If you were to ask employees who routinely spend their employer’s money in the course of their work how they control and submit their expenses, it’s very likely that the word “spreadsheet” would feature in most of the conversations.
Spreadsheets, especially of the Excel variety, have been a common feature in most businesses for a few decades now. Granted, they do have their place and have made it easier for most people in business to work with data than was the case before when most information was gathered, recorded and processed manually. However, this does not mean that the spreadsheet is the right tool for every job. Spreadsheets do have their limitations, and there have been substantial advances in information technology recently that have led to many more customized software solutions being available to perform specific tasks.
Some of the limitations of an expenses spreadsheet are:
1. Spreadsheets are not intended for process management. Expense claims and reconciliations generally follow a process of several steps as they move from person to person in an organization.
2. It’s hard to enforce compliance. Expenses spreadsheets are typically generated on a PC and then sent by email from person to person in the approval and processing chain. If each employee filing expense claims has their own spreadsheet, and each spreadsheet is sent on several times to different people, there will potentially be dozens, or even hundreds, of expenses spreadsheets circulating at any given time – a compliance and validation nightmare.
3. Valuable time is wasted. Updating spreadsheets can take up time that employees could be using for more productive work. Many employees end up filling in expense claim spreadsheets and doing other related admin tasks after-hours, which often creates resentment and resistance and can lead to expenses spreadsheets being updated late, or not at all.
A far better way to handle employee expense claims in your company is to start using the PocketBuyer™ app, a comprehensive, efficient and easy to use expenses management tool. Contact us today to learn more about this system.