Chrome River CURRENTS

Editor’s Note: This article is the last in a four-part series on reporting travel and entertainment expenses. Part 3 can be found here. 

Editor’s Note: This article is third in a four-part series on reporting travel and entertainment expenses. Part 2 can be found here.

Editor’s Note: This article is the second in a four-part series on how to report travel and entertainment expenses. Part 1 can be found here.

Editor’s note: This article is the first in a four-part series on reporting travel and entertainment expenses.

As college tuition costs and student debt soar to record heights, state education budgets also continue to fall. More than ever, universities and other educational institutions need new ways to control costs and increase transparency. School administrators can gain a better perspective on finances by using expense management software like Chrome River EXPENSE, which offers detailed analytics and monitoring of business expense reports.

In Part 1, we looked at the differences between manual and automated expense and invoice entry. So how does automated entry make Accounts Payable more strategic? Here are just a few of the ways that immediately come to mind.

Over the past 14 years, I’ve had the good fortune to be part of many business-process-improvement initiatives related to Spend Management. It’s been my experience that often, at first, the Accounts Payable managers are concerned about the impact on their department and can even be reluctant to pursue Accounts Payable automation altogether. I’m not sure if it’s the specter of the way robotics once replaced countless skilled workers in Detroit or the common notion that one day we will all be replaced by machines. It just seems like AP managers are often concerned about losing headcount and control over processes that they have owned for many years.

On a recent US Airways flight, we pulled into the gate later than our expected arrival time.  The flight attendant, no doubt in an effort to sound considerate, asked everyone on the plane to please let those passengers trying to make connecting flights disembark first.  I thought, ‘What a ridiculous request!  Though I’d be more than happy to oblige, how will the rest of the passengers—all of whom will be jumping out of their seats as soon as we come to a stop—know exactly who among us meets that requirement?  Would it be the people who look exhausted, flushed, nauseated or annoyed?  That would include everyone!’

In a perfect world, your organization’s invoice management would be the last thing you’d need to worry about. It would be a secure, transparent and paperless operation, with accounts payable managing the process and approvers easily validating payments. However, with many vendors and suppliers still using paper invoices, the reality is that companies often fall back on inefficient and expensive manual processing.

While at a conference in San Antonio, you decide to go on a sponsored side trip with other attendees: a scenic helicopter ride over the city and the surrounding Texas Hill Country. You can probably deduct the flight as a business expense, but don’t forget to keep those convention brochures that describe it as a networking experience in case you need to prove it. As with most aspects of travel expense management, it’s important to provide documentation and be clear on company guidelines.