Expense submission tips: a tale as old as dime
Expense reporting plays a critical role in managing business finances. However, it’s no secret that employees can find the process of submitting receipts tedious and time-consuming, so they put off the task for days, weeks, or even months.
At Expensify, we understand the challenges faced by organizations to get employees to submit receipts, which is why we built our receipt scanner app to simplify the process for everyone. These are our top tips on the most effective ways to use Expensify to get employees to submit expenses reliably!
Tip one: Take a photo of your receipt immediately
Our SmartScan technology is designed for users on the go. Just take a picture or upload a photo of a receipt, and from there, the merchant, date, and amount is extracted to create an expense.
Expensify is accessible through mobile devices as well as desktop, making it convenient for employees to input, categorize, and submit expenses any place, any time. We encourage users to develop the habit of snapping photos of receipts the moment the transaction happens. What better way to spend the few moments waiting for your cup of coffee? Emailed receipts can also be forwarded to receipts@expensify.com to be processed through SmartScan — no need to go through the effort of printing off order invoices!
Tip two: Enable scheduled submit
Tracking expenses is half of the battle, but submitting expense reports on time is a crucial part of keeping on top of your organization’s finances. Expensify’s Scheduled Submit feature automatically places expenses on an open expense report, and automatically submits the report to management at your preferred cadence. If expenses are missing receipts, tags, categories, or any other required element, the submitter will automatically be notified to fix the issues.
Tip three: Incorporate company cards
If your company issues company cards to employees, consider importing card expenses directly. Each transaction will automatically create an expense within Expensify, along with an IRS-approved eReceipt.
If you’d still prefer employees to attach an itemized receipt, you can create the rule to make that happen! Once the employee SmartScans the receipt, it will automatically be merged with the imported transaction.
The Expensify Card is also available for free, and offers real-time compliance, as expenses are created as soon as transactions are incurred. Cardholders also receive push notifications to take a photo of a receipt immediately when the swipe takes place (if required).
Tip four: Promote Expensify as a user-friendly expense reporting tool
Long gone are the days of keeping shoe boxes filled with receipts and spending hours at the scanner. The thought of tracking and submitting expenses alone is enough to overwhelm employees and drive them to procrastinate.
Adopting and promoting a user-friendly expense management tool that guides employees through report submission is the key to simplifying the expense reporting process. We recommend including Expensify’s how-to guide for submitting expenses in onboarding processes, and maintaining internal reference material that is specific to your organization’s categorization and department needs.
Encouraging employees to submit receipts promptly can be a challenge, but with the right strategies in place, it becomes an achievable goal. By taking into consideration some of the tips above, accounting teams can help to create an environment where employees are motivated to submit their receipts effortlessly.
