Five Main Reasons Why You Should Use Expense Report Software

Even in this day and age, there are many organizations that manage their business processes, even key processes, the traditional way without taking advantage of technology and the convenience it offers. We still see paper-based reports, long approval cycles, and fragmented data silos everywhere. One business process that will gain a lot from the adoption of technology is travel and expense management. Online expense report software, which automates and streamlines the process, can speed up the process by an exponential factor and help you enjoy a hassle-free business process. Here are 5 reasons why you should deploy online expense report software for your business:

Convenient authorization process: With this software, managers can authorize their employees' travel requests either before or after the trip, depending on the situation. If a sales rep went on a 2-day trip but had to extend it to a 5-day trip, he can get authorization for the 2-day trip before the travel and come back and update the request with the 5-day details. Pre-travel requests can be converted into expense reports with a few simple clicks, eliminating the need for multiple data entries.

Flexible approvals: In some organizations, there might be more than one approver and the approval process follows a pre-defined flow. In some others, there are thresholds set after which the request has to go through multiple approvals. This software can be configured to suit either flow. Email notifications will be immediately sent out to all the approvers as soon as the request is created. The approvers can check the requests for any discrepancies and reject any line items that contain them. A notification is sent to the user who then has to correct the line item and re-submit it for approval.

Integration: This software can be fully integrated with any existing legacy applications and/or third-party applications, be they on-premise or on-demand. Integration with the company's finance application allows managers to quickly export expense reports and make quick reimbursements.

Easy deployment: As this is a SaaS-based application, there is little to no work that has to be done by the organization during deployment. Nor do they have to worry about maintenance, support, or updates, which will all be done by the vendor from his side. This is in contrast with on-premise applications, which needed the IT manager to babysit them.

Reports -- Data to information: Travel and expense management is one of those processes which traditionally do not always stay within the budget and as actual budgets go wrong, it is hard to make forecasts for the future as well. Organizations always had a lot of data to play around with, but no means to structure the data to draw meaningful conclusions from it. With this software, administrators can pull reports on a variety of activities and analyze them to understand the situation and make informed decisions. They can understand which departments are within the allotted budgets and which divisions are overshooting them.

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How to Fit Your Travel and Expense in your Business Budget

Business travel is a necessary expense for most people. When you think of travel and expense for business, you probably think of flying off to another state, being put up in a hotel and attending a conference or two. But business travel can also include just heading to the next town over to meet with a client. All of these things cost money and you need to know how to deal with travel expense reports, expense tracking, and budgeting for these needs.

First you need to put aside a reasonable estimate each year from your business' budget. If it's local travel that you are really worried about, it'll be easier to do this. You'll want to include gas prices, car rental (unless your company has its own car) and parking costs. You'll also want to have an idea of how many times a year these trips are made. Do you drive weekly to meet with a certain client, or is it a more varied month by month basis?

When it comes to long distance travel, business expenses can be anything from a couple hundred to thousands of dollars. It depends on where flights are to, the kind of hotels your employee is staying in, any additional transportation costs from the hotel to wherever they need to be, and other small costs like a seat for a convention.

Expense management software is an easy way to keep track of these trips. You can put in all the information of the trip and have it calculate the costs for you, as well as keep track of any extra spending that the employee may have done. Your entire year's expenses can be recorded so that when it comes to filing taxes or just dealing with overall budget, you have every single trip on file ready to be accessed.

If you are unsure of whether you can afford a trip ahead of time, plug it into expense management software long before you book. You'll get an idea of the costs and whether or not it's a feasible investment. The most important thing is that you never book without knowing you have the funds to back it up. Don't pull from other business finances if you don't have to. You have to weigh what is more important to your company.

When it comes to business travel and expense, it can be daunting. But if you keep on top of figures and set aside a good amount of money, you won't be in the red at the end of the year.

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Streamline Insights Into T and E Spend

Whether you’re a traveling employee, a manager, an accountant, or an executive—there’s a good chance expense reporting has an affect on your position. With manual expense management, insights must be gathered through spreadsheet data entry and manual analysis. Not only is manual expense management a cumbersome process for managers and accountants, it can be prone to human error.

The solution? Simplify and streamline the reporting process with an automated, cloud-based system! Certify’s full reporting suite provides an incredible range of insights, catered to different roles. For example, admins can view spending trends by category, business unit, project team, or by employee across any time period. The interface is intuitive, easy to use, and designed to benefit all users.

Here are just a few of the benefits per role, when using Certify:

Benefits for Employees Meals, mileage, airfare… you name it. Business travelers need to keep close tabs on how much they're spending, what they’re spending, and whether it’s within company policy. Some companies even factor expense violations into performance reviews, making this information truly "need to know" for any employee.

Benefits for Managers Approval managers need to run reports to see if their teams are listening to their penny-pinching advice. Managers will often compare expenses between sales representatives, to see how T&E spending stacks up against close rates. Managers can opt to receive pre-trip notifications when an employee books travel. This gives the manager the option to cancel the trip within the first 24 hours for a full refund of all travel fares, including airfare.

Benefits for Executives Generally speaking, executives are interested in big-picture numbers in a broad range of reports. If necessary, they need the option to dissect a report and maintain oversight while combing the numbers.

Benefits for Accountants All reports are available to accountants to provide full integration with existing accounting software. For example, the Certify AP Report displays company-wide monthly reimbursable expenses, categorized by department, business unit or other parameters. It’s designed for direct output to many different accounting software programs for a completely streamlined process. Accountants may also wish to review travel expense metrics, to keep tabs on company spending. Certify’s reporting tools show detailed views of travel expense by category, vendor and employee, across any time period.

Automating your expense management reporting process saves time for all departments, which in turn saves your organization money. Many processes in your company are automated, cloud-based, and operating at peak efficiency. The expense report, data entry, manual analysis—the most dreaded processes of all should be optimized for efficiency as well.

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The Big Advantage in Using Online Expense Management

Business which is not managed in a proper manner will find it very difficult to survive. There is so much competition in almost every business now days that it is very important for every business to manage its activities in the best possible manner. The threats and opportunities which come from the external environment of a business can be dealt with in a perfect manner only if the internal environment of the business is managed in the best manner. It is very important for all business firms to manage their finances in such a manner that they make highest profit.

Every business wants to cut its costs because more costs will bring down the profits. However, there are many expenses which cannot be avoided by organizations. Certain expenses have to be made by all organizations otherwise they will not be able to grow their business. You might have seen many people who keep on traveling to various countries or cities on the expense of their companies. Companies send their employees to other places so that they can find new markets and make new customers for their products.

When we go on a trip then we make various kinds of expenses like eating out, traveling, staying in hotels etc. All these expenses are paid by companies when they send their employees to places for their business. Now, it is very important to maintain a record of all the expenses which have been incurred by various employees on their business trips. The expense software helps companies in maintaining a clear record of the expenses which are made by employees while they travel for their organization's business. The expense software is considered as a very important tool for recording employee expenses.

You might be thinking that purchasing the expense report software will only add to the expenditure of an organization. You are right to some extent but you should know that this software does not come at a very high price. Also, the benefits which are offered by the expense software are many. Companies which are using this software have found that they have become able to discipline their employees for making reasonable expenses on their trips after using such software. There are numerous organizations all over the world which are using this software.

There was a time when employees used to give reports about their expenses to their companies after coming from their business trips. However, with the online expenses management system, employees are able to update the information about their expenses in detail online and this can be seen by concerned department employees from any corner of the world.

The online expenses management has made the lives of companies easier. This system lets companies know how much their employees are spending when they are on their business trips. Useful comparisons of records maintained can be made to know whether the expenditure on business trips is increasing with time or it is constant.

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Expense Report Software the Essential thing in Saving Time

Businesses are meant for making profit and contribute something towards the betterment of the society. If it were not the businessmen then it would have never been possible for the world to reach where it has reached today. Every business needs to be managed in such a manner that it makes a lot of profit and incurs minimum cost while making its stakeholders happy. If you are an employee of a company then you know how you can claim various kinds of expenses from your company.

The business of business is to do business and nothing else. This means that business should concentrate on its core activities and it should try to reduce the time which it spends on other activities. For this purpose, outsourcing of work has come in to the scene. So many software and programs are used by businesses to save their time and money. You might have heard about expense report software if you are associated with a company in any manner. Expense report software is used for tracking the claims which are made by the employees of organizations.

This software is used by a large number of companies at present. There are a large number of advantages of using this software. First, the time required for saving the data related to the claims made by various employees is saved. The software does this task automatically. Second, when less people are required to manage the expenses which are to be done on the employees then the money of the company is also saved. Third, when the work of keeping the record of employee expenses is done by the software then there is no chance of any kind of mistake. When there is no mistake in the record of expenses done on employees then the company saves itself from confusion.

By using software for keeping a record of employee expenses, a company would also be able to do online expenses management. This means that the employees of the organization would be able to access the expense management software from anywhere with the help of internet. They can put their claims online in the database of the organization with the help of such software. There are a large number of benefits of online expenses management. Due to this, the employees of the organization would feel satisfied because they will be able to get their claims as soon as possible.

It is also easy to track travel expenses with the help of expense software for tracking employee expenses. Companies need to ensure that their employees are happy and satisfied because employee satisfaction is indispensable for the success of any organization. At present, almost all the companies are making all kinds of efforts to make their employees happy. With the help of the software for keeping a track of expenses claimed by employees, companies would also be able to track travel expenses. Many companies which have used this software are happy with its results

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Easy Ways to Avoid Road Warrior Weariness

Road warriors are no strangers to burning out: your physical health, your stress levels, and your downtime are all affected by frequent business travel. We’ve come up with a few relevant tips to make the most of your time on the road, becoming a healthy, organized, tech-savvy traveler.

Take care of your physical health. It’s common knowledge that prolonged stress takes a toll on your physical health. Frequent time zone changes and inconsistent sleeping patterns alone are stressors, but then there’s the unhealthy food, excessive alcohol, exposure to airborne illnesses in airports—the list goes on.

If you make an effort to eat healthy food and take care of your physical health, you’ll be much better equipped to handle the less obvious stressors that come with frequent travel.

Get organized. Last-minute packing, racing to the airport, scrambling to find your boarding pass… Sound familiar? Disorganization can be a major source of stress, especially traveling in an unfamiliar environment. When you’re trying to focus on your work, being disorganized can distract you from tasks you need to complete. Many road warriors have a routine when they travel, which can certainly keep you on track.

If you have extra time on your trip, try to do something that you’d normally do at home. Watch a movie, go for a run, or crack open a book and a beer.

Let technology do the work for you. In the age of smartphones, digital currency, and “the cloud,” many manual processes are becoming antiquated and comparatively time-consuming. We sync our correspondence, our appointments, and our travel itineraries, so why not automate everything else?

When it comes to Travel and Entertainment expenses, there’s an app for that. Instead of fumbling to keep track of receipts at the airport or late-night number crunching in your hotel room, let technology do the work for you. Snap photos of your receipts, pre-schedule your expense report auto-generation date, and manage your expenses in real time all from your smartphone. Yes as easy as that in how to manage all your expenses.

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Knowing more About Different Types of Reimbursable Expenses

Some people think of reimbursable expenses as those an employee incurs when purchasing either goods or services for the employer they work for. Others define reimbursable expenses as those the company incurs when performing work for a client such as postage, delivery fees, etc. And others bill out material and labor costs on a cost plus basis and call these charges reimbursable expenses.

When an employee travels for the company they expect to be reimbursed for the expenses of their travel, hotel and meals. A company should have in place a clearly defined policy of what will be covered and even more importantly what will not be covered in every employee travel expenses. Some companies institute a per dime policy that sets a maximum cost to be reimbursed for food and other miscellaneous items. The employee will pay out of their own pocket for all expenses exceeding this per day rate. The per dime rate usually excludes travel charges such as plane or train fare, and hotel rooms but might expect the daily rate to cover such items such as taxi fare, tolls, etc. Room service and alcohol beverages are not usually covered unless a client is being treated to dinner as part of customer relations and the expense is acceptable and usual in your company. But in all cases, companies will require receipts for all expenses incurred with appropriate notes as to why and for whom the expense was incurred and expect those expenses to be reasonable to the purpose of the trip. If your company does not collect the necessary information and receipts these expenses will not be allowed to be taken on your tax return.

Employees who travel locally using their own vehicle may be reimbursed for mileage which usually covers not only gasoline, but also cost of insurance, and wear and tear. Tolls and parking are listed as expenses to be reimbursed over and beyond mileage expenses. Mileage rates are usually set using the current Internal Revenue Service rates which are reviewed and adjusted each year. Receipts are required for tolls and parking expenses and mileage logs stating the beginning mileage, the ending mileage and the client's name and location and the purpose of the trip are required in order for the company to expense these items on their tax returns. The employee should submit copies of their logs to the company before being reimbursed for the expenses.

In some cases, a company might provide a monthly or yearly car allowance for their sales personnel or other employees that need a vehicle on a regular basis for work purposes. This does not eliminate the need for accurate records, however. Employees need to keep accurate mileage records and submit them to the company. Any allowance that exceed the actual expenses are considered personal expenses and are taxable to the employee and need to be added to the employee at the end of the year. Check with your tax prepare if you have questions regarding when and how to report over payments of reimbursable expenses.

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Working with a Cloud Based Time and Expense Reporting System

All places of business require an effective method to track employee time and expenses. This data is used both directly and indirectly for various other tasks. Payroll generation is one of the tasks that make direct use of this data. It could also be used while taking certain decisions regarding the employees and the business. Many organizations still work in a framework where such data has to be entered and maintained manually. This is a complete waste of time of managers and team leaders, since there are great automated solutions available for such tasks. Cloud based time sheet solutions that automatically generate the required reports would save a great deal of the management's time and efforts.

It is important to carefully choose a great cloud based employee expense reports time tracking system that has great functionality and hence offers use. With the right solution, you should be able to have real-time access to data pertaining to employee time. This would in turn contribute to effective decision making, talent allocation, absence management, etc. You would also be able to automate work tracking processes which will give you ready access to the progress of a project at any given time. You will be able to identify any unnecessary operational costs and thereby avoid them. You would have a better visibility of projects which would contribute to an increase in the effectiveness of your operations.

Since you would be storing business related data on the cloud based time sheets, it is only natural to have a concern about its security and reliability. Therefore, you would have to search out for solutions provider who invests on state of the art security infrastructure for the data stored on their cloud. They should also regularly backup the data and store them on remote sites, preferably on a daily basis. This would safeguard your data from any disasters. An effective disaster recovery program should also be included in the solution offered. Many service providers usually backup the data, but fail to test it regularly for integrity. Hence it would be advisable to choose a provider who not only backups your data, but also perform tests to ensure data integrity.

As with all cloud solutions, a cloud based attendance software solution would offer a great amount of scalability. The word scalability refers to the ability of the system to accommodate the increasing needs of a growing business. Unlike other technologies and solutions, you would have a setup where you can easily expand your infrastructure, without having to deal with steep capital investments. This is the perfect solution for start ups and small businesses that might find it too expensive to invest on on-premise hardware. With hardware technologies evolving ever so rapidly, it would truly be an effective decision to opt for cloud based solutions. If your needs grow, all you have to do is revise your plans with the cloud solution provider.

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Starbucks and McDonald’s the Top Choice for Business Travelers

Business travel has rebounded from the Great Recession, but lots of travelers remain frugal when spending company money on the road.

That was one of the findings of a new report that analyzed millions of business travel expense reports.

For breakfast, the most frequent eatery for business travelers was Starbucks -- 14% of travelers bought food from the coffee shop, spending an average of $8.44 per meal, according to an analysis for the last three months of 2013 by Certify, a travel and expense report management company based in Portland, Maine. The company processed more than 15 million expense reports and receipts in 2013, worth about $4.5 billion.

For lunch and dinner, the most frequent expense report was for the fast-food giant McDonald’s, for an average lunch cost of $7.19, and $7.47 for dinner, the report said.

Certify’s chief executive, Bob Neveu, said the report makes sense because fast-food and quick-service eateries are speedy and convenient and usually offer wireless Internet access.

“Most people are traveling individually, and they are out for the week trying to get something fast, convenient and consistent that is within their company policy,” he said.

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Highlights and Takeaways at Webinar With H&R Block

On October 14th, we co-presented a webinar with Tim Harrison of H&R Block, discussing the large-scale switch from manual expense management to a fully automated process. Certify’s President and Co-Founder, Bob Neveu, shared the data-backed benefits of using cloud-based expense management software, while H&R Block’s Director of Corporate Systems, Tim Harrison discussed the unique vendor selection process, Certify implementation, and H&R Block’s experience with Certify to date. With over 1,000 registrants and more than 700 attendees, this webinar was a huge success! We’re thrilled to be able to share H&R Block’s story with you.

The Selection Process

When beginning the selection process, H&R Block defined specific requirements of an online expense management vendor, making sure all departments were on the same page. Their requirements included scalability, mobile technology, and ease of use. Focusing on these specific needs, H&R Block narrowed down the final three vendors and put them to the literal test. According to Tim Harrison, their unconventional (but effective!) vendor selection process:

“We let the users of the system—the power users, the admins, the people that really have a stake in this—use the system from day to day, they are going to select the system…At the end of the day, they cast their vote: 9 out of 10 users selected Certify as their vendor. To us, that really spoke highly about the product and the user experience.”

Implementation

Staying on schedule was an important factor in H&R Block’s implementation process. As seen in the projected timeline below, H&R Block expected to complete the first stage of implementation on October 1, 2014, and to fully integrate by mid-October. Certify launched implementation and allowed 58,000 H&R Block users to go live on September 1, 2014—a full 6 weeks ahead of schedule! This provided more time for in-depth training throughout departments and for customizations unique to H&R Block’s large user base.

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How To Select Expense Management Software for your Business Firm

Today every businesses must be aware of the different kinds of technology that comes out in the market because some of the people in the market are used it to indulge more costumers or clients but somehow one thing that every business company that should be focused on is how to manage every business firms expenses. Considering the fact that every business firm must deal with this seriously because every expense of the company are comes from the fund of the entire business firm.

So today most of the business firms are so updated what is new in the market but somehow the expenses of the company is one of the major things that the every firm must be eyed. If your business firm is using a manual way of doing all your expense reports well time to wake up and bring on the automated way of reporting.. Yes, a must try way of managing your expenses in the easy way.

Today automated way of managing your reports is definitely one of the choice for the most business firms because they can generate their expense reports right away as they are needed aside from that lots of benefits comes into your way. One thing that the automated way of reporting that can give you is the accurate way of reporting, less papers and all data are secured. One of the great example is when you out for business travel receipts is one of the most important thing to be attached in your expense reports but somehow some of the business people may lost it and turns you into the disaster but with the use of the automation take your receipt snap a picture using your phone and upload it in your account. Such an easy thing it is right? Since you just uploaded it in your account it will not be lost and you can used it for later.

It is in you now to find a new way to level up your reporting and managing your data in your company try to used the automated expense reporting now.

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Upcoming Webinar: Taming the Travel & Entertainment Expense Beast

We here at Certify have held numerous webinars that have helped organizations of all sizes. From helping the small physician’s office stay compliant with the Sunshine Act to the multinational financial corporation, Certify is no stranger to assisting the growth and success of these organizations.

From the traveling sales rep to the meticulous accountant, we are empowering all employees with an easy to use expense management solution. Because of this, we have created a relationship with our clients that is unique to our industry. Each Webinar we have is another opportunity to engage directly with organizations who might be looking for the key to the growth and success.

With that in mind we invite you to join us for our 9th official webinar, in conjunction with Proformative, in which we discuss some of the many ways cloud technology is helping every organization “tame” the increasing costs of travel expenses.

Our own president, Bob Neveu, will help you discover how organizations are managing the increasing costs of business travel with ease and reducing pain points across each step of the expense reimbursement process through the use of cloud technology.

The topics we will be highlighting include: Understanding all of the current and emerging technologies you can leverage for T&E Management Discover how to retain visibility and control of everyday business expenses Learn all of the steps necessary to build a case for new technology by breaking down the ROI of a T&E management solution.

How an automated solution can mitigate the stress of everyday complications from expense management including improving compliance, increasing submission rates and reducing hours of manual entry.

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The Big Importance of Expense Software

There won't be any dispute regarding the importance of income and expense spreadsheet. Apart from this one will also in need of expense management software program which gives plenty of options for reporting analyzing information easily. The communication of the expenses software with the users is through the reports and the quality of the software which separates the software from other inferior quality software. The income expense spreadsheet the vital feature of this software also makes it possible. If the budgeting software is easy to use and the given information is not bothersome then only the software will be regarded as good software.

Good expense management software used by the people must have the reporting fundamentals in the part of management tool. They must be instinctive and easy to use since they are the essential features for getting the certificate of better software. The two features basic income and spending are not in the software then it is useless. The click of a button must show the income and spending. A good expense tracking software must provide the detailed and correct breakdown of the expenditures that are made. These expenditures must be appropriately categorized and easily defined according to the day, month and the year. An income expense spreadsheet can also provide these details.

Expectation is that this information is given graphically in the Expense management software. Using the color blocked graphs and picture charts making it easy to check figures whether the expenses figures are proportionate to income figures. Next alternative to do this is by analyzing the numbers and in some cases to calculate the money using mathematics. If all income, expenditure and all the user's credit card transactions can be handled by the online expense management software then it is supposed to be a good. The reporting side of the software must be capable of showing account used and must spontaneously create reports such as full income expenditure of each account. They must also show the category on which the expenditure is made.

People are living in different types of life. So it is important that the expense management software must be customized for the use of various types of people. If the software is not flexible to the demands of the people using it then it won't be of any use. It will be considered as waste since it is not suitable to the life style and expenditure of the people who want to use it. Online expenses software is also available.

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Expense Software in Controlling your Employee Expenses

There are numerous activities on which money is spent by various organizations. All organizations which make some kind of product need to spend money on purchasing raw materials, hiring labor, operating production process etc. If expenses are not done with proper planning then companies may end up spending a lot more money than they should spend on various activities. No organization would want such a thing to happen because if they incur more costs then their profits will surely decrease. In order to maximize profits, costs must be reduced to the maximum possible extent.One of the major areas of expenditure by companies is employees. The salaries and incentives which are paid, the traveling expenses etc; all are costs to an organization. However, it is very important to take care of the needs of all the employees otherwise they will not be satisfied with their jobs. If the employees of an organization are happy then they will work in a desired manner. This is important for the success of any organization. In order to stay ahead from the competitors, organizations take several measures like spending heavy money on promotions etc.

Various efforts are done by the marketing departments of different organizations to make sure that their companies get a lot of business. A lot of traveling is involved sometimes when employees need to go to other cities and countries for making new clients. These expenses are to be paid by the organizations. You might have heard about the expense software; which is used to track the expenses made by employees while they travel for business. The expense software is very important software which is used by a large number of organizations at present.

One of the most important questions which someone may ask about the expense report software is the source from where one should buy this software. There are many companies which claim that they are offering the best kind of software for tracking employee expenses. However, one should know that proper research needs to be done when it comes to finding out the company from which an organization should buy the expense software. Organizations should take the help of the internet in order to know about the best websites which offer reliable software for tracking employee expenses.

The benefits which are offered by the online expenses management are numerous. A large number of organizations have become able to control their expenses on business trips of their employees by using the software for recording employee expenses. Organizations which are not using any kind of software to record the expenses done by their employees on business trips should consider the option of buying such software. The online expenses management is all about keeping a close eye on the expenses which are done by various employees of an organization. These expenses are to be paid by organizations and they should make sure that its employees are spending its money in an appropriate manner.

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Top Signs of Expense Reimbursement Fraud and How to Stop it from Happening

Top Signs of Expense any company that sends employees on business trips has to have some sort of expense management so travel costs are reimbursed. These companies also have to be concerned with reimbursement fraud, as employees might try and pull a fast one and report an expense that wasn't for business purposes.

According to Washington's State Auditors Office, there are numerous red flags an employee might be committing reimbursement fraud, including:

Expenses are higher than previous years: Unless a company is in its first year, chances are they have sent employees to the same destination multiple times. That being said, when it comes time to add up expenses for those trips, if they are much higher than the previous year there could have been some reimbursement fraud. However, small increases likely shouldn't be cause for concern as costs for food and travel can fluctuate from year-to-year.

Expenses are claimed on non-work days: If a trip lasts through the weekend, employees might be inclined to report business expenses on days they aren't working. While they might feel as though this is acceptable, it isn't and could constitute reimbursement fraud. Employees can only report expenses that are considered work related, and that doesn't include anything on days that they aren't working.

How can organizations prevent reimbursement fraud?

Any company that begins to notice employees are falsely reporting expenses might want to do some research and figure out ways to prevent this from happening.

Require original documentation. In order to ensure that all business expenses are legitimate, companies should require employees to provide original documentation, such as receipts, StoneBridge Business Partners noted. These documents should be turned in after a trip and kept on file for auditing.

Employ a travel reimbursement policy. One of the best ways to keep everything on the up and up with expense reporting is to have a solid policy in place. Employees should have guidelines as to what can and can't be reported as an expense. These guidelines should be easily accessible to anyone who will be embarking on a business trip.

Have a formal review process. No matter how honest companies feel their employees are, a formal review process for expenses is necessary. This gives managers and supervisors the opportunity to audit expense reports, and ensure they are legitimate.

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Make Your Next Business Trip Fuss-Free with Certify

From Booking to Kayak, TripAdvisor to Expedia, there's no shortage of online travel websites that you and your employees have likely spent a lot of time on, setting up the next business trip on the schedule. As helpful as these website may be however - especially compared to what the booking process was like prior to the advent of the Internet they're far from being user-friendly. And the process is only complicated further when you start to think about all the expenses that you or your workers will need to keep track of for billing purposes.

Fortunately, Certify has the tools you need to make booking a whole lot easier. Take a look at the following tips from now on when you or your employees need to schedule a trip to another part of the U.S. or the world.

Log in to Certify. Start out by entering the address of Certify into your web browser, whether that's through your personal computer, tablet or handheld device. Then enter your login identification. This really expedites the process because this data helps the system know who the user is, what their travel preferences are and whether they have any airfare credits that they may be able to use.

Input travel itinerary. Here's where the system needs more information from the user. Simply enter the travel booking details you have, such as the flight, hotel and/or rental car. Once the system knows when the travel period will be - which, like the other information, can be entered in the requested area - a variety of potential vendors will appear. The one chosen, of course, is a decision for you and/or your employee.

Book the chosen selection. Once you or your workers decide on the appropriate vendor, it should all be smooth sailing from there. In fact, just to confirm, Certify will email you and your worker about the most important details of the upcoming travel itinerary. It's a good idea to really look this over as it will contain information that is crucial to the "en route" portion of the trip going smoothly.

But even if there is a problem - no sweat. So long as you make the appropriate changes within 24 hours, you won't have to worry about incurring a penalty. As far as the expense recording goes, most of that is take care of.

By booking a trip through Certify, the system automatically creates an expense reports document that you or your employee can easily fill out on an as-needed basis.

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Certify Automatically Links Credit Card Data to Expenses

From mobile phone receipt capture to quick and easy reimbursements, we make sure the expense reporting process is simple and straightforward. Certify promises to make travel and expense easy for you, and we take that promise seriously. From mobile phone receipt capture to quick and easy reimbursements, we make sure the expense reporting process is simple and straightforward.

One of the ways we ensure this is by automatically linking credit card data to expenses. No more trying to match up receipts and credit card statements – we do it for you. Even if you’ve already processed and reimbursed the expense!

Certify works directly with the credit companies and the issuing banks to automatically receive your corporate credit card data in Certify. We receive nightly data feeds from all of the major credit card companies, including American Express, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and Diner’s Club. So you can simply swipe your credit card today for a business lunch, and see it tomorrow in your Certify Wallet. It’s that simple!

Here’s how it works: On Monday, Fred makes a $32 purchase using his company credit card. Fred then uses Certify Mobile to capture the receipt and expense details and synchronizes to his Certify account.

In Fred’s excitement to use Certify he does not wait for the credit card charge to be imported to his Certify Wallet and decides to create an expense report using just the receipt. Later on Monday, Fred creates and submits his expense report.

On Thursday, Fred’s company credit card sends the $32 transaction to Fred’s Certify Wallet. On Tuesday, Fred’s approver's quickly approve his expense report and send it to the Accounting team for final processing. On Wednesday, the Accounting team processes his expense report for reimbursement. And here’s where the late credit card linking feature comes in! This feature automatically searches "late" credit card transactions, and then automatically reconciles them by identifying the late credit card expenses and linking them with the matching expense that has already been submitted for approval or has been processed.

When the matching expense is linked with the correct credit card, the expense is then “Imported”, and the "late" expense is deleted from Fred’s Certify Wallet. Pretty nice, right?

With Certify, there’s no need to waste time trying to match receipts to credit card statements when it can be done for you automatically. Let us do all that pesky expense reporting work for you, so you can focus on more important tasks.

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With the 6 Million Receipts Can't Be Wrong

Each quarter, the Certify SpendSmart Report reveals how business travelers are spending the corporate dime while on the road. The report analyzes Certify's most recent business expense and vendor ratings data, providing valuable insights to Certify clients as well s the corporate T&E industry at large.

One expense category that the SpendSmart Report reviews is restaurants. The restaurant summary is a snapshot of the most frequently expensed restaurants, top rated restaurants, and the most expense restaurants by meal type. Some of the top rating in the restaurant summary include:

Most Expensed Restaurants Starbucks McDonald's Subway

Top Rated Restaurants Chick-Fil-A Chipotle Dunkin Donuts/Olive Garden

Most Expensed by Meal Breakfast - Starbucks Lunch - McDonald's Dinner - McDonald's

The SpendSmart Report offers insight into where and how much money business travelers are spending while on the road. It also shows the competition among the varying companies for the business traveler's buck. This quarter's report highlighted a new competitor on the scene. Seamless, an online and mobile company that allows you to order food for delivery and pickup from over 12,000 restaurants replaced Starbucks as the most expensed vendor in New York City. Seamless has over one million members, and spans across 1,000 cities in the US, with over 80 cuisines to choose from. As CEO of Certify, Robert Neveu, told CNN in a recent article, "It's Seamless over Starbucks for business travelers...Seamless is aggregating a lot of the meal traffic." Neveu explained that business travelers want something fast, convenient, and of reasonable quality and price. Indeed, Seamless allows you to search, check prices, and read reviews and ratings, which is especially valuable for business travelers in new cities on a budget.

This quarter's report also found that fast food is still number one in the life of a business traveler, with Starbucks and McDonald's continuing to be the top two most expensed restaurants, with a reported low average speed of $8.17 at McDonald's to a high average spend of $39.83 at Panera bread.

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Amazon Fire is Coming Out Soon and Certify is Ready

Everyone's talking about Amazon's new Fire Phone and here at Certify, we couldn't be more excited for this new addition to the movie phone market. Definitely Certify are giving the best that they can as they can to give the best to their clients especially in managing their expense reports.

Haven't heard about it yet? Well here's the scoop: the new Amazon Fire Phone will be released on Friday, July 25th, and includes several impressive features: 4.7 inch screen with a built-in ambient light sensor and Dynamic Image Contrast Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 2.2GHz processor with 2GB of RAM Runs a forked version of Android, Fire OS 3.5.0 13MP rear camera with an f/2.0 lens, and a 2.1MP front-facing camera Free unlimited photo storage on Amazon Cloud Dolby Digital Plus surround sound speakers 285 hours of standby time, up to 22 hours of talk time, up to 65 hours of audio playback time, and up to 11 hours of video playback Pre-installed nanoSIM Space for a microUSB 2.0 Dynamic Perspective interface

And best of all, Fire Phone users will have instant access to third-party apps including Certify Mobile.

If you just can't wait to get your hands on the new Amazon Fire Phone and want to be one of the first to own one, it's available for pre-order now through Amazon.com and AT&T.com. Once you've got it up and running, don't forget to download Certify Mobile so you can start capturing those receipts in Fire Phone style on your next business trip - all while staying policy compliant. And just as a reminder, you don't need Wi-Fi to use Certify Mobile to capture your receipts. Go ahead and use that downtime to take photos of all of your receipts and once you're back online, Certify Mobile will automatically sync those receipts, pulling the data from each receipt image for you so you can just review the data and make updates if you need to. That's nice, right? As always, Certify makes it easy for you by cutting down on the tedious stuff so that you can focus on the important stuff.

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How Do Online Expense Approvals Work?

To help employees manage everyday costs, a company could benefit if it invests in Certify. This expense management solution enables team members to track receipts online, making it incredibly simple to submit error-free materials to supervisors.

While receipt management may have been a majors problem for a business in the past, Certify could help eliminate this issue entirely. Demand Media contributor Lynn Lauren points out that streamlining corporate spending is a top priority for many business leaders, and using a system that offers online approvals allows workers to send accurate expense reports to their superiors at any time.

With Certify's online approval process, managers will receive emails notifying them that expense reports are ready to be viewed. Meanwhile, supervisors can log into Certify on their PCs, smartphones or tablets and evaluate clean, easy-to-read reports.

This software also flags any expense items that fall outside of a firm's expense reporting policy, helping managers evaluate questionable costs. Additionally, company leaders can click on these expenses and learn more about them instantly.

After a manager completes the review process, he or she can submit the expense report to an accounting department or to the next approver without delay. By relying on Certify, a company can streamline its expense reporting process so it can reduce its operating costs over an extended period of time.

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Automated Expense Reporting in Protecting your Business

We've often wrote about the ways that automated expense reporting technology can help to make life easier for employees at a given company. But what about the ways that it can protect both a company and its employees? Listed below are just four ways that programs like Certify, which automates and digitizes the expense reporting process, are able to afford added securities and protections to an organization.

Protects your employees from losing receipts and reimbursements When employees misplace a receipt for a cost they want reimbursed, they're typically out of luck - the accounting department will have no way of verifying the cost. When you're out on business, it's actually pretty easy to lose a significant receipt. You're traveling from place to place, you're rushing in and out of your hotel room, you're stuffing receipts into your briefcase for every meal you eat and every expense you incur - throughout all this, it's not surprising that you might misplace a small piece of paper.

With automated programs like Certify, that never has to be a concern. Employees with smartphones can simply snap a picture of their receipt, upload it into Certify's cloud-based database, and see it immediately entered into and reflected in their real-time expense report. The receipt never has to leave the place where it was printed, because it's backed up in our system from the very moment that its uploaded.

Prevents your company from losing expense data Because of that cloud-based database, Certify protects and improves your business in yet another way: by eliminating the need for you to keep paper expense records. So long as your business is using Certify, all the costs you and your employees have entered into the system will be backed up in our cloud database. That'll allow you to clear out the paper documents regarding your expenses - and it also allows you to trust that any financial information logged while your company is using Certify will be backed up and available should it ever become necessary for your company to look back into its own financial records and bookkeeping.

Keeps your accountants from paying out-of-policy expenditures Certify also informs your employees if they ever upload a cost into their expense report that violates your company expense policy. Accountants will never again have to decide between confronting a high-ranking employee on their exorbitant dinner costs and reimbursing those costs anyway: instead, Certify places a "red flag" next to the costs's in the employee's own expense reporting, necessitating that they address the issue before pushing their report forward to company accountants. So if you're worried that your business has been paying too much for luxury dinners on behalf of your traveling employees, you can rely on Certify to rectify the problem: it will prevent those costs from ever being reported for reimbursement in the first place.

Prevents executives from letting trends or spending increases go unnoticed Finally, Certify protects the higher-ups at a company from allowing spending trends or increases to go unnoticed. Our automated expense reporting technology tracks a number of metrics and statistics across the entire company using the program, allowing executives valuable insights as to when and where employees are spending, and what they're spending on.

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Business Travel Try Online Booking

Every business have their own strategy in how they will make their own firm stands in the market but somehow as always it takes a big responsibility in every employee inside the firm in how to handle it. In order for the business to stay successful it takes a lot of effort, time, cooperation, skills and knowledge so that you firm can make its name mark in the market. As the time goes the technology become a big part of every business and makes every business related transactions easier and faster. Most of the businesses today rely in the technology to make every aspect of the business easier. One of an example is business traveling as far as I know every business firms have their own businesses that takes outside in your firm and an employee is need to travel and meet up with the clients which is most of the scenario happens. Business travel is another thing that every the head of the firms must need to take of attention.

Business travels are considered part of every firms in managing the business but sometimes traveling frequently is not a good thing to a business especially if your firm have the hard time managing the financial status of the company. When it comes to business travel the company is responsible for the expenses of the employee but somehow every employee expenses must need to meet with the policy of the company. For that employee that travels frequently sometimes they are having the hard time in booking their flights since we are now living in the era of the technology online businesses are in hand today. If you are hassle to buy your tickets in over the counter outlets why not try the online booking? The online travel booking is the latest on hand today when it comes to business travel. Most of the business people in the market today makes that online booking is easy and faster for them to travel especially if they are in the hurry.

When it comes to business travel every employee must be aware also of their expenses especially that the receipts that they have during the trip. Since you are in the business travel automatically the company is responsible for your expenses after your trip all you have to do is make those expense reports wait for the approval and finally you have your reimbursement back in your hand. A sound so easy to do but sometimes the problem is in your missing receipts that makes the hard time in managing every time your business expenses.

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Kronos Introduces Certify In the Marketplace

Kronos, Inc., a global leader in cloud-based workforce management who helps tens of thousands of organizations in over 100 countries control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve workforce productivity, has added Certify’s travel and expense management solution to its Workforce Ready Marketplace.

The Workforce Ready Marketplace allows users access to third-party applications that they can purchase directly from the Workforce Ready online user interface. For the first time ever, users can now enjoy cloud-based, automated travel booking and expense reporting using their desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile device with Certify. Certify is the only travel and expense management solution that Kronos is currently offering on its Workforce Ready Marketplace.

Commenting on Certify’s addition to the Marketplace, Mark Ellis, the general manager of small and midsize business for Kronos, stated “the addition of Certify to our already robust Workforce Ready Marketplace brings additional value to Workforce Ready users.” He further adds, “Travel and expense is a pain point for many organizations and Certify offers a top-notch solution that will benefit our customers.”

Certify president Bob Neveu also commented, stating, “we make travel and expense easy with auto-generated reports and seamless integration and we are excited to join other leading providers in the Workforce Ready Marketplace.”

The availability of Certify’s travel and expense management software through the Workforce Ready Marketplace is sure to make life easier for current and future Kronos Workforce Ready users, through mobile receipt capturing and complete expense report automation.

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Improving your Receipt Management Using Mobile

There are a number of ways that a company can make work easier for employees, while still achieving goals and completing tasks. When it comes to expense reports, executives may want to consider taking advantage of a program that will give their employees the tools to be both accurate and successful, while still cutting down overspending and updating progress in real time. Luckily, Certify Mobile is able to accomplish all of these tasks, and getting involved today may change the way the business operates for the better.

Why use mobile options for expense reports Most of the time, employees will need to charge expenses on the company while they are outside of the office's walls. With this in mind, having the tools to be able to do this in a quick manner can change the way businesses look at expense management. Certify Mobile can remove the worry of losing paper receipts, while still getting the proper information to the right executives, managers and accountants in time for deadlines.

In this day and age, nearly everyone is connected, no matter where they happen to be. So, seeking out ways to take advantage of the tools at hand is crucial. Certify Mobile can be used on most devices, and it just requires a smartphone or a tablet with a camera. These tools are useful because it only takes a second to take a picture of a receipt while the employee is on the run, even if it is something as small as a payment for a parking meter.

How Certify Mobile functions Having the app and making it work for automated expense reporting is quite simple. The employee just needs to take a photo of the receipt, then have the AutoFill option do the hard work through the Certify ReceiptParse tool.

When this is all done, the employee just needs to check over the expense details in the app, and make edits as necessary. Then, just send the receipt and other expense details to sync with the Certify Wallet, and it will be ready to be meshed with the necessary expense report. Having such a quick option allows for many company members to quickly and easily process this information, and move on to the next issues on their plates.

Stay on top of travel needs Another great option that employees have with Certify Mobile is to ensure that they are aware of any changes in their travel plans. With travel a major expense aspect that employees need to deal with, knowing if there are any bumps in the road are important. Certify Mobile has a partnership with TripCase, which is a tool that will provide a number of different updates, ensuring people have the most accurate news about the travel information that affects them the most. Whether an employee wants to learn about their flight status, how the weather will be on a travel day or even changes to their plans, this tool will provide just that. This information can be vital to keep up with, especially with the busy schedules that may prevent employees from finding out about these events otherwise.

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Prevent Fraud With Expense Claim Software

Expense fraud, intentional or otherwise, can be a major problem for corporations and business owners. The bigger your firm, the bigger the risk - and the more employees you have jetting around and recording expenses, the greater the chance of you running into a problem in regards to their records.

But with Certify's top-of-the-line expense reporting software, you can say goodbye to any trepidations you may have about logging charges, or about tracking expenditures. With Certify, we turn your mobile phone into a receipt scanner, allowing you to log all of your purchases with a single click of the camera. Certify logs the spending for you, and keeps the photo in our virtual cloud for the sake of verification. With our receipt management programs, the risk of fraud is rendered a thing of the past.

Expense fraud runs rampant among public officials While some might think that the advent of digital expense management would erase the potential for fraud, think again. Multiple stories have arisen in the media recently showing that some individuals still take advantage of their expense systems, even committing criminal acts. Recently, former UK labor minister Denis MacShane was charged with false accounting, with prosecutors alleging that he doctored his own expense reporting to award himself 12,900 pounds via illegitimate claims.

"It is alleged that Denis MacShane claimed expenses for research and translation services carried out by a company that did not carry out that work," the prosecutors said. Additionally, an independent politician working in the Nova Scotia legislator plead guilty to charges of fraud, admitting he falsified over $5,000 worth of charges in an expense report. Keep your data safe with Certify With Certify, you can ensure that your firm will never run into such embarrassments and troubles. Not only does our photo-focused, cloud-stored expense reporting prevent fraud, but it's also constantly tested to insure your data is as safe and secure as humanely possible.

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How to Control Your Business Expenses

In managing a business there are so many things that need to have a full attention in it but somehow some of the company leading their business in the hard time due to the misleading expenses in the company? Managing company expenses is a must all the time considering the fact that the money is the blood of your business to flow it again but somehow some of the business people used it in the different way and it is the cause to make your business in the hard time.

Controlling every business expense is very important for the every firm but somehow most of the head of the firm finding it is a hard time especially if you can’t monitor all the expenses that is why most of the businesses today are using the technology as the aid in managing their expenses.

To differentiate itself to customers, a company may consider numerous solutions to improve its everyday operations. However, budgets can sometimes be problematic, particularly for businesses that want to control their operating costs.

By using Certify, a company is able to make immediate improvements, as this firm can ensure that team members get the support they deserve whenever they need it.

Rick Shuttle, a contributor at Demand Media, points out that business expense reports are often ideal for firms that want to save time. Because these materials allow company leaders to monitor employee spending, a firm that relies on top-notch expense management tools may be able to provide dependable assistance to workers.

Certify is great for both big and small businesses because it enables them to take control of their corporate expenses. If a company wants to effectively manage employee spending for an extended period of time, it can depend on this solution to deliver consistent support.

Incorporate Certify into a firm's regular operations to help employees in various departments. Whenever a worker needs to track his or her bills, this professional will be able to use Certify to ensure that he or she can send error-free reports to supervisors immediately.

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Certify Features at a Glance

Most of the business today is using the technology as the part of any business to make it more reliable with the clients that they have. Certify's automated expense management programs allows your employees to keep all information regarding their expenses stored safely within the crowd. But, that's hardly the only service that Certify offers. Here are more than 10 major features that your business will have access to if it makes use of Certify:

ReportExecutive. ReportExecutive is one of the primary features of Certify - it allows business owners to coordinate the schedules by which employees publish their expense reports. With ReportExecutive, you can ensure that not a single expense will be reported or reimbursed off-schedule.

ReceiptParse. Another one of Certify's most beloved features is ReceiptParse. With this program, employees don't have to save the receipts for any of the costs they incur. The feature simply extracts expense data from images of receipts in real time instead, preventing the need for employees to actually save the documents. Certify Mobile. You can let the automated Certify program extract all the necessary information from your receipts, to prevent the need for data entry. And, with Certify Mobile, you can do so from the same exact place that you incurred the expense itself - your phone. Certify users can use their phones to take photos of given receipts, and then use their phones to immediately upload those images into the cloud.

E-receipt support. If you don't have a smartphone with which to upload receipt images, there are plenty of other ways to digitize your receipts using Certify. Our program allows you to SpendSmart program lets users ensure they're always getting the most value out of their expenses. SpendSmart collects reviews of businesses and services from hundreds of Certify users, so that individuals can look at crowd-sourced reviews of organizations that provide lodging and other integral amenities in any given city. It's perfect for an individual struggling to decide where to shop, stay or eat in a new city.

Certify Global. Have employees who work abroad, or frequently travel internationally for business? No problem. Certify is available to users across the globe with numerous accommodations - the program supports 64 different languages and as many as 140 different currencies.

QuickBooks Synchronization. Use QuickBooks Pro or QuickBooks Enterprise? Also not a problem with Certify. You can link any expense data you enter into our program into those aforementioned programs with a click of a mouse. The Certify QuickBooks Sync tool is included with all Certify products at no additional cost - integration has never been easier.

Compliance. Having trouble getting employees to abide by your expense policies? Are you resolving or reimbursing costs that violate company policy on a monthly basis? With Certify, you won't have to: Our program internalizes all of your company's expense-related travel policies, and automatically prompts all employees who submit reports that violate that policy.

Certify Reporting. Certify's reporting feature makes it easy for individuals at your business to analyze the expense data entered by your employees. Our reporting suite helps you to identify spending patterns, as well as preferred vendors. You can even use this suite to review employee policy violations and audits!

ACH Payments. Certify even makes it easier for you to reimburse the employees who incur expenses on behalf of your business. Certify ACH allows your business to approve and distribute these reimbursements with a single click - employees can even manage their account details within the program. They receive email notifications when reimbursement details are sent. With Certify, every step of the expense reporting process - from logging the costs to receiving the reimbursements - is greatly simplified.

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Smartphone for your Expense Reporting

Today a lot of business firms are using the technology to enhance more their functions to their company and not only that some of the company relies into the technology to make their business successful. Today one of the common thing that most of the business employee are using to stay updated with the online update of the company is the smartphone. Travel and expense reporting software is necessary for businesses and employees engaging in business travel, regardless of industry. Many still choose to log their expenditures through Excel or other outdated methods of data entry, but the expense report software offered by Certify allows for numerous improvements over those antiquated methods. With our program, employees can track and record all of their expenditures with a few simple clicks of their smartphone - and managers can watch the costs as they occur, in real time.

Such functionality allows for increased convenience and efficiency on business trips, increasing the value of the time spent outside the office for everyone involved. Here are a few reasons you may want to consider using expense report software that's capable of tracking costs via smartphone. If you employ such technology, you might find that your traveling workers get more work done than ever before and your firm will reap the benefits.

Keep all the information you need close by. There's a lot of information that your employees need to juggle during a business trip. Certify's expense reporting software makes it easier for them to do so. Our program is partnered with TripCase services so that your employees can view their travel information through their smartphones over the course of their entire trip. Whether they want to check their flight information, keep updated on travel delays, or investigate any other intricacies of their business trip, the TripCase service will allow them to do so via their phone.

It saves time for the employee. When you're on a business trip, every moment matters. For employees, the logging and tracking of expenditures can be extremely time-consuming, requiring them to keep each receipt on file, and to update their records on a regular basis. But all they need to log costs with Certify's software is a smartphone - the employee simply takes a picture of the relevant receipt, uploads it into our cloud-based data storage system, and their expense report is updated and forwarded to their manager automatically. No longer will workers have to waste valuable out-of-the-office time tracking their dollars and cents - Certify's programs does it for them

It allows managers to keep a closer eye on costs - in real time. For many managers, the costs incurred during business trips can cause major headaches. With many programs, you can't get a complete look at your costs until the end of the month, allowing for discrepancies in cost projections and mistakenly allotted budgets. But with Certify's business expenses tracking technology, managers can view and verify each individual cost as soon as the employee uploads the receipt into the system.

With the help of cloud-based hosting technology, business owners and operators can track their employees costs in real time. This helps to restrict the reimbursement of improperly recorded costs, but it also allows managers an opportunity to alter budgets in real time. If an employee is spending much less than expected, than you can revise your allotment at any moment. When you don't have to wait until the end of the month to analyze your costs, you can make better use of every dollar in your business travel budget.

Data backup and verification. Cloud technology allows business owners to track their costs in real time - but it also provides another form of value. Using Certify's expense reporting technology allows you to log all of your costs and data into our own cloud-based storage system. Never again will you or your business have to worry about misplaced files, improperly recorded documents, or other data-entry errors. With cloud technology, you can ensure that your budgetary information will be permanently backed up - confirming that no matter what happens or occurs at your physical office location, your business' vital information will be protected.

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Making your Business Travel in Low Cost

Business travel is unavoidable for many firms, and so are the high costs that come along with sending your workers to different parts of the country, or even the world. Expense management software can help managers and other affected individuals to tally up the costs after the fact - but what about businesses that are hoping to preemptively curb travel costs?

The expenses will always pile up after a business trip, but they need not pile too high. Listed below are a number of tips that could aid your firm in keeping its employees travel expenditures - and as such, its overall bottom line - at an acceptable level.

Assess any potential fees ahead of time When considering the total cost of an upcoming business trip, it's very easy to underestimate. One of the reasons for this is fees - they crop up everywhere, unannounced, driving the total expenditure count unreasonably high. Luckily, with a little research, you can protect yourself, and your business, from unexpected costs.

Ensure that you investigate any baggage fees or other additional fees levied by the airline your employee is using for your trip. The information may not be available on your ticket itself, but each individual service provider will have to notify you of their fees upon request. Make similar checks on any other services your employee will be using over the course of the trip, such as with your rental car provider. The best way to combat fees, and as such, to keep costs low, is very simple: be prepared.

Determine the need for travel - and eliminate trips outright when possible With the advent of video conferencing technology, the need for many business trips has been erased. Before each individual trip is booked, you and your team should ask: is the task this trip is aimed at completing something that could be completed via email, conference calls, and/or video conference meetings? If so, you may be able to eliminate the trip altogether - and reroute the expected costs to another area of your company.

Establish expenditure policies Many businesses establish policies about what expenditures their employees can incur while traveling, instituting caps on specific costs, and sometimes even outlining the specific hotels and rental cars the employee can use. This is a great way to achieve consistency in your expenditures - so if your firm sends employees out of the area on assignment on a regular basis, you may want to consider instituting a policy that governs their behavior, and their costs, while they do so.

Consider "extended stay" hotels For longer business trips, you may want to encourage your employee to investigate whether or not they'd be better served at an "extended stay" hotel. These locations are designed for individuals who are staying more than a couple nights, and can offer in-house meals, lower week long rates, and other perks that can help your firm to keep costs low during a particularly long business trip.

Keep an eye on each individual expense with automated expense reporting software All businesses are surely aware of the need for expense reports - to help them analyze and track each individual expenditure, for the sake of optimizing the use of future funds. However, with automated expense reporting software like the programs offered by Certify, employees can report their costs in real time, using only a smartphone and the attached camera. Better yet, managers can track the costs as they occur, and then make alterations to policies or allotted funds as is necessary.

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Cloud Technology Makes Small Business Global

Today most of the business small or big ones have no limit in the market. Most of the small business have a big space in the online world since the online world have no limitation what kind of business that you have in the market. For small businesses, the digital revolution has put the whole world within grasp. With online stores, mobile technology, and an increasing worldwide reliance on cross-border trading, even the smallest service can expand toward a truly global operation.

Certify's global expense management software better allows you and your employees to make this transition. When traveling, there's no easier way to log your expenses. Certify's software allows an individual to log a cost with one click of a smartphone - take a quick picture of your receipt, and our automated software will quickly update your overall expenses spreadsheet.

It's also optimized for use in a global business market, as our expense management tools offer over 60 different language options and numerous currencies, with implementations and translations made easy. We're even prepared to help you adapt to small cultural shifts: the receipt management software is hardwired to format numbers, dates, and currency amounts to whatever locale you're currently operating out of. It's just another element of the business world constantly evolving, allowing you to turn your mom-and-pop corner shop into a worldwide retailer.

Cloud technology helps small businesses break into the global marketing

Certify's wireless expense management software is optimized and driven by cloud technology - you can update your reports, anytime you want, from anywhere you want, and managers can access the data at any point. You can upload an image of a receipt in Europe, and moments later, in America, your manager could access our server to approve the cost.

John Mason, writing for IBM's Smarter Planning blog, argues that cloud technology is the primary tool allowing small and medium size businesses to expand at rapid rates. Considering the 6.8 billion subscribers to mobile devices across the world, and the skyrocketing profits derived from online shopping, he predicts that always-connected technologies will allow stagnant businesses to achieve large expansions. He also argued for the necessity of strong technologies with proven track-records.

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How to Make Business Travel Fun?

When it comes to business travel there are a lot of thing that you must need to consider to go for it but sometimes you don’t have the choice because it is needed by the company and you are sent by the company. Some of the employee consider that business travel is a stressful thing to do exactly it is always in my mind that you need to travel to the other place just go for the meeting or other business functions. Being in the trip considered to be hassle making reports with it.

It is very essential to the any business travelers that after the trip to make all the expense reports and need to be pass in the office but somehow most of the employee find it really hard in their part especially if some of the credentials that are needed for the reporting are missing such as the receipts. Receipts are very important if you are making reports after your trip. Travel can be very expensive. When you travel for business, many of your expenses can be written off at tax time. This will save you a lot of money if you know how to do it correctly. But you don't want to overdo it and risk being audited. It's a careful process and some areas have thin lines. You'll want to know exactly what you're doing.

The most important thing to know is what is deductible and what isn't. A lot of things can be written off as business travel expenses, but you don't want to get ridiculous with it or you could find yourself in trouble. Ask yourself if your trip is primarily for business, or pleasure. Even if it is primarily a business trip, things you do for pleasure on the side may not be deductible.

When a purchase IS business related, you can write it off. Nearly anything counts. Hotel rooms, airfare, travel documents, meals, cab fare, dry cleaning, and business related long distance calls. But you'll need to save all the documentation. This mostly pertains to receipts. While you may not need to send the receipts with your tax claim, you will need to have them in case you get audited so that you can back up your claims if they are called into question.

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In Flight calls Still not Possible for Business Travelers

When you are making a business travel and when you are inside the plane surely you are not allowed to use your phone. Most of the business people in the market make the phone as their best buddy all the time in staying connected to the other business people but most of all inside your business company. Some of the business travelers are having the hard time with this kind of situation as they are traveling but it is really prohibited to use phones while on the plane. Mostly the business travelers are making the best that they can in order to make the all best for the company and since they are travelling all the time to monitor their expense travel expense programs are one of the most travelers widely used to know the expenses that they have while on the trip.

Current government policies prohibit individuals from making calls on their cell phones during the course of air travel. Many business travelers who rely on their mobile phones to stay connected to the office, however, wish that this rule would change. After all, they can use their cell phone's applications while they're in the air, to check their email, update their expense report or complete other tasks. However, they're not currently allowed to call into the office to check in.

That certainly may change soon. A recent report from Business Travel News detailed how the U.S. Department of Transportation began soliciting public comments this week on whether or not they should lift the ban on in-flight calls. Though most were against the idea, some individuals - such as Jason Rabinowitz, quoted below - were in favor of the change, and supported the idea of phone calls being allowed during the course of a flight.

"I believe that voice calls should be allowed on aircraft," said Rabinowitz, according to the news outlet. "Many airlines across the world have had this feature for years with not a single recorded instance of abuse or passenger fights."

Though most respondents came out against the proposed change, some individuals did argue for the cause of making cell phone calls from the friendly skies. One other supporter cited by the news source noted that other transportation services do not require comparable restrictions, for example.

"As it stands now, cell phones are not banned in similar situations on other forms of transportation, and it seems to be an unreasonable intrusion into the freedom of both the airlines and their passengers for the government to ban their use," claimed respondent Matthew Walters, according to the Business Travel News Report.

In the other hand for the meantime using the phones while on the flight is still prohibited but maybe somehow sooner this law will allow most of the business travelers to use their phones as they are needed.

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