Businesses may save a lot of money on modest costs like fuel purchases using better payment procedures and more innovative online controls.
Expenses are an inevitable cost of conducting business for most employees at some time throughout their working day. However, just because it is essential does not negate the need for control. We’ll look at how you can improve your cost management procedures and some areas of spending that organisations can better manage.
Make a list of your business categories
To keep track of business costs, you’ll need to set up clearly defined spend categories. By doing this, you can quickly understand where your employees are spending money and where your cash is going. Hopefully, everything is reasonable and essential – but even if it isn’t, you’ll know and be ready to act.
Trying to apportion spending based on receipts weeks or months later might be time-consuming and financially unwise if the payments should not have gone through the firm or could not be recovered back.
You can encourage employees to allocate expenses at the point of payment by designating each spending area, which provides you with a real-time picture of expenditure if you use cards and a gateway and teaches them to spend money more wisely.
If you have clearly defined and rigorously policed categories, and there doesn’t appear to be one for what they’re buying, it should serve as a warning to them to at the very least check with management before committing to the purchase. They will quickly learn what is and is not acceptable.
Set payment thresholds
It might be difficult to precisely specify how much staff should spend on certain expenditures without using digital payment systems. After all, one person’s view of what a working lunch should cost differs dramatically from another’s.
However, after you’ve identified your expenditure categories, you may put restrictions on them and enforce them using business credit cards, thanks to online solutions.
Obtain receipts!
Without receipts, all of the expenditure management processes and systems in the world are useless. These are essential if you want to obtain an accurate picture of your spending and, more importantly, if you’re going to recover any taxes.
This used to entail having envelopes full of crinkled paper placed on your desk to go through, as well as a lot of administrative time. However, with digital expenditure management solutions, staff may snap a photo with their phone. The information will be instantly posted to your system, ensuring that you have everything you need online when the purchase is completed.
Consider the following business expenditure areas
Tax
Tax is technically not an expense in the conventional sense; nonetheless, it is an essential component of costs because it applies to nearly everything workers buy and should be claimed back wherever feasible.
Supplies and equipment for the office
Traditionally, office materials like paper were used. Pens used to be the domain of small currency, but the digital era has altered everything. Anyone may now quickly and easily purchase what they want online and have it delivered within a day or two.
If you have recently invested in a company car, why not enquire about fuel cards to help your operations run more smoothly? Fuelcards.com are a leading fuel card supplier in the UK and Ireland and help many business fleets. Get in touch today to see what we can do for your business.