Travel expense report app - a comparison
How do I find the right travel expense report app?
Brave and colourful new world
In a time of comprehensive digitalisation, word has got around that the processes and receipts for business trips relating to expenses should also be digitalised. Something which most companies realised at last during the time of intensive home office during the pandemic.
But what now? Which solution should you choose for your company or organisation? How do I get the right information? What should I consider when choosing?
Questions upon questions.
Let me say it up front. In this article, I cannot answer all of these questions in detail and in full. At the same time, the following sections will give you some valuable initial ideas. We are not only experts in travel expense accounting, but have also supported 100s of projects in software selection from various positions.
So if you would like to receive more detailed information on the topic after reading this article, please feel free to make an appointment here for an initial free consultation of around one hour.
Fancy travel expenses app
Do you feel the same way? It seems like a new, even fancier app comes onto the market almost every quarter. Recently, I even got a short promotional video on my private Instagram account showing how easy charges from a certain credit card magically end up in the financial accounting system.
It suggests that all you have to do is take a photo of the receipt or pay with the right credit card and all problems are solved.
Of course there are functions in good travel expense accounting software in which:
- Receipts can be scanned via OCR
- Most important details are extracted from the receipts via OCR and processed further
- Expenses paid with the company credit card are imported into the software
Is that enough or what needs to be checked? Let's take a look at a few points.
- Digitise receipts via APP
Always check whether, for example, the smartphone's photo function is being used and where the photos are stored first. If they are temporarily stored on the smartphone, for example, you should immediately cancel any further action. This is because it would be a data protection offence to store company data on a private device. The same applies if personal data, such as personnel numbers or similar, is also stored in the app.
So make sure that the app serves 100% as a portal only and that NO data is stored or processed on the end device.
Secondly, you can check whether the photo or scan is the last step in the digitisation process. Because of course the receipt is then digitised. However, if travellers have to enter the data manually, this would certainly not be great and errors, including subsequent discussions, would be inevitable.
If the APP can then also read data from the receipts and pass it on for further processing, that's pretty good.
But there are still a few things to consider, because OCR has its limits. If you are a little more interested in this, you should read the last blog post. Here I explained in more detail how OCR and/or AI systems work and how the two can be combined.
- Easy data transfer from the credit card into the travel expense accounting system
There are also some pitfalls here. Which company credit card do you use? Is there one contract for all cards or several contracts? Do you use a virtual company credit card or a personal credit card or both?
How does the data get into the system and what does it cost? We have already seen a lot in our projects. For example, one bank wanted €2,000 per month for the provision of data in a standardised format. Or another customer did not have ONE contract for all company credit cards, but a separate one for each card. As a result, he did not receive ONE file, but many. Something like this should be clarified in advance.
- Additional functions
No matter how fancy an app looks, always check the technical depth.
- How are kilometres recorded and calculated? (including complex, interlinked journeys)
- How are additional catering expenses (VMA) recorded and calculated? (also complex, linked trips)
- For example, is the 3-month rule monitored automatically without travellers or the back office having to maintain additional Excel tables on the side? Ticking a box in the APP is not enough, because how am I supposed to know who has to tick this box and when?
- How easy is it to split automatically recorded documents? Because let's be honest. Unfortunately, this affects a lot of receipts because of the different VAT rates (e.g. hotel, hospitality, etc.)
- And when we talk about splitting receipts or travel expenses. How easy is it to select a different cost centre and can the costs be posted to cost units (projects, orders, etc.) at the same time?
- Which brings us to the interfaces to subsequent systems. Which FI or HR systems are connected?
The list is by no means complete. But hopefully it gives you an initial orientation.
Ask yourself honestly: If the implementation of travel expense accounting software only costs €1,000 (or similar) because everything runs in the fancy app - how deep can the technical expertise be? What customisation options should there be to meet your specific needs?
Digitised crap remains crap
Please excuse the title, but isn't that often the case? If processes are no good or travel expense guidelines are still based on analogue processes? How is a 1:1 implementation in the digital world supposed to bring any success or benefit?
Just because you give your travellers a fancy app doesn't mean that much has improved. Incidentally, this is not at all an argument against integrating a good app for travel expense accounting into well-organised processes.
And this is precisely our approach. Prepare for the digital transformation. Take a look at the actual processes and where you want to go. Take a look at the existing travel expense policy with regard to the digitalisation of travel expense accounting. Ask yourself what you actually need, what you can do without and what your specialities are.
In any case, our recommendation is not to focus exclusively on one product (no matter how chic, modern and glitzy the app is). You need the right partner at your side. It's all about services and ensuring that the digital transformation of your travel expense report brings you real benefits. It should give you legal certainty in the back office and reduce stress because you no longer have to chase after receipts, etc. And it should benefit travellers and managers, as they no longer have to spend their free time travelling with a stapler and a Pritt pen or suffering PDF battles.
And anyone who is now afraid that a large, expensive consultancy project will be needed to prepare for this can rest assured. If service providers / consultancies really know what they are talking about, if they really have expertise from x number of travel expense report digitisation projects, if there really is best practice, then it can neither take long nor cost a lot.
If it is exciting for you to at least get an initial overview of important steps, then please feel free to make an appointment here for an initial free consultation.
In any case, we look forward to your feedback as always.
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