With more companies running hybrid and remote environments, many employees are required to travel from all over the country (or world) for in-person meetings. Managing how travel-related expenses are handled and reimbursed is an important policy consideration.
However, developing a travel and expense policy that works is easier said than done.
A T&E policy is a corporate policy that governs employee spending during a business trip or when entertaining someone on behalf of the business. Naturally, many of the expenses incurred during such events are business expenses that the company should cover. However, since most companies don't want to write a blank check to employees, it is vital to have a policy governing how companies can spend money, what it can be spent on and how the costs will be covered or reimbursed.
For example, a T&E policy may require working with certain vendors for travel arrangements. It may establish a per diem that employees can use for meals and other minor expenses during business trips. The policy should also explain how employees can submit expenses for reimbursement.
One of the critical challenges of travel and expense reimbursement policies is that individual employees, including those that may not normally be involved with expenses, have a lot of control over how money is spent. Thus, it is crucial to establish a firm policy and optimize compliance to ensure that all expenses are appropriately covered and records are kept correctly.
The Benefits of Using a T&E Policy
All businesses that have even semi-regular employee travel should have a policy. The policy may be as simple as establishing a per diem and requiring proper record-keeping for some smaller businesses. However, even if your policy is only half a page long, it is worthwhile having. These are some of the benefits:
Improve Productivity: Your company's business trips are intended to be productive events for your team. Your employees shouldn't be spending half the trip stressing over which expenses are likely to be reimbursed.
If you want to increase T&E policy compliance, you need to start with a solid policy. The following best practices will help:
A June 2015 report from the Aberdeen Group reported that companies with best-in-class Time & Expense software “require 43% less time to fill out an expense report” and automated expense reports speed up approval time by 265% (from 9.3 days to 3.5 days)1. This marked improvement demonstrates the value of automation.
However, those statistics also show that while the manual workload is reduced for end-users and approvers, the workload is not necessarily reduced for the finance groups and auditors, who also have an essential role to play in the expense report process. There’s not much talk of tools for those in accounts payable, managers, and auditors looking to uncover fraud and ensure compliance with company policy.
Be sure to get more details in our free white paper, designed to serve as a resource for those trying to navigate complex expense reporting and auditing problems. You will learn more about best practices for how to establish an expense reporting process, specific information on how to deal with particular expense types, policy recommendations, and how the latest in audit innovations solves some of the problems inherent in expense reporting.
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No T&E policy is worth its salt if people don't follow it. The following are five tips that will help you increase your compliance rate.
Simplicity for your team members should be a top priority. One of the best ways to achieve this is to automate a lot of the process. For example, if you have an app that captures expense reports, that is simpler than having to email forms to the expense team.
As much as possible, make reporting expenses easy. If it can be done with a few taps on the phone, people will be much more likely to report their expenses than if they need to fill out multi-page forms when they get back to their hotel rooms.
In some cases, it is better to limit options. Giving employees a singular process for booking travel arrangements that are directly paid for using a company card is much easier than having a policy governing reimbursement of travel costs.
Make sure to communicate about the policy and the importance of compliance often. If people can easily find information on the policy, they will be more likely to follow it.
Finally, it is a good idea to have some rewards and punishments. Consider offering a reward to employees that have consistent policy compliance. Conversely, you may want to limit the travel options for those with poor compliance.
In conclusion, writing up an effective travel and expense policy is a tedious task that requires prior planning and evaluation. To learn more about creating the right policy for your company read our extensive whitepaper that gives a comprehensive rundown of the processes you need in place for successful policies.
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It is easier to maximize T&E compliance when using effective expense tracking software. Check out DATABASICS to find a solution that is right for you.