Expense Reporting for Remote Workers
Some employees enjoy the chance to work remotely, whether once a week, or as a full-time way to balance their work/life responsibilities.
However, there are plenty of situations when employees work remotely because of something out of their control. That includes times when workplace must close its location, but work continues.
Expense Management for Remote Workers
When you ask employees to take on new challenges, you want to equip them with the tools and support they need to succeed. Suddenly being asked to work remotely can be quite a challenge.
Many employees relish the idea of going to a physical work location. They enjoy their work spaces, their colleagues, and the energy of a collaborative atmosphere.
Meanwhile, life at home tends to follow a much different cadence:
- Chances are, a number of your employees share their homes or apartments with roommates, spouses, children, or other family members. Each person in a space possesses their own perspective on what it means to be professional.
- Not everyone has an extra room or dedicated space they can call an office, let alone the supplies and equipment they need to do their work.
- When home- and work-life become entangled, employees might have to change their schedules, or finish work during off-hours
As remote workers learn how to budget their time, they’re also learning how to track professional expenses in ways they’ve never had to. These new professional expenses can include things like:
- Enhanced internet and WiFi in their homes
- Ongoing supplies, such as paper or ink
- Large, one-off purchases, like additional monitors, a new smartphone, or ergonomic chairs and a standing work station
- Snacks and refreshments, such as bottled water, coffee, protein bars, or other food you used to keep stocked in your breakroom
- Specific items to the industry that your employee works in
Does your expense management software make it easy for them to track their expenses? Does it help you speed up reimbursements? And, does it provide you with actionable data you can use to improve the experience, and update your remote expense policies?
Keep reading to learn how ExpenseWire stacks up.
Many workers across almost every industry are working remotely for the first time. What happens when the software they must rely on to submit expenses and receive reimbursements doesn’t support them? Discover how ExpenseWire is built to support your remote workers.
Simplify Remote Expense Reporting and Reimbursements
Many cloud-based tools help simplify HR and management functions, including cloud-based expense management software such as ExpenseWire.
If you’re already using expense management software, then you might be familiar with how certain mobile features can simplify expense reporting when employees travel. These same features can support full-time remote workers as well.
- As a mobile-friendly expense management software solution, ExpenseWire simplifies the way managers and accounting approve and process expense reports.
- These same features also speed up reimbursements—a fact that your workers will appreciate.
- And, ExpenseWire makes it easier to access essential data, which can help your organization update your remote work expense policy.
As you help your remote workers get up to speed, here are two ways that ExpenseWire can provide added benefits to your business, and your people.
1. Track expenses by type and category, and put the data to use
Whether employees are traveling, or working from home, it’s typical for different expenses to land in specific silos. Traveling employees might expense flights, hotels, and rides, to name a few. Remote workers working from home might need to expense technology purchases, food, and office supplies on the same report. Meanwhile, managers don’t need more administrative work, especially when they’re also working remotely.
- ExpenseWire simplifies the way you review, approve and process reports, starting with how easy it is to categorize expenses.
- From there, the software delivers insight into actionable data, based on the kinds of recurring expenses coming in.
For instance, your employees might tire of tracking the breakroom-style snacks and drinks they purchase. Instead, they may ask for a monthly stipend to cover costs. Using expense report data, you can determine a figure that aligns with what the majority of employees are spending. This small, proactive change can help you:
- Save costs by giving employees a fixed snack budget
- Eliminate having to sift through this expense category or line item on every report you receive
2. Automate expense reports, and streamline the process for everyone
Sometimes completing an expense report can take more time than it’s worth. That’s especially the case if your expensing process is manual, whether on paper, or using an antiquated spreadsheet. In these cases:
- Employees may forget to write things down, and lose their receipt. When they finally remember to expense a purchase, they may guess at the cost.
- They might also claim a business expense on something that is outside of your remote expense policy.
A manual process can also create issues for managers, accounting, and payroll:
- Tracking each category can be time-consuming, not to mention messy. Uncorrected, little messes can become huge burdens if your organization is audited in the future.
However, an automated expense reporting process can help take pressure off of people at all levels. This can be a big help if your entire organization is adjusting to remote work.
With ExpenseWire:
Employees save time by being able to submit expense right away, via their smart phone or computer. This includes uploading receipts.
- Employees can also set and receive alerts that let them know they’re approaching a spending limit, or trying to claim an expense that’s outside of your remote expense policy.
- For managers, the automated features can alert you as soon as an employee claims an expense. That way you can keep an eye on spending in real-time, and check-in with employees when you need to.
Building a remote workforce may or may not have been part of your organization’s planning. However, when a large number of employees must suddenly work remotely, an automated expense management software can help them adjust and engage with their new work reality.
ExpenseWire works where your people work, whether they are on the road, or logging in from home. Discover new ways to manage work-related expenses with this cloud-based, mobile-friendly solution. Contact ExpenseWire to learn more.
