Whether a company is comprised of several or several hundred employees, owners and financial officers can still face the same challenged in managing budget allocations and monitoring spending and returns. Further, business related travel is also integral to promoting corporate growth, especially when establishing professional leads that will eventually lead to customer loyalty.

While larger companies do have to place a certain amount of trust in employees for these types of expenses, smaller businesses can feel challenged by constant monitoring, due to:

• Personnel resources
• Inter office dynamics and relationships
• Feeling as though they are betraying a trust with long standing employees

Although the hope is always to believe the best in people, this ideal should not overshadow the importance of an accurate expense report that track trends in spending and quickly uncover possible fraud.

Real Time Access

One of the biggest issues that is faced in monitoring travel expenses is the fact that lack of immediate supervision can lead to liberties being taken with company accounts. This makes one of the first steps for a business of any size to clearly delineate the parameters of travel spending. If this is a measure that is also meant to help influence the underlying culture within a company, then an automated expense report can also become a teaching tool.

Although outright fraudulent practices are both illegal and can be considered a form of corporate sabotage, it is also true that some employees who are engaging in less than scrupulous practices during business travel are not always aware of the infraction they are causing. With an automated expense report, trends in spending and questionable habits can be clearly displayed to employees, and this initiates a vital process for company growth.

The prime point that this software offers to financial officers is real time access to employee spending while on travel. By tracking these actions through the analytics of an expense report, owners and accounting teams can also evaluate whether any red flags in spending are evident. At this juncture, confronting employees with spending histories can become either disciplinary or teaching points, but can still ultimately avoid the need for a full internal audit.

The Benefit Of The Doubt

In cases where questionable travel spending is a result of lack of knowledge on protocols, many employees will respond positively to a continued use of an automated expense report, since this can also benefit the business travelers to be able to easily and conscientiously keep up with distinctions in appropriate spending. This practice of automation also further discourages possible unscrupulous acts through better monitoring and also quickly detects places of concern.

Overall, an automated expense report becomes a benefit to businesses of any size, even if the application differs. This type of practice can quickly uncover a drain on the budget, which reduces overall losses, but as a teaching tool, it also establishes the culture of integrity, for which any company strives.