We live on the chopping fringe of Net 2.0 applied sciences. However we’re additionally going through quite a few financial uncertainties on a world scale.
These two elements generate new calls for on T&E expense administration software program as a result of corporations are struggling to do extra with much less. The margins are skinny with no room for error or waste.
The businesses are subsequently making an attempt to chop down their enterprise journey bills with out, nevertheless, sacrificing something from the best way they file, handle and report their information. If something, they’re asking for extra granularity, modularity and management with out rising their IT overhead.
So here’s what the perfect T&E software program of the longer term ought to seem like to cater to an more and more picky and complex clientele base:
1) Multi-Coverage Functionality. Most corporations at the moment wouldn’t have a transparent enterprise journey coverage in writing. Even once they do, their T&E software program as a rule is designed for a single “default” coverage that applies throughout the board, from the CEO to the graphic designer within the multimedia division.
An incredible T&E software program would enable the managers to create completely different challenge accounts after which match the expense reports in opposition to completely different insurance policies entered into the system. Why ought to the Chairwoman of the Board be restricted to the identical room or rental automotive allowance because the junior gross sales engineer who joined the corporate only a week earlier?
2) Open-Ended Horizontal Integration. The T&E software program of the longer term should be capable of handle not solely the meals, resort, air and rental automotive bills like most conventional T&E methods do however different sort of bills as properly like Web and web-related bills, railway and sea travels, coaching bills, skilled charges, and even medical bills, and many others.
This system must be open-ended sufficient to accommodate any and all expense classes with out sacrificing something from scalability or reliability.
3) Vertical Modularity. The perfect T&E software program must be modular sufficient to permit the managers the choose their very own stage of vertical integration in dealing with their enterprise journey accounts.
For instance, on the one finish of the vertical integration spectrum must be the T&E expense submission and reporting utility alone.
On the different finish, this system ought to be capable of hook up with any resort or automotive rental reserving program, or bank card module, on the one hand, and the corporate’s Accounts Payable or Payroll modules, on the opposite.
With a software program like that, an organization wouldn’t must pay for any pointless modules because the program doesn’t come as a “take it or go away it” chunk.
Why ought to, for instance, an organization pay an costly hotel-air-car reserving module if all journey preparations are already made in-house? If a shopper needs simply the bare-bones T&E capabilities, she ought to be capable of get solely that and get monetary savings.
4) Platform Independence. The perfect T&E software program must be platform agnostic. That’s, it ought to be capable of run not solely on any OS (Home windows, Mac, Linux) however must be accessible with any gadget starting from the standard desk-tops to PDAs and iPhones.
It must be browser agnostic as properly (IE, Firefox, Safari) in order that it may be accessed by the Web from any spot on earth.
5) Zero Native IT Overhead. The T&E software program of the longer term ought to get rid of the necessity to purchase costly software program and {hardware} and preserve them regionally. There must be must obtain any safety updates or patches and no want to rent a staff of extremely paid engineers simply to maintain the T&E servers operating correctly 24×7.
Software program-as-a-Service (SaaS) resolution delivers that promise by shifting all IT obligations to the seller. That is why, if the info safety subject is addressed and resolved correctly, an excellent T&E software program will most likely be delivered as an SaaS product over the Web.
6) Audit-Prepared Compliance Functionality. We live in a publish Sarbanes-Oxley world during which all publicly owned monetary establishments in the USA are mandated to doc their enterprise transactions. Since beneath the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 firm managers are personally responsible for unauthorized and improper expenditures of their departments, they take the necessity for constant, safe and systematic documentation very severely.
An incredible T&E software program should thus generate detailed studies displaying which journey requests have been authorised or denied when and by which supervisor on the idea of which coverage, and many others.
7) Safe, Distinctive and Time-Stamped Tagging. It should additionally tag every transaction (together with T&E associated e-mail requests, expense filings, faxed receipts, and many others.) with an encrypted, distinctive and time-stamped code to stop fraud and post-facto alterations.