Better Expense Management Software For a Better Price

In today’s market it is all about value. Everyone would like to get better return for their money, except for their 101Ks (including myself).

I could not agree more.

When you are buying a software product for your desktop it is simple you download the product test it for 30 days and if you like it you purchase the software if not you say, next!

However, in the world of expense management software things are not that easy. A lot of companies out there are guarding their software like there is no other tomorrow. You have to introduce yourself and let them contact you to establish your account.

Funny part is they all claim to be Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers. Please help me understand this, when you go to a gas station do you need fill out a form to get gas?

No!

So, if you are in the market for a better expense management software for a better price visit Web2Expense. You will not be disappointed. Additionally, you will be able to establish your company in Web2Expense and start testing the software without calling anybody.

Web2Expense is a true SaaS platform.

Well, you know what they say spend less, earn more, sleep better…

Semih.

Web2Expense Integration with Microsoft Dynamics GP

This blog provides detailed explaination for integrating Web2Expense (W2E) Expense Management with Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Let’s start with GL code structure:

Example: 99-9546

99=Division

95=Department

46=Expense Account

 

User:

Name: Joe.Smith

 

Department:

Name: Information Technology

Department Code: 99.95 (see GL code structure above)

 

Cost Center*:

(This will be used for the Employee’s “Vendor Code” in GP)

Name: JSMITH

*If you have or can create a standard for how Vendor Codes are setup in GP, i.e LastName, FirstName, then you don’t have to use this and you can have Integration Manager link and/or create the new Vendor Codes if they aren’t created in GP already. If you don’t have a standard for Vendor Codes, then you have to look up the Employee’s Vendor Code in GP, create it in the W2E Cost Center and then assign the Employee the Cost Center code in W2E.

You are much better off if you can standardize and not have to mess with this field at all.

 

Project*:

Project Name: Human Resources

Project Code: 99.38

*This can be used so that you can allocate expenses to different Divisions/Department other than just the default Department that the Employee is assigned to. For example, if an employee is mainly in Sales, but occasionally has expenses that should be charged to R&D, you could assign them a Project, which you could then assign to an Expense Report when needed.

 

Custom Expense Type Mapping*:

Expense Type Category: Airfare Expenses

Expense Type: Airfare

Custom Expense Type Category: Travel – Air

Custom Expense Type: 46 (see GL Code Structure above)

*This will complete the last piece of the GL Code. Our expense categories are the same across Divisions/Departments. If we didn’t have consistent expense categories across Divisions/Departments, we would have to have SQL table or Excel file that contained the W2E and GP accounts and would perform the translations in Integration Manager.

The Custom Expense Type Category can be used as a description line in GP.

 

 

Integration Manager

Setup a new integration using the ‘Payables Transaction’ as the destination.

You will need two data sources:

1)       A query of all the data in the export from W2E,

2)       A query of the ‘summary header’ information, i.e., report date, report total amount

For the top level ‘Payables Transaction’:

Payables Transaction

 

 

 

 

For the line item “Distributions” destination:

Distributions Destination

A script is shown for the ‘Distribution Account’. This script determines if there is a ‘Project’ assigned to the Expense report and, if so, uses the ‘Project Code’ instead of the ‘Department Code’. The script also pulls together the “Department Code” or “Project Code” and “Expense Type” from W2E to form the GL code that Dynamics GP expects.

Feel free to post your comments into the blog or contact us for more information.

Expense Report – Meal and Accommodation Exclusions in Per Diems

When you use per diem expense type in your expense report it is often the case a meal was provided as part of a conference or a business meeting.

The question is how can you exclude this meal or another expense such as lodging from a daily per diem rate?

In Web2Expense – Travel Expense Report Management Software there are two types of exclusions that allows a user to exclude an expense:

1. Daily exclusion – In this type of exclusion the meal or accommodation you exclude affects the day you are working on.
2. Exclusion for the trip duration – This type exclusion impacts the complete duration of trip. As an example the business conference you attended provided lunches throughout the conference and you would like to exclude all the lunches, it would be a better choice to use this type of exclusion because you will achieve the result quicker.

Following images depicts daily exclusion. First, click on “Exclusion” link on the day you would like to exclude the meal or accommodation. Second, check the box next to the meal or accommodation and click “Save” button. 

Following images depicts duration exclusion. First, click on “Per Diem” link on any day you would like to exclude the meal or lodging. Second, check the box next to the meal or lodging and click “Save” button. The meal or lodging will be excluded from all the days associated with that trip.

 

If you have any comments or questions about this blog post an entry or contact us through Web2Expense portal.

Expense Report Integrated With Expense Approval

From a financial perspective a business trip has two distinct processes, these are:

• Expense Approval Process
• Expense Report Process

Some may argue that business trip in itself also a seperate the process. However, there are a lot of grey areas in that argument. I have to admit that I am also confused from time to time about this subject. Recently I came up with an idea which will clarify the muddy waters in my mind. Here is the revelation.

Think of business trip or any other Travel and Entertainment (T&E) expense as a product you would like buy. In a regular business process you create a purchase request to purchase the product and you get an approval to purchase the item. After your purchase you submit the invoice to get reimbursed or the the vendor automatically gets reimbursed.

There are no differences from a process perspective whether what you buy is a widget or a business trip. Just with one exception, the business trip is much more complicated product to buy.

That is why in Web2Expense – Travel Expense Report Management Software there is only one integrated process. With that one integrated process we eliminate the complexity and the ambiguity associated with expense approvals and expense reports.

You can watch the following videos to learn more.

• Employee Expense Approval Process
• Employee Expense Report Process

If you have comments about this topic feel free to comment in this blog or contact us directly.

Using Per Diem In Expense Reports

In this blog we will concentrate on using the per diem expense type and the advantages associated with it.

If you are interested in what per diem is or what the rates are for different states you can take a look at our earlier blogs.

• What is per diem?
• GSA – IRS Per Diem Rates Within Continental US
• Expense Report Policies for GSA Per Diem Rates and IRS Publication 1542

Why bother with per diem rates?

I think this is a very valid question instead of using actual expenses why do you bother using per diems. There can many different answers as with every question, let’s try to summarize them:

• Financial – Per diem provides a financial cap on what the employee or a contractor can spend.
• Operational – When per diem expense type is used instead of recording actual expenses you do not need expense receipts to process the expense. Operationally, this will significantly reduce the paperwork and allow your accounting department to process expense reports quicker.
• Economical – If a company pays actual expense incurred for meals, incidentals and lodging, it is not in the best interest of an employee to find a more economical alternative for meals and lodging expenses.

From a business perspective, all of the reasons above are valid. However, it is easy saying to use per diem expense type in an expense report process what’s not so easy is implementing it.

At that point you should be thinking the pros and the cons of an automated versus non-automated expense report management solution.

You should also be thinking about the differences between alternative automation solutions.

Web2Expense provides a web based expense reporting solution that requires no initial software or hardware investment. Don’t get me wrong Web2Expense is an enterprise class software therefore you need to invest minimal time and effort to learn and understand the software. Once you understand and configure the software according to your needs everything runs like a well oiled machine.

Adding per diems into an expense report literally requires a few simple clicks.

Next screen shots provided as an example for this usage.

Step 1 – Start Per Diem Entry Process

Step 2: Enter Required Information

Step 3 – View Expense Report

As you can see in this example the employee’s meals and incidental expenses for the New York trip is capped at $64.

The system brings this information from a policy/project document that was configured for the project in New York. To learn more about how to setup an expense policy and other important documents you can watch our flash videos posted on Screencast.com.

•  ACME MEDICAL Expense Report Business Scenario
• ACME MEDICAL Expense Report Implementation Part 1
• ACME MEDICAL Expense Report Implementation Part 2
• Expense Approval – Employee Perspective
• Expense Approval – Managers’ Perspective

Got questions? Post them to this blog or visit our portal to learn more.

Advanced Expense Reporting

First of all let’s clarify what expense reporting is and what it is not.

1. Expense report management is not a simple task if you would like to do it properly.
2. Expense report software is not an accounting software and if you think your accounting software is capable of what a good expense reporting software can do think again!
3. Expense report software is not travel management software.

Basically, expense reporting is composed of three basic parts:

1. Pre-trip activities – Expense Approval Process
2. Trip activities – Incurring expenses
3. Post-trip activities – Expense Reporting Process

At Web2Expense we focus on parts one and three because there are a number of excellent companies out there for part two, like Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity just to name a few.

Pre-trip activities – We believe this is the step where a lot of companies and organizations misses the boat because they do not do a good job in planning the expense activity which will take place in a trip.

Post-trip activities – This is where what has been planned in pre-trip meets the actual spending. Digital receipts is a big part of expense report automation so is the flexibility of the system you are using.

Web2Expense can automate your expense approval and expense reporting processes end-to-end.

Basically, Web2Expense can give you the upper hand when managing your expenses.

Watch the following videos and understand why?

• ACME MEDICAL Expense Report Business Scenario
• ACME MEDICAL Expense Report Implementation Part 1
• ACME MEDICAL Expense Report Implementation Part 2
• Expense Approval – Employee Perspective

Got questions? Post them to this blog or visit our portal to learn more.

PS. Did we mention that you can use Web2Expense on your mobile device like Apple iPhone?

What is per diem?

In simplest terms, per diem is an allowance paid your employees for travel expenses.

Per Diem

You can pay per diem expenses for the following categories:

• Meals
• Incidentals
• Lodging

Per diem covers employee’s travelling expenses and reduces paperwork required when used within guidelines defined by the United States – Internal Revenue Service.

Web2Expense – Travel Expense Report Management Software provides an integrated solution for companies, organizations and institutions to automate their expense reporting system.

GSA – IRS Per Diem Rates Within Continental US

One of the big problems associated with standard GSA – IRS per diem rates is their way of presentation both in GSA and IRS web sites. By the way if you are confused about these rates the simple way to remember them are as follows:

• GSA Per Diem Rates = IRS Federal Per Diem Rates (Publication 1542 – Tables 3 and 4)
• IRS High-low rates does not correspond to any rates on the GSA side (Publication 1542 – Tables 1 and 2)

In order to address this issue we have exposed the standard per diem rates in our portal you can use following links to query our databases for the standard rates:

• Web2Expense – GSA Reference Page
• 2008 Mileage Expense Rate Page
• Web2Expense – Query Interface

If you are testing Web2Expense you can upload these policies as depicted in the screenshots:

Web2Expense - Edit Policy

 

 

Expense Report Policies for GSA Per Diem Rates and IRS Publication 1542

In our earlier blogs we have talked about the GSA Per Diem rates and IRS Publication 1542 and our solution for creating an automated business process to implement High-low or Federal Per Diem methods.

The way we resolved this issue in Web2Expense was using multiple expense report policies for different localities which are valid between certain time periods. However, entering these policies by hand created a significant challenge within itself because there are so many of them.

Recently, we have automated this process. With one click you can upload these policies and start using them immediately. There are close to 1000 US cities and time intervals covered with these policies.

If your company or organization is using or planning to use GSA per diem rates as specified in IRS Publication 1542, Web2Expense – Travel Expense Report Management Software will provide the automated solution you need.

Mileage Expense Tracker – Why did we create it and why free?

In this blog I would like to give a little bit of the drive and the motivation behind creating the Mileage Expense Tracker.

Well those of you who have visited our site and signed up for the MET know that it is a free and useful tool to keep your mileage expenses and record your business trips. By doing so you cannot save 15% or more on your car insurance, but you can save a lot of money on your taxes. 

However, I must admit, my drive for creating a tool such as MET was not about saving money.

Here is the story.

When I was working as an independent consultant (making a lot of money for my standards) my accountant Ken always asked for my business miles. Honestly, I never kept a good record of them (none to be exact). Therefore, I never claimed any of my business mileage expenses.

I was busy making money, right?

No, I was wrong and stupid.

Once you make money you may as well keep as much of it as you can.

None of the reasons so far explain the reason for the creation of Web2Expense – Mileage Expense Tracker. The reason was my accountant’s small black leather covered notebook.

Every year in February I go and see my accountant Ken; he is a CPA by the way.

For some reason, every year Ken takes out (from his shirt pocket) his small black leather covered pocket notebook and waves at me and asks “Semih, did you bring the record of your business miles with you?” And as you may have guessed it by now my answer was always ‘no’. I always said “Ken I have not kept a record of my business miles.” He shakes his head, adjusts his glasses again and returns back to the other pages that I kept very neatly for my taxes throughout the year. I always felt like a kid who did not do his or her homework. Though I always wanted to shout back at him and say “Ken don’t treat me like a kid I am 48 years old and I always keep excellent records for all my other expenses.”, I never did.

Well I hated that and I intended to change it. Therefore, I asked our lead developer Hakan how much effort it would take to create a mini version of Web2Expense – Travel Expense Report Management Software. When I heard the amount of energy required to do so, I jumped on the project. I want to have something better than the small, black, leather-covered notebook. Well, we did.

Here it is, now you know, the real story behind the Web2Expense – Mileage Expense Tracker.

Why free?

This software is free and can save you a large sum of money.  In my case, I could have used some of that money that went to IRS for my son’s college tuition.

Semih

P.S. For the next year I am planning to send my mileage expenses to Ken as a spreadsheet attachment. You can do the same because now you can export to Excel (One of my friend’s suggested the feature).