You may assume that expense management teams are supported by financial departments, but it might surprise you to know that many expense management teams are partially supported by various Human Resources personnel. After all, expense management teams are an integral part of the payroll department. (In some cases, the payroll department is actually known as the Expense Management Team.) This means that the expense management team needs to have more than just a working knowledge of different financial avenues. The team also needs to know how to deal with employees in a way that won’t seem threatening or offensive.
Your expense management team is charged with auditing, processing and paying any employee expenses incurred during the course of business events and trips. They are often met with hostility by employees who might feel threatened by an audit. However, if employees understand the purpose of an audit and realize that no one is actually out to “get” them, there is usually a great deal more cooperation between them and the expense management team. Additionally, human resources personnel often act as liaisons between the expense management team and other employees.
Naturally, when it comes to supporting the expense management team, the entire management chain of command needs to back them completely. Too often, a company doesn’t take an internal audit seriously. This leads to many of the employees failing to comply with requests from the expense management team. After all, if the CEO doesn’t seem to care about anything coming from the expense management team, why should any of the rank-and-file employees?
Top management personnel must fully support the expense management team. The team is there to make sure there is proper focus on regulations and compliance issues, and to ensure there are cost reductions and that employees remain productive. When upper management fully understands everything that the expense management does, it quickly becomes obvious that providing support is always in the best interests of the company.
So, when the question arises as to who supports the expense management team in your company, the answer should be: everyone working in your company.
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Our choice of Chrome River EXPENSE was made in part due to the very user-friendly interface, easy configurability, and the clear commitment to impactful customer service – all aspects in which Chrome River was the clear winner. While Chrome River is not as large as some of the other vendors we considered, we found that to be a benefit and our due diligence showed that it could support us as well as any large players in the space, along with a personalized level of customer care.
We are excited to be able to enforce much more stringent compliance to our expense guidelines and significantly enhance our expense reporting and analytics. By automating these processes, we will be able to free up AP time formerly spent on manual administrative tasks, and enhance the role by being much more strategic.