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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