Because of globalization, expansion, and mobility business travel is easier to do today than it ever has been before. However, with this increase in travel, time and expense management becomes more and more difficult.
Managing T&E expenses successfully has notoriously been a struggle for companies of all sizes. Between paper invoices and manual processes, there’s a lot of room for error (and for things to slip between the cracks). Here, we’ll explore some common T&E management challenges and explain how NetSuite Time & Expense Management can help combat these obstacles.
Unclear T&E Policies
If it’s difficult for your employees to understand your travel policy, incorrect entries and non-compliant submissions will end up costing you and your employees unnecessary time when they have to go back and edit their time and expenses. It’s important to properly define your T&E policy so you don’t face unexpected charges and unauthorized purchases.
Once you have clearly outlined travel and expense policies, your team will have the information it needs to record time and expenses correctly.
How NetSuite Can Help
With NetSuite, you can easily set up your T&E system so employees know exactly how to categorize their expenses and time. This helps ensure everyone is on the same page regarding what’s allowed and what isn’t permitted.
Manual Time Tracking
Paper timesheets and spreadsheets are a nightmare when it comes to tracking T&E. Not only are they difficult to keep track of, but there’s plenty of time for human error. Additionally, these types of manual tracking usually mean tons of redundancy, as the time and expenses usually need to be entered into several systems to capture the time and expenses in every relevant area of the business.
How NetSuite Can Help
NetSuite Timesheet Management is available on desktop as well as iOS and Android mobile devices, meaning it can be accessed anytime, from anywhere. It’s simple for employees to take photos of their receipts and load them directly into the app as soon as they have a meal or make a permissible purchase. Additionally, they can add their hours as soon as their workday is completed. All of this information is stored right inside the cloud-based system, allowing easy access for editing and adding onto certain projects as needed.
And, because NetSuite is a fully automated system, you’ll realize the benefits of improved reporting on projects when the various components of your business talk to each other by way of this T&E tracking software.
Disconnected Approval Processes
Again, if you have a disjointed tracking system, you’re also going to have a disconnected approvals process. Keeping track of old-school methods of time and expense management simply isn’t the way of the world these days. It often takes longer for employees to get reimbursed, and management typically has to wade through dozens of documents in order to figure out what to approve and what may not be allowed.
How NetSuite Can Help
Reimbursement delays can really cause a lot of frustration in the workplace. NetSuite makes things go more smoothly by giving managers the ability to review submitted time and expenses right from their computers or phones.
In the Weekly Timesheet view, employees can seamlessly enter the hours worked on certain projects, as well as leave memos for their managers in case something unexpected came up during the week. Once that week’s time is saved and submitted, it’s automatically pushed through to the manager’s approval workflow.
Expense reports work similarly. Employees can quickly grab the applicable category from the dropdown in NetSuite, add the amount and applicable currency, then add any necessary notes to complete the transaction. Again, once it’s saved and submitted, it’s off to the manager’s workflow for review and approval.
Poor Forecasting and Reporting
Everything is tied together; if you don’t have an automated, up-to-date T&E management system, you likely have a tiresome time reporting your travel and expenses and forecasting for upcoming projects. Inaccurate and untimely forecasts can negatively impact the quality of future decisions, and can actually end up hurting your bottom line.
How NetSuite Can Help
Since NetSuite’s Timesheet Management system is fully online and accessible from anywhere, it’s easy to ensure accurate reporting and forecasting because the information is stored in the cloud and ready to be viewed at a moment’s notice. You can forecast against time spent and time remaining on projects and projects tasks to get more accurate insights into profitability and performance.
NetSuite Time and Expense Management Demo
Check out our Time & Expense management demo here or below. In this video, we demonstrate how resources can enter time and expenses within NetSuite. We also show NetSuite’s mobile capabilities for time and expense approvals.
MIBAR’s Here to Get NetSuite Going for Your Business
Transform your business with the power of NetSuite, and let MIBAR help you achieve this success. Our team of experts will tailor solutions to your unique business, ensuring you realize cutting-edge business technology and a team of partners who want the very best for organization. Reach out to us today to learn how we can help you!
