Business expenses are a sensitive topic in companies, and at the same time fraught with a huge risk of fraud. What is their real cause and how can you better control your budget? First find the enemy and then effectively annihilate him. Here's a tip on how to do it once and for all!

Recognize the enemy

Who wastes company money most often? A statistical "fraudster" is a man over 40, who has been working in the company for at least 3 years, holding at least a managerial position, so he has managed to gain the company's trust. How long will it take to discover his deception? Usually as long as 2 years, and very often abuses come to light when the employee is no longer in the company.

However, you must remember that opportunity makes a thief. This increases the risk of not only unintentional mistakes, but also costly fraud zrelated to business expenses? If a company lacks appropriate procedures, information is scattered, many people are involved in the process and control tools are missing. If employees apply for funds on paper forms and the data from them is entered manually into spreadsheets and manually compiled with other files into collective reports. If data is stored in many places (someone keeps it on a local drive, someone on Google Docs, and someone else on an external drive) and processed by many people. If there is a significant difference between the time of collecting information and the time of processing it. If the company does not have tools or there are several different ones, data must be manually transferred between them.

Uncontrolled business expenses occur wherever the possibility arises. Nobody likes to feel guilty, but if I don't have a clear policy for managing the company's capital, there is no sense of responsibility. Abuse is also fueled by pressure, e.g. pressure from superiors for high results, which encourages employees to engage in unfair practices (e.g. generating false orders).

Already know who your enemy is? If the processes in your company are leaky, don't be surprised that abuses occur.

Don't use half measures

More than half of companies in Poland experience abuse. The source of uncontrolled costs for companies are primarily business trips. Only 55% of companies have a business travel expenses policy (Amadeus). However, even in companies that have written rules, as many as 50% of employees do not follow them. Payments not made to the right places, settlements not made on time, use of company payment cards for private purposes, suboptimal means of transport during business trips are just a few examples of abuses to which companies are exposed.

However, the procedures are of no use if you still use paper applications and manual settlement and accounting, and the path to acceptance is long and winding. If you want your employees to follow your business expense policy, make it easy for them to do so. The more you simplify the process of settling, for example, business trips, the greater the probability that applications will be received on time and will not require corrections, and employees will not have to wait for months for a refund.

Elimination action

How to do this? Since the source of the problem are manual processes and the resulting chaos, paperwork and lack of control, provide yourself and your team with a tool that will eliminate these factors. Replace manual operation with a simple application on the Qalcwise platform. So simple that completing the online application will take the employee less time than a paper one. And the supervisor will automatically receive a notification and will be able to allocate funds (or not) with one click. Let the employee book hotels and rent cars via Qalcwise on external websites (e.g. by integrating the application with Booking.com), setting cost limits. During the trip, the employee will have the opportunity report business expenses on an ongoing basis – just take a photo of the receipt or invoice with your smartphone and send it for approval. After the acceptation the data will post itself, without the need for manual processing. The application will automatically calculate the amount of allowances due, employee lump sums, mileage allowances and download the appropriate exchange rate for a given currency. With just a few clicks, generate a ready-made statement, obtain the necessary approval and create a transfer order. Thanks to this, the employee will receive a refund immediately!

The TEM (Travel Expenses Management) application on the Qalcwise platform not only speeds up and facilitates the settlement of business expenses, but also allows the process to be consistent with the company's policy. You can create any rules in it, set limits, assign budgets and give appropriate permissions to employees. You can check the level of budget utilization at any time, report costs while controlling the budget, you don't have to wait for the end of the month! Additionally, thanks to a detailed cost analysis, you can negotiate better conditions and discounts with suppliers.

Automation of manual processes is the most effective means of eliminating mistakes and fraud related to business expenses in companies. It is available immediately and works quickly! Qalcwise Billing Apps delegation (TEM) and business expenses you can test today. This is how you overcome abuse!