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Finance Speak – Cloud based or On-Premise?

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(Finance Speak is a new series where we will discuss typical questions & concerns expressed by our customers. We will delve into the logic and analysis behind each discussion. If you’d like to contribute or ask a question, send a message to info@gorillaexpense.com with ‘Finance Speak’ in the subject line.)

Gorilla – Would you like for us to host the application & data or do you want to manage it yourselves?

Executive (Anonymous) –  I think we will be going with an On-Premise package because it will be cheaper

G – Do you have a server? Do you have internal experts who can tackle this? Do you plan to host other applications?

E – We don’t really have an IT team or other applications but it shouldn’t be too tricky I imagine

G – Well, firstly you will need IT experts to deploy and manage the application. Secondly, you are handling important data, which will be accessed periodically, so you need to be sure about security, encryption, retrieval etc. Plus you don’t want the system to go down when people are traveling around the clock and using the application

E – In that case, we will let you manage it. But won’t that be more expensive for us?

G – Not really, considering all factors. Let me break it down in more detail………

We get this question every time, 99.9% of the time actually. Most of our customers evaluate On-Premise (OP) vs Cloud (CL) based solely on price which can be misleading. When you go with a CL based solution you get several things – flexibility, scalability, transparency, maintenance, On-Demand expertise etc.

And when it comes to price comparisons, CL can be cheaper than OP in some cases. Most companies don’t consider the TCO of an OP solution and therefore assume CL will be more expensive. Of course in some cases CL may be more expensive. But there are more facets to that discussion than a simple OP costs-divide-by-12-months and compare to a CL monthly rate. In some companies, there may be corporate mandates to use OP for all applications and that makes sense because price is not the sole reason.

For a more in depth analysis, see this article from CIO.com that captures the salient points very well –

Article

Why organization of T&E data is as important as ever

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One area that many companies struggle with is organizing of expense related data. This is especially important because stakeholders in these companies frequently utilize the data to observe trends, study patterns and take proactive steps towards improving the T&E process. We have guided our customers in this area to use best practices. Here are some anecdotal observations –

The lack of success with data organization & management can be broadly attributed to the following reasons –

Case 1) There are no defined structures – Many companies ‘toss’ expense data into one area. While this expedites the submission process initially, it becomes onerous at a later point when specific information is required. What’s more, without any organization, all T&E related data look the same. If there is ever a case for lack of T&E visibility, this one takes the cake!

Case 2) There are defined structures but no retrieval mechanisms – Here, companies define areas but offer no means to retrieve and analyze the data. This makes any front-end organization pointless because the end goal of analysis and fine-tuning of data cannot be achieved. While this is still a problem, it is better than Case 1

Case 3) Too many structures – The other end of the spectrum includes companies that have defined to many areas. While this may give an impression of better organization, it is really an illusion because of too much granularity. To arrive at meaningful conclusions, several areas must be analyzed concurrently. This makes it burdensome and error-prone. Then again, this is definitely better than Case 1 and Case 2

From these notes, it is very obvious that organization of data is very ‘company specific’. Different companies have different processes and procedures, sometimes even disparate, and therefore need unique solutions to manage this.

A big factor in this is human nature. If something is arduous and complicated, we usually put it off. This leads to forgetfulness, which leads to a mad rush during tax time or at the end of the year to get organized. The implications are huge and the penalties for not managing the data better are substantial. Companies frequently throw away millions of $$ due to –

– Failure to take proactive steps from T&E data on time

– Not realizing all the tax deductions before tax season

– Forget to bill clients because post-deal activities were not categorized

– Lack of spend visibility on runaway projects due to untimely data management

etc.

At Gorilla Expense, we assist our clients by first helping them define clear, non-redundant areas. Once this is done, specific advice is provided to create future areas carefully. Everything is defined based on how these areas are managed in the back-end ERP/Accounting systems. Since our application is extremely pliable, it can adapt to varying formats. Only after this is technology employed.

Using unique tagging & mapping mechanisms built into the application, come tax time or end of the year, our customers are fully aware areas of spend, steps for improvement, categories to monitor for the next FY etc. which are broken down further by customer accounts, projects, work-orders and more. Now that’s called successful T&E data management!

We are always interested in discussing your pain points and help in any way we can. Contact us at info AT gorillaexpense.com.

The IRS and electronic receipts

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Over the last several months, we have been receiving questions about the IRS’s acceptance of electronic receipts. The IRS does accept electronic receipts, but there are a few caveats. All the details are specified under IRS Rev. Proc. 97-22 which can be found:

Here

The general requirements (page 10 of 36) in this PDF specified by the IRS are:

“(1) reasonable controls to ensure the integrity, accuracy and reliability of the electronic storage system
(2) reasonable controls to prevent and detect the unauthorized creation of, addition to, alteration of, deletion of or deterioration of electronically stored books and records
(3) an inspection and quality assurance program, evidenced by regular evaluations of the electronic storage system including periodic checks of electronically stored books and records
(4) a retrieval system that includes an indexing system
(5) the ability to reproduce legible and readable hard copies of electronically stored books and records.”

Please note that this is NOT legal or tax advice. Please contact your attorney for more information.

Gorilla Expense releases Credit Card Import Module

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Gorilla Expense has released its credit card import module. With this, users will be able to import credit card transactions directly into the expense report. The module incorporates all major credit cards as well as several banks including checking and savings.

For users, this will reduce the time spent in creating reports and minimize errors. For the stakeholders, there will be more visibility into spend, greater compliance and easier reconciling of submitted expenses with CC statements.

Try it out today! Send email to info AT gorillaexpense.com for a trial.