When technology revolutionizes operations
There are administrative tasks that add no value to a company. Entering expense reports is one of them. Until recently, this was a necessary step, but new technologies are now changing all that. Read all our reviews of expense claim software.
Entering expense reports
What is an expense claim?
Expenses incurred by employees or managers in the interests of the company and supported by an invoice or receipt. These expenses include :
- catering,
- accommodation
- travel: transport tickets, or mileage allowance when using a personal vehicle.
How do I make an expense claim?
The person initiating the expense must keep the receipt. Then :
- either enter the information in a dedicated format (Excel spreadsheet, ERP software, etc.). They then send their reimbursement receipts to the referring department for validation,
- or they can send them directly, without prior data entry. It is then up to the referring department to check, enter and validate the data.
After validation, the notes are reimbursed on the next pay slip.
A laborious process
In either case, data entry is a laborious process. For a salesperson constantly on the move, for example, receipts accumulate and get damaged. Entering them would take an inordinate amount of time. However, delegating this task to a third party is no less time-consuming. Especially as the person in charge will have fewer elements to put the expense in context. Finding the date, the name of the company, and the amount before or after tax will be a real exercise, and all the more complicated when the information fades from damaged receipts.
Why are we so keen on this type of data entry?
From the employee's point of view, it's important to keep this option open. The company doesn't have as many bank cards as employees. So there will be many situations where the expense claim will be more practical. What's more, in the specific case of mileage allowances, the reimbursement calculation is more advantageous for the employee. The amount reimbursed for a trip is greater than the amount spent on petrol and related expenses. And this differential is not subject to income tax (Impôt sur le Revenu): a form of bonus that can be very attractive.
For the company, expense reimbursements are expensed. This reduces the company's taxable profit, and therefore its corporate income tax. What's more, reimbursements are not subject to social security contributions. When it represents a kind of bonus for employees, it is a form of remuneration exempt from employer contributions. This is an advantage in both fiscal and social terms.
A pinch of technology and everything becomes clearer
Machine learning
Technological progress is enabling us to make advances on both major themes and more operational tasks. Big Data technologies have made machine learning more powerful. The machine analyzes information on the basis of algorithms. And the fields of application, diverse and varied, concern data entry in particular.
Intelligent algorithms
Machine learning is an autonomous system. The program analyzes data either :
- from known historical data: this is known as supervised learning,
- from the correlations it identifies: this is called unsupervised learning.
The learning effect feeds the algorithm's predictive capacity. This analysis is a decisive resource for operational tasks in the enterprise.
Scanning rather than typing
At a time when we all have a smartphone, keeping paper receipts is obsolete. Rather than take the risk of losing or damaging them, we might as well photograph them. That way, they're always available in digital form. This is the first step towards solving the problems of storage and retention, but also for data entry. With a note manager like Expensya, visual recognition performs an instant scan of the photographed receipt. The tool detects the main information: amount, supplier, date, and all you have to do is validate to record the expense claim.
Dematerialize your management
Technology at the service of professionals
The spread of smartphones and the increasing quality of their photos have opened the way to a new use. Add to this computer intelligence, and your processes are modernized. Gone are the days of manual data entry: with an expense claim solution like Expensya, data is instantly entered into the tool. No more bundles of paper receipts, now all digital and artificial intelligence replaces laborious manual input.
The machine improves
The program just has to learn. In 87% of cases, the information detected is perfect, under "field" conditions, i.e. with photos taken from a telephone quickly. But it reaches 98.5% under "laboratory" conditions, i.e. with invoices scanned. And these proportions continue to grow: the more data the software shuffles, the more relevant it becomes. Aggregated data is stored in the cloud, so the software package does not slow down the company's IS (Information System). And employees can use it on the move for greater convenience.
Real benefits for the company
Entering expense reports is so time-consuming that some companies outsource it. But in the case of outsourcing, the more expense reports there are to enter, the more expensive the service. With an intelligent software solution, on the other hand, the relationship is positive: the more data there is, the faster and more reliable the analysis: a virtuous circle in the long term.
Advances in technology aren't just used by NASA to conquer space. More pragmatically, technology saves time and energy on repetitive or non-value-added tasks. Computer intelligence, as applied by Expensya to expense claim entry, represents a colossal operational advance for the day-to-day running of companies.
Article translated from French