Businesses Can Simplify Expense Reporting with Affordable Mobile Apps by Debra Sears, CPA
Posted on December 27, 2019
by
Debra Sears
Forward-thinking businesses are embracing technology and the convenience of mobile apps to improve the efficiency of routine administrative tasks, including expense reporting.
Not much has changed over the past decade in the way in which employees submit expense reports. Workers are responsible for tracking their expenditures, recording them as line-items on Excel spreadsheets and saving receipts, which they then must scan as pdf images, to submit for reimbursement at the end of each month. The entire process is a tedious burden that takes up far too much of employees’ valuable time. Thankfully, this is changing with a new crop of web- and mobile-based expense-tracking and reporting applications that can integrate seamlessly with other business-critical process-management software systems.
First, businesses must consider if expense-reporting apps are right for them. In general, organizations that answer “yes” to any the following questions can receive immense benefits by automating expense management processes with an app:
- Does your businesses use Excel to track and submit all types of expenses?
- Does your business require paper receipts for expense reporting?
- Are employees required to manually track mileage while traveling for business purposes?
- Do two or more employees have access to one or more business credit cards?
- Must all expense reports be approved by a manager, an accountant or multiple people?
- Does your finance and/or accounting staff manually enter expense data into accounting software, such as QuickBooks or Xero, or enterprise resource planning (ERP) software?
- Does your organization reimburse employees through payroll or checks?
The next challenge for businesses is understanding how these apps can fit into and integrate with their existing systems and processes without interrupting normal business operations or requiring intensive employee training. This is where a business’s accounting advisors can provide meaningful assistance. Many CPA firms working with small to mid-size businesses have experience designing, implementing and integrating a variety of accounting software systems. All you need to do is ask.
The advisors and CPAs with Berkowitz Pollack Brant’s Accounting Intelligence group bring together deep technology experience with hands-on professional counsel to help businesses around the world implement, manage and maximize the benefits of modern, back-office accounting systems.
About the Author: Debra Sears, CPA, is an associate director with Berkowitz Pollack Brant Advisors + CPAs, where she leads the firm’s Accounting Intelligence group and provides financial consulting and cloud accounting services to small and mid-size entrepreneurial businesses and high-net-worth families. She can be reached at the CPA firm’s Boca Raton, Fla., office at (561) 361-2000 or via email at info@bpbcpa.com.
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