Expense Processing

Processing personal expense reports is one of those unavoidable, day-to-day administrative activities that takes a lot of effort and can be prone to errors, without generating any value for the company. UNIT4 Business Software has a solution that can help!

Coda Financials’ expense processing addresses the issues around entering, authorizing and tracking expense reports by making every stage of the process easier, clearer, and more controlled. The end result: increased accuracy and better coordination for all concerned.

A more effective and user-friendly solution

For the Financial Controller, it:

• offers full integration with Coda Financials where expense data can be fully analyzed by employee
• supports re-billable expenses to customers and trading partners
• has full audit trails and sophisticated workflow features based on Coda’s award-winning control framework
• provides industry-standard validation
• handles taxes and mileage
• allows input of expenses in multiple currencies.

For the employee, it:

• provides a pre-customized, easy-to-use expense input form
• offers standard, familiar expense types
• provides standard expense reports for submission to accounting
• offers an online portal where the employee can check the expense report’s payment and authorization status.

Streamlined, co-ordinated expense processing

In a typical expense process, conformance to corporate policy is normally undertaken late in the process, which then necessitates a large amount of manual chasing and checking to make the necessary adjustments. Within Coda Financials, this occurs at the beginning of the process – cutting out much of the administrative burden. A user simply inputs their claim into a standard input template, with its inbuilt validation:

Click here to view enlarged image

The user is able to partially complete an expense entry then save the form in draft, for later submission if required. Furthermore, the system is able to cater for input by a nominated delegate. When completed, forms are then automatically routed straight to the appropriate authorizer(s) and the system prompts any further actions (e.g. adjustments) between participants until the claim is signed off. The powerful workflow tool also enables delayed expense reports to be rerouted if necessary and approvers to delegate workflow tasks as required.

Self-service expense portal

Once authorized for payment, the details are fed directly back into the accounting system. However, even after this, the expense form is continually updated on the expense portal with the payment status. This delivers a single process that is quick, automated, standardized and fully transparent to all stakeholders.

Expense management benefit summary

To summarize, UNIT4 Business Software’s expense processing solutions enable:

• Improved processes
• The system speeds up the expense administration and reporting process. Users can instantly access, approve or audit any expense record at a moment’s notice.
• Better management
  The transparency of the system ensures improved compliance and auditability. Expense information can be analyzed and reviewed quickly and easily, reducing administration costs and freeing up staff.
• Improved reporting
  Reports are available as print, pdf or xls and automated report distribution can be used.
• Increased convenience
  The user is able to partially complete an expense entry then save the form for later submission, allowing the incremental creation of the form.
• Improved control
  Allowances can be set, such as: an evening meal is only claimable if working after 9pm and a flat rate of $25 is paid: or, for breakfast, amounts over $10 are included within a set limit. For driving expenses, the system can be used to: record distance between home and place of work; apply distance rates dependent on type of car used; apply rates across multiple thresholds.
• Flexible analysis
  The system allows for flexible analysis of expense types and has a framework which adapts easily to your chart of accounts.