Do your employees need to pop down to your local supplier to buy materials while on a job? Do they need to fill up the van with fuel or pay for tolls? Perhaps they buy themselves and other members of the team a coffee while on a job. All of these items need to be paid for by the business, but the process of reimbursing employees can be a time-consuming administrative task for the business owner or accounts person!
At Sones Accountancy Services, we provide a fully functional outsourced accounts department service. We are a forward-thinking practice and we are always looking for ways to use technology to automate processes. This reduces time on tasks and helps to reduce errors. This week I have been automating the process of reimbursing employee expenses for two clients.
When looking for a solution to help automate a manual financial process, I ensure it always integrates with our accounting software. We are a Xero-only practice which means all of our clients are on Xero. I am going to share with you my solutions for helping to automate employees purchasing business expenses.
Solution 1. You take out a credit card where you are able to apply a monthly spending cap. The credit card which works well for some of our clients is Capital on Tap as it integrates well with Xero which reduces time on admin tasks.
Solution 2. Apply for a prepayment card to give to your employees. You have control of when and how much funds to add to the card. Some of our clients use Pleo which works well for them and integrates with multiple accounting software providers including Xero.
Solution 3. Use an online expenses app such as Dext. Their ‘Effortless Expenses’ feature lets employees upload receipts to an expense report. You can choose how frequently to renew the expense report and when finished, it can be posted to Xero. Then, you can use a payment platform such as Wise or Libeo to make batch payments quickly.
If you are spending precious time on undertaking financial tasks manually, there is a way usually to automate the process to reduce time spent. In uncertain times, you can use technology to automate tasks which will increase the productivity of your employees. Also, you can consider outsourcing your accounts department to an accountancy practice that is experienced in running an accounts department in a streamlined and efficient manner.
