How a cloud-based expenses system benefits: the submitter

Submitters - make your lives easier today

We’ve previously spoken about how businesses can benefit from moving their expenses to the cloud (including enhanced security and reduced operating costs).

In our new three-part blog post series, we’ll discuss how a cloud-based system individually benefits the three main stakeholders involved in the end-to-end process of managing expenses (from when incurred to reimbursement) - the submitter, the approver and the processor. As in our Zetadocs Expenses demonstrations, we will be using various personas to help communicate the frustrations of a manual process and benefits of a digital system.

In this first blog post, we’ll identify the frustrations that David, an Account Manager who is constantly on the move, attending meetings and visiting clients, goes through every month when manually submitting his expenses. We will then demonstrate how shifting to an automated system helps to overcome these annoyances and would make the whole process much quicker and easier.

No more saving paper receipts

One of David’s biggest frustrations when it comes to submitting his expenses manually is saving all of his paper receipts until the end of the month. Prior to the COVID-19 restrictions, David would attend several meetings, events and conferences across the country. Once further restrictions are lifted, he is looking forward to getting back to being out and about regularly but is less excited about having to submit his expenses again, partly because he often misplaces or loses his receipts.

A cloud-based expense system like Zetadocs Expenses would let him capture these expenses as soon as they are incurred via our mobile app; the GIF below demonstrates how easy this is:

This means David will no longer have to let his expenses pile up and then spend a long time having to fill out the accompanying forms/spreadsheets. This then removes the frustration of missing out on expenses that he couldn’t claim due to lost receipts, ensuring he is reimbursed the amount he is due.

You can watch a quick demonstration video on how simple it is to capture cash expenses via Zetadocs Expenses:

Simpler submission process

Filling out long forms or spreadsheets can be the most frustrating part of the manual expenses process. However, when using a mobile application, an expense can be submitted in a matter of seconds. From the logical order of the information fields to the features in place to help, submitting expenses via our application is easy. This removes the tiresome experience of setting aside one or two dedicated hours at the end of the month to fill out and submit expenses.

An example of these features includes our software remembering places you’ve been before and subsequently filling in other relevant information. For example, if David picked up breakfast at Pret a Manger on the way to a meeting, Zetadocs Expenses will remember this vendor and add it to his vendor list. The next time David visits Pret, he’d just need to select this from his vendor list, with accompanying information such as the expense type (i.e. ‘Food & Drink – Business Travel’) automatically filled-in.

Another example of how our software makes expense entry easier is with business mileage. Manually calculating the number of miles you’ve travelled and the overall expense amount can be tricky. Zetadocs Expenses not only determines the amount you’ve travelled (this is done by the starting point and destination distance which is integrated with Google Maps), but calculates the overall expense amount you are able to claim (depending on the set mileage rate). These features not only help to speed up the overall process, but also makes it much easier. The GIF below showcases this feature in action:

Watch a short demonstration on how to record business mileage with Zetadocs Expenses:

Quicker reimbursement

Shifting to a cloud-based expenses system would also speed up the overall time it takes to be reimbursed for incurred expenses. In the past David has waited weeks to be reimbursed when using a manual system, but with a cloud-based system, this time would be drastically reduced.

David would no longer have to wait until his approver/processor goes through his forms and receipts, which could often be at the end of the next month, to ensure the accuracy of his expenses and thus reimburse him.

As the need to attach/go through paper receipts and to submit large forms are no longer an issue, approvals can be made much faster. This then gets to the processor quicker, making the whole submission process more efficient. An efficient end-to-end process would mean that David would be reimbursed faster, ensuring he doesn’t have to spend more time thinking about his expenses and happier to have the process complete.

Move to the cloud today

As mentioned throughout this post, shifting to the cloud would bring multiple benefits to the submitter – ensuring these often-tedious tasks can be completed in a simple and quick method.

If you’re a submitter that’s fed up with using a manual process for your expenses and would like more information on how a cloud-based system could make your life easier, get in touch with us today.

Our expert team would also be more than happy to go through our solution in detail and answer any questions you may have in a demonstration - so book a demo with us today.

In our second blog post of this series, we cover the advantages that approvers benefit from when moving to a cloud-based system, including notifications when expense reports are submitted and increased control. Read this post here.