Automation Controls Expenses, Improves Bottom Line

<B>Automation Controls Expenses, Improves Bottom Line</B>

Financial officers understand the effect a dollar lost or gained can have on their company's bottom line. As companies increasingly focus on ways to save money, key industry analysts and leading organizations agree on one thing--many don't realize Employee-Initiated Expenses generally account for the second largest discretionary spend. A Web-based EIE processing solution will not only save a company time and money, it will improve employee satisfaction though its convenience, flexibility and ease of use.

Traditionally, manual expense processes have been lengthy, frustrating and fraught with errors. By implementing automated EIE processing, the software becomes an instrument of the company, mirroring an organization's policies and ensuring employee compliance simply through its use. This eliminates all of the complexities and inconsistencies associated with manual expense processing, not to mention the endless churn of the approval cycle.

There are three main areas in which companies and travelers can benefit from an automated EIE process.

<B>Track expenses in detail to negotiate optimal rates from preferred providers</B>

The expense process becomes more complex as the numbers of employees and providers increase. Organizations with multiple providers sometimes lack the tools to properly track expenses they pay each provider. Automated EIE processing solutions can generate reports that show exactly how much they are spending. This puts them in a much better position to negotiate better rates from preferred providers.

Companies that do a significant amount of bookings with airlines and hotels may be eligible for discounted rates based on traveling volume, which can translate into major savings. Most organizations must spend a minimum, contractual amount for preferred rates to take effect. Companies without automation have difficulties when trying to guarantee these thresholds. An automated system can help push travelers to specific providers if certain thresholds are in jeopardy.

<B>Drive down processing costs by automating financial processes</B>

Manual expense processes with too many steps can cause frustrated employees, managerial productivity losses, increased operational costs and out-of-control expenditures. By automating EIE processes, companies can improve efficiencies and reduce the cost of processing expenses by as much as $36, to $6 or less per transaction.

Everything from creating and submitting expense reports to obtaining management approval and handling reimbursements is made easier. By pre-populating expense reports with charge card transactions and automatically providing users with default information, the creation of a typical expense report is reduced from an average of 30 to 45 minutes to a scant 10 to 15 minutes.

A key feature of this solution is that approval routing is handled automatically, cutting down on approval-related delays. Employees sometimes may wait for long periods of time before their manager approves the expense form prior to it reaching an administrator for processing. By automating this phase, the average approval routing process is reduced from three weeks to a few days. Another convenience is the smaller number of approvers required to check expense reports, as the system itself does most of the policy and arithmetic checking before approval routing.

Automated solutions also eliminate the need for accounting departments to rekey expense reports for payment and post them to their general ledger.

<B>Reconcile unused airline tickets automatically</B>

In many organizations, employees purchase tickets in advance so the company can take advantage of discounted rates. This can become a reconciliation nightmare, as tickets sometimes have to be canceled for legitimate business reasons. This especially is painful for companies using the central pay system for airfare costs.

With the use of automated EIE processing solutions, advanced purchases and centrally billed transactions easily can be tracked.

Web-based, automated EIE processing solutions not only simplify the process for users, they also offer significant paybacks to the enterprise itself.

<I>Scott Anderson is president and CEO of Mississauga, Ontario-based Necho Systems Corp., which provides travel and entertainment expense processing solutions for the Internet.