Chrome River CURRENTS

Your company’s audit committee faces significant challenges this year. Its members will need to address new risks and responsibilities while staying focused on financial reporting integrity and internal controls, according to an article on the Accounting Today website. That’s why priorities for 2013 should include monitoring the impact of business and regulatory changes on your company's compliance programs, along with developing a clear understanding of how your company is managing its significant tax risks.

You know your employees well, and trust them to do the right thing. So you might not see the need for an expense policy for your business. But even in such a fraud-free utopia, having an expense policy in place helps keep everyone on the same page, preventing frustration and mistakes.

If you have to travel for your job, you’re probably very aware of how important it is to keep track of your business mileage. You might think that you’re keeping a close eye on the miles, but you might actually be losing money on your travels. To make sure you don't get shortchanged on business mileage, there are a few things you can do to protect yourself.

The simplest method of tracking mileage is, of course, good old-fashioned pen and paper. Write down your car’s mileage when you start your trip and when you end it. Or leave yourself voicemails, or send yourself text messages. Of course, things get complicated if you have more than one destination or need to exclude portions of the trip that were not business related.

In today’s technologically advanced world, it seems there’s an automated answer for everything. Now, many business travelers use Google Maps to determine the mileage they have traveled. In fact, Chrome River EXPENSE includes Google Maps functionality for calculating mileage for expense-reimbursement purposes. Simply enter the starting and ending addresses for your trip, and Chrome River will automatically calculate how much you should be reimbursed, based on your organization’s rules. You can also calculate mileage between multiple destinations and exclude personal mileage, if necessary.

The key to making sure you don’t get shortchanged on business mileage is to keep accurate records. Whether you use a notepad, send a text message to yourself, leave a voicemail on your office phone, or let Chrome River’s Google Maps widget do the work, the important thing is that you make sure you have an accurate record. Doing this prevents problems during an in-house audit and provides useful information when travel budgets are being created for future use.

Whether you’re a salesperson or a consultant, keeping track of travel and entertainment expenses can often be a hassle. What’s worse, it feels like busy work — collecting these petty receipts, filling out forms, getting approvals — and you’d rather be doing your real job.

You’re in an airport waiting out a 3-hour layover, but despite all of your gadgets, you’re having difficulty staying in touch and getting meaningful work done. You need to charge your phone, but while looking for the adapter, you realize you left the last three days worth of receipts in your hotel room.

Budget cuts and challenging economic conditions have required higher education institutions to tighten their belts even further by closely examining budgets and scrupulously tracking spending.  Universities are under immense pressure to demonstrate the true value of travel and expense budgets, while at the same time finding innovative ways to control those costs.  With so many different people and groups within an institution incurring business expenses, keeping up with specific policies, spending limits and complex allocations can be overwhelming.  Unlike other businesses, many institutional expenses are funded through grants or special budgets, which must be accurately allocated and meticulously tracked.  Serving the needs of institution administrators, full-time faculty, athletic coaches and authorized guest travelers, higher education truly has unique travel and expense needs.

There are very few people who like to hassle with filling out expense reports and dealing with expense management teams. While more and more businesses are moving toward automated travel expense reporting, some companies are still out of touch with the times. If you’re looking for ways to convince your boss to automate expenses, look no further.

You may assume that expense management teams are supported by financial departments, but it might surprise you to know that many expense management teams are partially supported by various Human Resources personnel. After all, expense management teams are an integral part of the payroll department. (In some cases, the payroll department is actually known as the Expense Management Team.) This means that the expense management team needs to have more than just a working knowledge of different financial avenues. The team also needs to know how to deal with employees in a way that won’t seem threatening or offensive.

All the talk of fiscal austerity and budget cutbacks makes one believe that the only way to reduce costs is through reductions in staffing and labor. There’s no doubt that labor is taking the brunt of the pain in today’s current economic environment. But creative companies are applying big data analytics to their spend management processes to uncover hidden costs where simple changes can yield substantial savings.

Recently, I was reading BTN Group's 29th annual roundup of "The 25 Most Influential Business Travel Executives of 2012", which recognizes the executives who are shaping the future of the business travel industry. Call them "movers and shakers" or "power players" or "dealmakers"—these are the folks who are driving change, and their list of accomplishments is impressive indeed.