{"id":7209,"date":"2023-01-03T13:58:46","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T13:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.b4bpayments.com\/prepaid\/?p=7209"},"modified":"2025-02-25T17:46:57","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T17:46:57","slug":"how-to-streamline-your-corporate-expenditure-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.b4bpayments.com\/prepaid\/how-to-streamline-your-corporate-expenditure-process\/","title":{"rendered":"How to streamline your corporate expenditure process"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Keeping track of corporate expenses can be difficult for companies of all sizes, particularly those operating globally.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Tracking receipts and managing timely repayments for an extended team spread across multiple locations is a complex task. Human error and convoluted reporting systems can create much confusion and cause problems with budget monitoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some cases, the expenses process might have taken a back seat during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, as the world returns to a sense of post-pandemic normality, this means business-related travel, networking events and Christmas parties are back in full swing. As a result, it\u2019s crucial to ensure that your expense management strategy is functional and serves your employees effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weak expense processes can cause dissatisfaction among employees, set your business back, and prevent your organisation from claiming back tax deductions. Read on to discover more about key challenges in corporate expenditure, and how to streamline your expenses process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is corporate expenditure?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expense management determines how employees are reimbursed for business-related spending, including travel, food, supplies, and more. Typically, employees will need to fill out an expense claim form with details of their expenditure, and then the accounts team will process this information in the finance system and provide a reimbursement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good expense process should be quick, fraud-proof, easy to use, trackable, and provide timely repayments. There should also be a clear, enforced expense policy so that employees know what they can expense, how to expense it, and what their daily or monthly limit is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key expense management challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Complexities of numerous stakeholders, multiple locations, and manual processes can make streamlining expense management strategies a challenge. Here are a few of the main difficulties that businesses can often run into.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manual error processes<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world is still swimming in spreadsheets and paper receipts. Over 43% of businesses <\/a>still rely on manual expense processes. Manual processes make the capturing, recording and claiming of expenses awkward and prone to mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The probability of human error when manually entering data into spreadsheets is between 18% and 40%<\/a>.The high error rate means there is likely to be misalignments between the receipts received and the amounts claimed, causing difficulties for the accounts team and inaccuracies when providing reimbursements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slow payment<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many employees cite an arduous reimbursement process as a key problem, with 40%<\/a> of expense claimants experiencing cash flow issues because of slow repayments from their employer. During the current cost-of-living crisis (when many are already struggling with cash flow problems), difficulty in claiming expenses could cause serious discontentment among employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An estimated 38%<\/a> of all employees pay for business expenses out of their own pocket at least once a month, which is likely due to a combination of payment delays and\u00a0 a lack of clarity on the expenses system, or inefficiencies in the process itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insufficient reporting visibility<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An effective business should have complete awareness of what their employees are spending company money on and why. However, just like the ongoing use of manual processes, many businesses still rely on out-of-date tracking and monitoring systems. In fact,\u00a0 26% of enterprise-sized companies<\/a> have no awareness of how many expenses submitted are actually compliant with their corporate expenditure policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of visibility means that companies aren\u2019t able to keep track of employee spend, which could lead to expense fraud and exaggerated claims. It also means that businesses may struggle to understand how much they spend on corporate expenses. By streamlining their tracking and monitoring system, they could optimise their budget and save costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to improve corporate expenses process<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a number of ways businesses can work to improve their corporate expenditure processes. These include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n