When dealing with expenses either on specific jobs, conferences and conventions or sales expenses, you need a smart way to track expenses for payment, reimbursement, and reconciliation. There are so many tools to help with this, but how do you choose the right one?
The Smart Way to Track Expenses Is To Have a Corporate Solution
Many companies leave the collection of expenses up to the individual. So, there are a plethora of solutions from folded receipts in a wallet or simple envelope system to downloading apps on cellphones. When nothing is standardized in a company, it becomes a nightmare for the accounting department. Part of the staff downloads an app, others use excel, still, others just turn in receipts. This is not acceptable. The smart way to track expenses is to standardize your solution. Whatever you use to make it the policy across the board. This will reduce the headaches for your accounting department.
What to Look for In a Smart Expense Tracking Solution
A smart way to track expenses would be to look for solutions with these 7 things in mind.
- It must be simple – A solution that is easy to use by your employees is a must. The more intuitive the solution is the better it will be for your employees.
- It must be accurate – A solution that automatically calculates the amounts and does it accurately is very important. If the solution relies on your employees to calculate the totals is not any better than turning in a handwritten expense report.
- It should be mobile – the convenience of our cell phones has proven as an effective tool. An app that allows the recording of expenses and allows for capturing the receipt is important so your records are easily saved and recorded.
- It should be able to track expenses by Jobs – a good expense tracking will allow you to earmark expenses specifically to Jobs, Phases or Tasks. This makes for more accurate reporting from your system.
- It must provide an approval method – Good expense tracking solutions have an internal approval process so management can have some controls over what is happening in their business. A good approval method provides proper checks and balances to avoid issues with people abusing the system.
- It should provide an export – the best solutions allow you to export the expense report along with receipts. This makes the process much simpler for the back office. Review, approve, export and then import into your accounting system. This eliminates the errors that occur when you have to re-key anything.
- It is economical – When looking for a corporate solution for your expense tracking you need to still be economically conscience. Don’t forget to calculate the time it takes for your people to learn how to use the system.
The Smart Way to Track Expenses Is To Have an Incorporate Apps When Possible
Incorporate applications when possible. One danger with adding yet another app is overloading your employees. When there is an opportunity to utilize an additional feature or find an application that is multifunctional all the better. For example, if your time and attendance solution also have expense tracking than take advantage of that. This makes the solution more familiar for your employees.
On-Time Web Fits the Bill For a Smart Way to Track Expenses
A smart way to track expenses. On-Time Web offers an expense tracking feature that can be subscribed to as a part of the time and attendance system. Designed to be used by as many or as few employees as you need, the expense tracking only costs $2.00 per employee a month. So for example, you have 100 people using On-Time Web but only need 5 people who will track their expenses. So you only purchase 5 expense tracking add ons for and additional $10.00 per month. This makes it extremely affordable.
If your expense tracking is a hodgepodge of various solutions or you are doing it all the long way. It is time for you to make a change. Take a look at On-Time Web with a free 14-day trial. Call and have us add some expense tracking licenses so you can test it out as well. Call us at (502) 223-1136 or you can email us at info@on-timeweb.com . Review the features of our expense tracking here on the features page.
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