Business Problem

Business expenses represent a company's second largest controllable cost yet many organisations find managing the expense budget a headache, both operationally and financially.

Employees need access to company funds in a convenient, cost efficient and auditable way. To address this need organisations often deploy a range of solutions, from cash advances, to purchasing cards, per diem allowances, corporate credit cards and the use of employee's personal credit cards.

Companies know improvements in employee expense management will drive profit growth and are demanding tighter control and better, up-to-date intelligence that proactively warns of irregularities and budget challenges.

• Corporate charge and credit cards are usually used a by a minority of expense claimants leaving a large number of employees not eligible and therefore requiring cash advances or having to use their own payment methods.
• Even with a rigid expense policy an expense reclaim process only allows the total amount of expenditure to be known after it has been spent. Therefore expense budget management is always reactive rather than proactive.
• The data collected via an expense reclaim process tends to be inaccurate, inconsistent and may lack the required details.
• Cash advances are inconvenient to administer and costly for the company in terms of banking fees, security costs and operational overheads, and impractical for use in many situations
• Foreign currency expenses for international travel tend to use expensive and inefficient methods.
• The manual entry of expense claim data is a burden on staff that often leads to late and inaccurate submissions.