully automated end-to-end procure to pay automation process is complete without T&E automation.
Roadblocks to Travel And Expense Management Software
So why aren’t more companies and organizations using travel and expense automation?
Some organizations don’t believe they’re big enough to automate expense management. Others have legacy processes that are “good enough” and therefore aren’t upgraded. Sometimes it about feeling more comfortable comfortable with spreadsheets and paper expense reports.
Whatever the reason may be, the reality is that non-automated travel and expense processes waste time, are prone to error, and, most importantly, are miserable for everyone involved to use.
Simplifying the expense reporting process for employees and managers is the key reason for the move to travel and expense automation.
And T&E automation is far more affordable than you might think. Especially when it’s bundled with AP automation solutions.
How Travel and Expense Automation Makes Everyone Happy
Manual expense reporting is somewhere between annoying and maddening. From your finance team to your employees to managers/approvers, the manual expense reports process is a major pain for everyone.
Make Accounting Happy
Travel and expense automation software gives your accounting team the two things they covet above all else: control and transparency. With T&E automation, financial teams can see where every penny goes. Which means bills and reimbursements are paid on time with no errors or fraud. And business decisions are based on complete and accurate spend data including a clear view into overall cash flow.
Make Employees Happy
Employees hate to waste time on busywork. They have deals to close, deadlines to meet, and things to do. By providing employees with cloud-based tools that take away the frustration and tedium of expense reports, you can give them what they want. This keeps them happy and productive. And it lets them focus on the jobs they were hired to do (rather than wasting time on expense reports).
Make Managers and Approvers Happy
Managers don’t want to have to spend time going over paper documents to make sure that T&E reports are in line with policy and budget. They have more important things to do. T&E automation ensures that all expenses are in policy, and calls out any expenses that are not. Which then allows the approver to discuss the expense with the employee. And it allows managers to approve travel and expense reports on any device from anywhere in the world. In short, it takes a tedious chore and turns it into a simple task.
Make Executives and the CEO Happy
Great leaders lead happy teams. They want what’s best for their people. And that means replacing manual travel and expense reports with automated one.
But what makes executives, including the CEO, really happy is keeping costs low and profits high. And automated expense management does that too.
User Requirements for T&E Automation Software
The most important user requirement for travel and expense automation software is simplicity.
The system should be so easy to use that it’s just intuitive. But simplicity from a user perspective often means a powerful engine behind the scenes.
And that’s why it’s important to implement travel and automation software as part of an overall procure to pay automation strategy. You’ll only achieve fully automated T&E when your GL coding, approvals, and payments are automated too. And you’ll want to feed your automated T&E reports into an automated AP system. Otherwise you’re just pushing digital information to paper!
So make travel and expense management software part of your overall AP digital transformation.
Our procure to pay automation solutions A/P One and CoreIntegrator Enterprise each feature powerful end to end procure to pay automation. Adding T&E automation to them is a snap! And in the case of our cloud-based A/P One solution, the T&E automation module is included in the low fair, flat, per invoice price.
What Does Expense Management Software Include?
CoreIntegrator’s Travel and Expense software is a pre-packaged solution that includes both workflow approval for expenses as well as a mobile platform for expense capture.
Features and built-in functionality include:
- CoreIntegrator Travel and Expense workflow pre-configured to handle unlimited levels of management approval. Plus any number of executive approvers and a final approval step for Accounts Payable.
- A Mobile App included for unlimited users for both Android and Apple IOS devices for expense capture. Mobile features include:
- Standard and Custom Expense types
- Auto creation of GL accounts per expense item
- Automatic calculation of mileage reimbursement
- Google Maps integration to standardize on mileage reimbursement
- Saved trips for rapid entry
- Integrated camera and file attachment feature for receipt capture
- Offline processing (sync when connected to WIFI or cell service)
- Auto creation of expense reports in CoreIntegrator with line item receipt attachment
- Previous transaction history on mobile (based on available storage) and full expense report archive in CoreIntegrator for easy reference
- No monthly subscription fees or per user licenses for mobile app.
- Users will need access to CoreIntegrator for final review and release of each expense report. CoreIntegrator licenses are based on concurrent users.
- Pre-packaged solution includes:
- Travel and Expense workflow for CoreIntegrator
- Mobile app for unlimited users
- Configuration and Professional Services
- Training guides/video
Watch this video to see the full range of functionality of CoreIntegrator travel and expense management software.
Bottom Line – Travel and Expense Management Software Makes Everyone Happier
Travel and expense automation software just makes everyone happy!
Your accounting department who will no longer have to shuffle paper. Employees won’t have to save and find crumpled paper receipts. Managers won’t have to worry about out-of-policy expenses. And your CEO can rest assured the company is reducing costs and improving profits – all while making his or her employees happy!
Travel and expense software is an investment that just makes sense. For your business. But especially for your people.