How to save time on expense reporting

Quick insights

• An expense report is an itemized list of business expenses incurred by an employee.
• Creating expense report policies with specific guidelines could potentially save companies time and money.
• Expense management software may offer automations that speed up the reporting process.

Creating and processing expense reports can be a major accounting task for some businesses. The more business expenses incurred, the more expense reports may need to be created. This could result in more administrative time spent by employees.

However, it can be important to keep up with expense reporting to maintain financial transparency. Plus, accurate expense reports could help businesses track spending and identify possible cost-cutting opportunities.

Below, we cover a few ways to potentially save time on the expense management process, both with and without expense management software.

Ways to efficiently track expenses

Tracking expenses can be important for both the business and its employees. Businesses can track their spending, and employees can receive reimbursements for work-related expenses they incur.

Whether you run a small business with few expenses or a larger business with many expenses, there are a few things you can do to potentially add efficiencies to the expense reporting process:

Create an expense report policy

Creating and implementing an expense report policy may help ensure consistency between employees. This, in turn, could help streamline the report creation and approval process.

Even if your company doesn’t have many employees, it can be beneficial for everyone to understand expense guidelines. For example, you may want employees to choose preferred vendors for airfare and lodging on business trips. Or, you may want to define what they can and cannot receive reimbursement for.

Here are a few things you may want to consider when creating an expense report policy:

• Acceptable categories for reimbursement
• Spending limits for categories (for instance, how much can an employee spend on food each day)
• Due dates for expense reports
• Who will review/approve expense reports
• When employees will receive reimbursement each month

Submit expense reports on time

When creating an expense policy, it may be wise to add specific due dates for expense reports. This can be helpful to ensure that expense reports are submitted within the correct accounting period for accurate financial reporting.

If there are no guidelines for due dates, employees may choose to submit reports weeks after they incurred an expense. If this happens, a business owner may think they have more funds available.

A potential solution to this problem could be to ask employees to submit expense reports within a set number of business days after incurring an expense.

Consider expense management software

Smaller businesses with few expenses may not spend much time creating and processing expense reports. As a business grows, though, it may incur additional expenses. And with additional expenses, there are typically additional expense reports.

Online expense management software can help potentially speed up the expense management process through automation. Note that there may be fees associated with using expense management software.

This type of software may help automate the following:

• Uploading receipts
• Enforcing company policies
• Adding up totals
• Categorizing expenses
• Sending reports for approval

Some software options allow business owners to set up expense alerts and notifications about spending trends and potential overspending. This could provide additional visibility into finances and cash flow.

You may also be able to link your business credit card and bank account with your company’s expense management software.

Regularly review expenses

Regularly reviewing expenses may help mitigate errors in the expense reporting process. This could help save companies time and money, because reporting errors can result in additional billable time spent on creating and reviewing expense reports.

Investing in expense management software may help companies avoid manual errors in expense reports due to automation features.

Leverage business credit card features

Selecting a business credit card that offers expense management features could also help employers save time on expense reporting. For example, each Chase Ink business credit card allows employers to issue employee credit cards at no additional cost. Primary cardmembers can view individual employee spending by credit card.

Plus, employee credit cards are directly linked to the company's credit account, which means that employees won’t need to use personal credit cards for business purchases. This could remove some reimbursement steps out of the expense management process.

Employers can also set employee spending limits on Chase Ink credit cards. Setting spending limits can help curb excess spending. To set up a spending limit for an authorized user/employee, log into your Chase account online or through the Chase Mobile^® app.

Note that some business credit cards have an annual fee.

In summary

Expense reporting can be a crucial part of business bookkeeping. However, the associated administrative time can add up. Employers may want to consider implementing an expense report policy to potentially save time. Other efficiencies may include opting for online expense management software or applying for a business card with expense tracking features.