The expense reporting software at your organization provides the easiest way for employees to steal money from the business. They might think that there is no harm in charging for some non-business costs to the corporate credit card while traveling. Or, they may make a planned effort to deceive your business. So, whatever may be the cause for expense report fraud is, you must solve it before it turns into a big problem.
Travel and expense fraud includes the activity of stealing money from within the organization. Such kind of fraudulent activities usually starts small and when a fraudster notices that they are easily getting away, it makes them take bolder steps. When an expense report is left unchecked, it can cost heavy on your company. So, it is extremely crucial for you to identify the signs whether anybody is taking advantage of your travel and expense reporting system and implement necessary actions to eliminate expense fraud in the long run.
5 Ways on How Employees are Mishandling Travel and Expense
Fraud is a very common aspect in this modern business world and you always need to stay on-guard to notice the signs that are taking place within your organization.
Overspending
When an employee is spending more than the others in the organization, or more than they had spent in the past, then it is time to take a closer look at the spending pattern. Perhaps, they are taking trips that are more expensive than other employees and are vital to check it twice.
Going Beyond Policy Limits
At times, employees try to get away with excessive spending here and there unless the expense claims make up to the policy limit. So, they spend more than the limit or spend up to the limit thinking that it will slip under the approval threshold.
Claiming for Non-Business Items
Every item needs to be checked thoroughly which comes through on a claim in order to ensure that they all are related to business. Employees claiming for non-business related items may need a reminder on the company policy, but they might have some hidden motives.
Over Claiming Expenses
At times, employees claim more for corporate expense than the actual cost. So, unless they are submitting proper documents in order to support their claims, there is no other way for you to know. Another problem related to this is when employees update their travel plans pointlessly like renting a luxury car and more.
Double Claiming
The other fraud technique is to expense the same receipt twice. Already the receipt is with the employee and they are hoping that you do not notice that it is showing in two different trips or categories.
How to Tackle Expense Reports Fraud
When there is expense reporting problems in your organization, what do you do? Obviously, it is something that you must handle properly and take the necessary steps to prevent such problems from coming back in the future. Also, at the same time, you avoid making the process of expense reporting harder for the honest employees in your company.
The initial step taken towards eliminating expense report fraud is by establishing a transparent policy. But, educating employees on your company policy will only prevent mistakes and will not end determined fraudsters. So, you need to take a few steps further.
Expense Report Automation
This is the best thing you can do in order to keep your employees away from misusing expense reports. It is going to make all the items on the list easier and make expense reporting process simple for the employees. Also, it will speed up the reimbursement process.
Policy Enforcement
You must make sure that your policy governing T&E expense reimbursement is updated and is available to all the employees. Employees who are submitting claims and the ones who are reviewing expense claims should be familiar with the policies. Keeping a transparent policy lets you program a travel and expense automation software to enforce company standards.
Validate Receipts
The way to make sure that employees are claiming actual expenses is only when they submit documentation. It is very common to misplace receipts and so this problem needs to be taken care of by going digital. Employees can directly forward email receipts to automated expense management software and for physical receipts, they just need to click a picture from with the help of their smart devices.
Categorize Expenses
You need to have categories for acceptable expenses so it is easy for you to say it in a glance whether an employee is trying to submit any non-business claims. An automated expense management system will flag expenses automatically that don’t match with the company policy.
Cross-Check Receipts
If you want to prevent duplicate claims, then it is crucial to cross-check all submitted receipts. It is a time consuming and challenging task when performed manually, especially for the larger companies. But, travel and expense software make the entire process a breeze.
The Bottom Line
By leveraging online T&E management software like SutiExpense helps to digitize expense reporting process, save your time and money, and give you granular insights to prevent expense fraud and overspending.
