Expense Reports Made Easy 

No one likes the chore of filling out a long expense report after a business trip. There isn’t anything necessarily bad about the report, it is simply a long, annoying process that no one seems to enjoy. Your expense report doesn’t need to become a challenge every time you travel. Use these great tips and share them with your employees to make filing expenses a breeze.

Make Sure You're Using the Latest and Greatest

Systems change regularly and your employees won’t be too happy if your using something outdated or overly complicated. Don’t treat your employee like an accountant unless that is their job. Abandon code systems you never use and simplify the process as much as possible.

Be sure to use the newest technology to your advantage. There are plenty of new tools that can help you with an expense report, some may even do most of the work for you. Apps are available, for example, that can capture the image of receipts and automatically put the information in a report or database. Use these to your advantage.

Tell Your Employees What You Expect

It’s never fun to get back from a long business trip only to find that you forgot a step in recording how much was spent. They also may not know when you need the paperwork completed or other details about filing. Keep your employee informed at all times if you want to keep your travel budget on par. It can also help make the process easier and reduce the odds they will break policy on their trip.

Encourage Your Employees

Employees like to feel they did a good job, especially after filling out a lengthy report. Be sure to let them know that their reports were very necessary and emphasize the impact of the reports while you work. Let them know about the policies you need to comply with as well.

If the employee does a great job on something so important, you should reward them. Praise, incentives, or even a cash bonus for completing the report on time and on budget can be an excellent motivator. This rewards the good behavior and encourages it to continue. It may even excite the employee if the reward is great enough.

If you are still finding yourself having trouble adapting these new rules or using the expense reports, continue to explore the process. Make things even simpler if you can and make sure that information on what you want is easily accessible.  The simpler you make the process, the happier everyone will be.

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