Managing field employee expenses is one of the crucial tasks in field service operations. However, it comes with its own set of challenges when expenses are tracked manually (via calls or physical documents). Because it increases the chance of data theft and manipulation, thus preventing managers from getting accurate insight into the company’s expenses.
Managers also go through miserable times assessing the vitality against the expenses upload like swiping through different documents and scrolling to the end of the spreadsheets. Fortunately, there is a way to get rid of these causes, leading to administrative overhead. Can you guess it? Yes, it’s the field expense tracking app that automates expense tracking and reimbursement. Read on to learn more about the field expense tracking app and its functionalities for smooth business operations.
What is a Field Expense Tracking App?
The field expense tracking app is designed to upload, manage, and claim expense reimbursement while on duty. The apps are commonly used by professionals who work remotely, from their specific task sites, i.e., salespersons, field technicians, and consultants.
Using the app means automating all laborious and repetitive processes, thus reducing the need for employees to visit their offices for manual expense claims. Many apps come with easy expense upload, allowing users to take photos of recipes and attach them to expense entries for easy record-keeping.
As the expenses are recorded right after they are incurred, the app eliminates the chances of errors and lets managers quickly log expenses such as lodging, transportation, and meals. All these help businesses control costs, maintain accurate financial records, and streamline reimbursement processes.
Different Ways in Which Field Expense Tracking App Helps Manage Field Operations
Well, not just the app, it’s a complete field expense management software that automates expense tracking and reimbursement in the following ways:
1. Records Accurate Field Expenses
One of the major roles of automated expense management software or field expense tracking apps is to record accurate field expenses. And it does it very well, by providing seamless expense evidence upload. This lets employees click pictures of their bills and invoices, and simply upload them on the app. Even MRs with their MR reporting systems, upload expenses on the go right away from the field. This not only maintains a complete audit trail of all invoice-related activities but also ensures transparency and accountability.
2. Provides Hierarchy Approval Option
The software lets managers choose other hierarchy managers, who are responsible for checking the expense vitality against the proofs uploaded. This helps configure approval workflows based on the organization’s hierarchy. From single-level to multi-level approval processes, you can have it all with the right employee expense management software in place. With software like TrackoField, you can even send reminders to approvers if there are pending expense reports that require their attention.
3. Automates Invoice Retrieval Processes
Field employees use their mobile apps to take snaps of physical invoices and receipts. Therein, the captured photos of bills are processed by OCR for data extraction. The app scans and digitizes paper invoices, to convert them into electronic formats for easy retrieval. This is how the employee expense management software automates the invoice retrieval process. Thus, letting field managers access these invoices anytime anywhere for further review and acknowledgement.
4. Eliminates Delays Caused by Pen-paper Process
Gone are the days when employees have to visit their offices just to submit expense invoices and bills in paper formats. Because, today, they can share them instantly with some taps and clicks on their mobile apps. This ensures the time taken in expense submission should be minimal. So, employees utilize that travel time to introduce something productive. Moreover, when integrating expense management with payroll management, the reimbursement procedure also gets automated. Because the payroll system takes all the spending made by the employees during their working hours, thus it ensures accurate reimbursement.
5. Helps in Reviewing Spending
It is easier than before to review spending as managers have everything in front to assess the vitality of the expenses incurred. With digital expense proofs, they check if the employees have spent more than the allotted money. Even expense management software like TrackoField generates distance traveled reports that calculate and show the total miles employees traveled during their working hours. Therein, they provide employees with travel allowance for that particular miles traveled. Removing the chances of fraud and data theft, expense management software facilitates invoice processing and expense reimbursement.
To Sum it Up!
Online expense tracking apps make it quite easy for technicians to upload bills from their specific task allocation and managers to analyze the organization’s spending. By converting paper invoices into electronic formats, the app provides a shield against data loss. Moreover, it ensures that the data is secured on the software to be accessed at any time or anywhere. The expense management software also helps in churning out insights and trends to let you identify trends, track spending, and optimize accounts payable processes.
If you want to leverage one such software, then why not try TrackoField for free? TrackoField’s expense management software facilitates smooth coordination between employees and managers for streamlined expense reimbursement. Additionally, it is equipped with various other modules that make the whole field operations, a more seamless and streamlined task such as:
- Leave and attendance tracking software solution
- Task management software solution
- Order management software solution
- Expense management software solution
Get in touch with TrackoField’s experts to learn more about this software and how it automates the entire field process.
