If you think you have strange expense reports, you must see this! Robert Half Management Resources survey interviewed several CFOs and asked them to name the most unusual things they have seen employees include in expense reports. The results – bound to raise both eyebrows! Here are a few of the most questionable items:
– Cosmetic surgery
– Lottery tickets
– Pet food
– A trailer rental for a family reunion
– $12,000 for a family trip-+
– A teepee
– A fine for crashing into a toll booth
The survey was developed by Robert Half Management Resources, and it was conducted by an independent research firm. The survey included responses from 1,600 U.S. and Canadian CFOs from a random sample of companies with 20 or more employees.
The list also included gadget, leisure and hobby expenses:
– A person lost his personal cell phone somewhere in the office, so he submitted the cost of a new one
– Movie tickets
– Hotel charge for viewing adult movies (Yikes!)
– Day at the spa
– A golf trip for the employee and his three friends
– Video game console (PS4 maybe?)
Personal expenditures were frequently cited by executives as questionable. Here are some examples:
– Grocery receipts
– Cigarettes
– Pair of socks
– Toilet paper
– Hot tub supplies
– Golf clubs
– Expensive lunch for the employee, without clients
Expenses covering the cost of personal celebrations and not related to the office was equally if not more surprising:
– Flowers the employee bought for his wife
– Expenses for his son’s birthday party
– Wedding anniversary dinner
Anyone submitting an expense report should double and triple check their expenses to avoid this situation, which could definitely land the employee in hot water. One respondent said “The most unusual thing I saw was a submission for something that had already been expensed and reimbursed”
Here is a frequently heard request from Accounts Payable departments (AP) in companies around the world –
‘Can we integrate T&E with our Payroll system to issue reimbursements faster and error-free?’ And a very pertinent request at that – considering that AP is largely responsible for issuing T&E reimbursements.
A recently conducted survey, with results displayed below, showed that at least 74% of T&E reimbursements fall largely within the domain of AP. This becomes an additional burden to handle for AP among other important tasks. Plus, the ripple effects of delayed reimbursements or wrong reimbursements affects the heart of the business: the morale of the workforce. So it really is a no-brainer to automate this process through integration.
And this fits into the overall theme for companies in the 21st century which is – religiously examining ways towards becoming more efficient and effective at what they do. And on that list is frustration and delays with T&E reimbursements for employees after a trip. This is especially true after an international trip where the employee could have sizable out of pocket expenses with imminent due dates on their credit cards. Therefore integration of T&E and Payroll systems is paramount and companies are investigating in more detail on how to maintain a seamless integration between these two systems which are essentially two sides of the same coin.
Payroll systems look at an employee at one point in time, chiefly, what is that employee’s salary or hourly wage today. They automatically calculate net pay for a given pay period, federal, state and local taxes, deductions for such items as health care copays and contributions to charities etc. These systems also automatically cut checks to employees or have their pay automatically deposited into their bank account.
T&E Expense Reporting systems, on the other hand, help manage the employees expenses from a trip. If the company utilizes a corporate card, then the employee submits those expenses are part of the same system. The key pieces of the expense transaction includes details about the trip, expense type, vendor and mainly the receipt of the transaction.
The benefits of integration between these two systems are:
– Reduce reimbursement time
– No more manual keying of data in multiple places
– Utilize the existing flow and scheduling for T&E reimbursements
– Real-time visibility of reimbursement status for all parties
– And most importantly, the emotional aspect – employees expect the company to reimburse them for out-of-pocket expenses ASAP. And by automating the process as much as possible (which in turn reduces errors, delays and frustrations), it shows the employees that the company cares!
So how does this typically work?
The natural next step for T&E data after it has been reconciled in the expense reporting & ERP systems is sending it to the Payroll system. Think of it as ‘Passing the expense report data baton’!
Expense-Reporting-Payroll-Integration
Here is how it works in steps –
– Once the expense reports are approved within the Gorilla Expense web application, Gorilla Expense can automatically generate 2 files 1) Payroll file precisely in the same format as expected by your payroll provider 2) GL File precisely in the same format as expected by ERP System
– The payroll file can be imported into the Payroll system to issue reimbursement
– The GL file can be imported into the ERP system for GL entries
– If the Payroll system setup for T&E reimbursements is the same as payroll, then the employee will be reimbursed for T&E expenses during the next payroll cycle
Contact us at info@gorillaexpense.com if you have any questions or if we can help you manage this process more efficiently for your company.
When you think of expense reports, you also think about its vulnerability to fraud. While there are tools and systems to better tackle fraud, consistent auditing still plays a vital role.
Last year, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) reported that nearly 15% of all fraud in the workplace was related to T&E expense reporting. According to the same report, the median financial loss to an organization for a single instance of expense fraud is $26,000, and the median duration of the fraudulent activity is two years. That is a lot of money and a long duration.
Earlier this year, AirPlus International fielded a survey to corporate travel managers to explore how they manage expense fraud in the travel category. 35% of the respondents reported that they manage both travel and T&E within their organizations. Another 15% of the respondents identified their official role as a travel manager but were closely involved in creating T&E expense policy as it relates to travel. On the other side, only 30% of travel managers said their company’s travel policy had any guidelines for T&E expenses. 7% of the respondents said they were not involved at all with T&E expenses.
Of the 119 surveyed, 8% of the respondents reported that their companies had uncovered significant fraud in T&E expense reporting over the last two years while 19% said that they didn’t know of any significant fraud. For the 8% of respondents, the most common behavior was falsifying or altering receipts to inflate reimbursements. Additional common fraudulent behaviors include submitting too many “below-the-line” expenses (expenses below a certain $ value that do not require receipts per a corporation’s T&E policy), exchanging premium-class tickets and reclaiming receipts.
The survey respondents utilized safeguards in place at their organizations for preventing and detecting fraud. The most common prevention tactic, cited by 81% of the respondents, was to include direct manager approval for all T&E expenses. 67% of respondents said their companies required receipts for all expenses incurred during travel, while 59% required the use of a corporate card for T&E expenses.
To read the full report by AirPlus International click here
Maintaining compliance and increasing visibility are the key factors in prevention of T&E fraud. Surprisingly, the ACFE reports that most workplace fraud is initially discovered from a tip provided by a co-worker. However, to take action, the tip must be backed up by facts and data.
Here is a video on T&E expense fraud which you may find useful –
Contact us for more information or if you have any specific questions we can help with at info@gorillaexpense.com
Expense report padding may seem like a harmless offense and a common thing. But it still constitutes as fraud. Here are 8 cases where employees and public officials got caught cheating big.
In the last few months, we have been receiving inquiries regarding our integration with ERP & Accounting systems in relation to some of the other expense reporting solutions out there. I think the key difference can be summarized as – Full Automation
Most of the other systems out there say that they can ‘integrate’ but what they really mean is that they provide a flat-file that can then be imported into the ERP system. Nothing wrong with this and it may actually work better for some companies. But when we refer to integration, we mean full 100% automated integration, which means – the Accounting person pushes a button and the expenses are available in the ERP system as GL entries or into AP. This makes a huge difference for our customers.
Using our integration manager utility, they are able to pick and choose expense reports they want to send. After that, they click on a button to push the expense data. Simple as that! We have heard from our customers that With this approach, there is lesser chances of errors, much fewer manual steps that need to be taken and it can be performed by anyone in Accounting or AP without any expert training. Plus, the mapping of parameters can be tweaked very easily within the integration manager by the Admin without having to redesign the flat file format. Thus the Accounting folks will have lot more flexibility in how the data is pushed to the ERP or Accounting systems. We guarantee that this approach is 21st century proof! 🙂
So, come take a look at this and some of the other advancements we are making in the expense reporting space. To see a list of some of the systems we integrate with, go to the ‘Advanced Functions’tab here. If you’d like to learn more or have any questions, as always, send us an email – info@gorillaexpense.com
We have been receiving several inquiries over the last few months about our integration with NAV2013 in relation to what would happen if NAV is hosted on the cloud. Here is the quick scoop –
Microsoft has made significant investments towards the “hostability” of NAV2013. This helps deploying and using NAV in the cloud, thus benefiting both customers and partners. Microsoft is currently fine-tuning deployment scenarios and developing guidance for deploying NAV on Azure. Microsoft expects to make deployment of NAV on Azure broadly available in Q1, 2013. They had initially planned it closer to Nov 2012.
Our application is deployed on the cloud too (as one of the options), specifically Azure (Yes, we are heavily Microsoft oriented and we love it :). With this option, the customer has nothing to worry about in regards to hosting the data, managing the application or tackling the overhead associated with maintaining a server, support etc. Our integration with NAV is agnostic to the hosting format employed. NAV can be on a dedicated server on the cloud or we could be co-hosted with NAV too. Neither approaches affect out integration from the user’s perspective. On the back-end, there will be a few more gerbils turning wheels. But the customer will always experience a seamless and fully automated integration between our solution and NAV.
This flexible integration and hosting capabilities between our solution and NAV makes life much easier for the customer, the partner and of course for us too. Read about our integration with NAV here. If you would like to learn more or have any further questions, send us a message at – info@gorillaexpense.com.
Meanwhile, here are some more tidbits about NAV013 you may find useful
– Microsoft announced the availability of NAV 2013 in 15 markets. With significant improvements in functionality and several new capabilities, this launch was hailed as the most significant release of NAV yet
– Functionality such as Cash Flow Forecast, Cost Accounting, and Excel Integration to Query enable greater accounting efficiency for customers while offering partners the ability to develop customized solutions
– The new NAV web client allows users to access NAV from virtually any device. Improved query and charting offer compelling ways to analyze and display data for more users
– Improvements to the migration tool, partner development tools, and increased interoperability with Microsoft technologies mean less time is needed for partners to customize and deploy solutions, and they are easier for customers to learn and have impact
– Specifically useful for partners, NAV2013 enables easier deployment, configuration and installation through the RoleTailored developer experience. The new .NET Framework enhancements makes it easier to build, deploy and integrate high-performing add-ons with existing NAV solutions, and share data more easily
By popular demand from our global customers, we have released a new feature for capturing VAT. Now, users will be able to list the VAT amount(s) for an expense. Since the transaction includes the receipt, companies will be in compliance with typical VAT reclaim requirements. Depending on the country, different VAT rate categories can be configured in the system.
This is really nifty and helps with more T&E visibility for stakeholders. Also it makes VAT reclaim for companies a piece of cake (or a piece of pie if you are from Europe:) Simply compile the expenses, list all the VAT transactions and you are ready to report it! Hope you enjoy this functionality. As always, we love to hear from you – info@gorillaexpense.com
(Finance Speak is a series where we discuss typical questions & concerns expressed by our customers. We will delve into each of the points and discuss the best way for the company to handle it. If you’d like to contribute or ask a question, send a message to info@gorillaexpense.com with ‘Finance Speak’ in the subject line.)
Executive (E) at a large manufacturing company – We have a sizeable mobile workforce. This mainly includes sales folks and purchasing managers who travel to meet with vendors and OEMs. We currently have no visibility into how we spend on travel. We have a very manual expense reporting process and travel expenses are approved without any due diligence. This leads to almost no visibility in where & how we spend. I would like to establish a process without rocking the boat too much. How do I go about this and what would be your recommendations…..
G – Do you currently have an established and well communicated process to manage T&E spend at all?
E – Not really. Some of the travel we do is last minute and there is minimal planning. After that, there is almost no reconciliation with the spend, not to mention our travelers take forever to send in their reports. The whole process pretty much runs open loop
G – Do you have a policies document for travel expenses? Do you know what your spend limits needs to be in a year?
E – We don’t have a policies document. We are paying more attention on how to budget our spend and making serious attempts to be within that budget. Some of these vary by projects so it does become a little hard to tackle
G – So, it sounds like managing spend by projects would definitely be an area of interest. It would also appear that you would like to automate this process as much as possible so that all stakeholders are involved. Would this be a correct assumption?
E – Absolutely! We would like for your company to guide us on how to setup a process and gradually automate it as we bring in more tools for the traveling folks. Can we connect this afternoon and discuss this in more detail?…….
This was definitely a very engaging discussion with our customer. Every company struggles with visibility into spend. Even the ones with a mature process. As companies grow their needs change and their tracking of parameters evolve – much more so for T&E because of the dynamic nature.
So what did we propose to our customer? We discussed many items but we recommended to take small steps that would converge at measurable goals over time. Due to the company’s culture, it made sense for them to not try too much at once. Here’s what we discussed –
T&E expense reporting process – We talked about the typical expense reporting process (See our website). This was a great way for them to start thinking about it. The key point was the importance of communicating this process and guidelines clearly & frequently to employees. After they looked at it, we helped them fine-tune it much more to meet their needs.
Expense reporting automation – A no-brainer really. This would solve several of the immediate inefficiencies and move them away from the manual process they have today. With this, their employees cannot make excuses for delays in submission. The other advantages are discussed below.
Policies for Expense Reporting – Our application includes setup of policies on various parameters. They were broken down into expense types for this company. This made a huge difference for them in being able to enforce limits. Here is an example screenshot –
Manager Approval – The application also has the ability for managers to view, correct, redirect & approve/reject expenses (See video). This way the right stakeholders were involved in the process and it wasn’t open loop anymore. The company setup a list of approving managers and specific employees to these managers for approval. Over the last few weeks, they have started creating additional layers of managers to review and monitor expense reports. A far cry from what they were doing a few months back!
Allocation of Expenses to Projects – We helped them track project expenses within the application. Project numbers are available to employees who allocate them to the report. We are working through the integration to their ERP system so that all these expenses are pushed to specific project accounts with no manual data entry. Their Accounts Payable manager now does more AP work instead of entering expenses!
T&E Analytics and Reporting – Finally, we walked them through our reporting and analytics engine that helps them slice and dice data to find out biggest areas of spend, expenses that were out of line, budgeted VS spent analysis, expenses by employees, expense types etc. so that they have better visibility on the where and how of travel spend. This has helped them review areas they would have never thought of looking at before.
End Result?
– The company now saves thousands of dollars per month by taking these steps
– The finance team has more details on travel spend
– Employees now submit expenses faster and they love the tools that have enabled improvements
– We helped them expand on their travel policies document when they had none
– The executive we interfaced with is loving his new approach and system having implemented all these steps without breaking the bank
While the company still needs to address other challenges, they are definitely on the right path towards tackling these tricky T&E problems one at a time. At the end of the day a big win-win for all!
This paper (Air Spend Management 101 by NBTA) published by the NBTA discusses various areas to look at and specific steps to take for better management of air travel expenses. The results of this research include lowering costs, improving compliance, setting and managing air travel policies and long-term initiatives for better management of air travel for the company.
– The average tab for a meal worldwide is $39 while dining alone
– New York generates the most T&E expense reports than any other state, most of it coming from the NYC area
– Dining accounts for 10-17% of the $$ value on an average expense report
– Entertainment (group meals/customer meals etc.) account for a typical 6% of an expense report
– US Travelers spend surprisingly 4% more on cabs than on rental cars in a year
– Ground transportation accounts for 5% of the average expense account
– For US companies, business travel to Europe is on the average 7% more expensive than to any other part of the world
– The most expensive cab fare is in Vancouver, an average of $73. In the US, San Jose is the highest at $51
– Hotel room rates are on an average 14% more expensive in Europe than the US
– NYC is # 1 among cities visited for business travel
– Laundry and meals are the two main expense types areas that see expense fraud
Some of these we found online, some were submitted by our readers. Do you have other T&E trivia to share? Send us an email (info@gorillaexpense.com) and we will add to the list.
