Chrome River CURRENTS

Online expense reporting replaces a manual process with a streamlined, automated method for authorizing, tracking and reimbursing business-related expenses. But, like many cloud-based solutions, online expense reporting can also offer strategic advantages that help your organization become more competitive.

After a long day of meetings, you head back to your hotel room, kick back, and start thinking about dinner. You could go to one of the restaurants nearby, but you already have your shoes off, and eating alone in public can feel awkward. There’s always room service, but the menu doesn’t look appealing and the high prices would be a stretch for your per diem. Fortunately, a wide variety of delicious cuisine is also available via your smartphone.

When you see someone making poor decisions—risky investments, unrealistic scheduling, foolish health choices—it’s tempting to assume they do not have all the facts. In the “big data” era, however, the facts alone aren’t enough to guarantee dispassionate, fully informed decision-making.

The primary advantage of a corporate credit card program is the convenience it offers to an organization and its employees, especially when integrated with expense management software. For example, a system like Chrome River EXPENSE allows an employee to automatically download charges to an expense report, taking the tedium of data entry out of business expense tracking. An article on BusinessTravelNews.com reports that employees tend to respond well to this convenience, resulting in improved compliance with internal policies.

Business travel is on the rise. The Global Business Travel Association predicts companies will spend $268.5 billion this year on travel in the U.S. alone, according to an article on Entrepreneur.com. At the same time, mobile apps, smartphones and tablets are helping frequent travelers streamline travel plans as well as travel expense management.

If your organization is like most, you already have “big data” — a seemingly bottomless pit of documents, spreadsheets, emails, web-traffic reports, social media interactions and more. When left unorganized, it’s not terribly valuable to you or to anyone else in your business. The key to creating valuable, actionable information lies in how you integrate, analyze and interpret that data.

With rising confidence in the U.S. economy, many organizations plan to strengthen their ranks this year by hiring new employees and rewarding valuable staff with salary increases, according to an article on the Accounting Today website. Each new employee means new paperwork, including expense reports, so it’s imperative to take a look at how your organization handles tracking business expenses.

The advice “make sure you get a receipt” may now require an addendum: “But don’t touch it!” Handling crumpled register receipts certainly kills productivity, but these receipts may also be a health hazard. Mobile expense management software could help reduce your exposure.

The proliferation of mobile devices is making it easier for companies and their projects to spread beyond international borders. Mobile professionals of every stripe have joined globetrotting executives in working remotely from airports, hotels and their homes. In this working environment, keeping operations flowing smoothly requires increasingly sophisticated mobile data tools.

Efficient marketing! Cost-effective client acquisition! “Big data” seems to promise improvements on every level. But while many organizations already amass copious amounts of data, it remains isolated in operational silos and disparate formats. The keys to uncovering opportunities and creative solutions within your company’s data are increasing transparency and making it easy for users to generate custom business expense reports.