Atlanta OAUG. Internet Expenses Key to speedy processing. Chetan Manjarekar

Transcription

1 Atlanta OAUG Internet Expenses Key to speedy processing Chetan Manjarekar

2 Agenda Business Objectives UnOptimized Process Characteristics Objectives Focus Requirements for speedy processing Internet Expenses Overview Objectives Focus As is process To Be process Challenges Best Practices Process comparison Questions 2

3 Business Objectives Establish centralized Travel & Expense Management Function Reduce expense processing time and transaction costs Establish and Enforce Company wide policies Eliminate manual process and increase productivity Automate and Simplify Expense Report submission, approval and tracking Enhance reporting Enable alerts and notifications 3

4 Unoptimized process characteristics Delayed processing and approval Policies not enforced No visibility of Expense Reports status No tracking of Expense Reports Extensively manual process ER generation, Matching, Accounting Error prone - Difficult to reconcile Corporate Pay not a suitable policy for such a system 4

5 Requirements for speedy processing User Friendly system that encourages employees to report on time. ER Templates, Copy feature, re-usability productivity enabling features Credit Card integration to ease Expense Report filling and submission Support for Rules and Policies approval becomes easy Online checks for violations at data entry reduces rework, shortens cycle time Simplified and workflow driven approval mechanism Notifications to concerned employees and approvers Automatic updates on employee information Online ER tracking and status availability Payables integration Integration with payroll 5

6 Internet Expenses Overview

7 Internet Expenses Features Paperless expense reporting with workflow based approval process Key to speedy processing Automatically enforced business policies - support staff can focus on more value added activities Enforce itemization for certain expense types using Itemization Rules Reminder and Policy Violation Notifications Authorized delegation Entry as well as Approval Context sensitive configurable fields for capturing additional information Integration Oracle Payables, Projects, Time & Labor, Grants Accounting Highly secure transaction environment SSL, access limits, encryption AME Enhancements Contingent worker expense reports Approver can request information w/o rejection Future dated expense business rules Cash usage (versus credit card) policies Personal Lines only expense reports Automatically itemize hotel charges DBI includes T&E top spenders 7

8 Inter-modular integration Integrating with Oracle Projects Add project-related information Expenditure Type - derived from the Expense Type Projects Expenditure Organization - derived from the employee s organization assignment Expenditure Date from receipt date. Quantity from receipt amount. Oracle Approvals Management (AME) Build routing and approval rules Establish rules based on header or lines information. Automatically route expense approvals to cost center owners, cost center business managers etc. Control the escalation of expense reports for policy violations. Oracle Grants Accounting Grants management solution for organizations that rely on grants funding Introduces an Award field in Internet Expenses. 8

9 Meet Key Objectives

10 Objectives Focus Lower Your Expense Processing Costs Business pressures on Margin Improvement Process all expenses fast, at lower costs by using automation Improve Control Avoid illegitimate expenses payments Enforce common travel policy to reduce T&E spend Enhance Employee Productivity & Satisfaction Bring in a process that is quick, easy, and hassle-free Improve employee productivity Encourage reporting 10

11 Internet Expense Objectives Lower Your Expense Processing Costs Improve Control Enhance Employee Productivity & Satisfaction 11

12 Lower Cost Dramatically reduce the amount of time and effort required to submit, approve, process, and pay expense reports. Employees can enter and submit expense reports quickly and easily from anywhere in the world just using a Browser. Workflow automatically routes expense reports for approval. Frees accounts payable staff from data entry and moves them into an auditing role where they can monitor compliance with policy. Eliminate rework and correction of errors Exceptions and adjustments are processed automatically. 12

13 Internet Expense Objectives Lower Your Expense Processing Costs Improve Control Enhance Employee Productivity & Satisfaction 13

14 Policy Setup Business Owner Rules to Define Corporate Policies Meal allowances Hotel allowances Per Diem Rules Mileage Reimbursement Calculation Rules Exchange Rate Verification Maximum Cash Expense rule Enforce Compliance Timeliness 14

15 15 iexpense Credit Card usage policy

16 16 iexpense Configure Expense Fields

17 Policy Violations Management 17

18 Policy Violations Management 18

19 Enforce Transaction Submission 19

20 Audit Features Oracle Workflow routes expense reports for approval and enforces company policy, and any deviations from policy are highlighted for manager review. Expenses and violations reports provide top management a multi-dimensional view of employee expenses. Decision makers use information in forming new policies or evaluating employees. Dimensions: management hierarchy, expense category, time period, violation types. Drill down to the details of expense receipts and expense policy violations. Paperless audit process flow. Automatic selection of expense reports for both audit flows, so the auditors do not review 100% of all expense reports. Process owner can setup rules that control what type of expense reports are selected for audit. Audit rules enable automatically routing selected expense reports either to the traditional receipt-based audit process or to an online audit queue. System then balances the work queue between the auditors based on setup definition. 20

21 Internet Expense Objectives Lower Your Expense Processing Costs Improve Control Enhance Employee Productivity & Satisfaction 21

22 Productivity improving features Easy to use process means faster entry of Expense Reports Online policy violation checks reduce rework & iterations Faster processing means faster payments Create, edit, and submit expense reports using a wireless Web-enabled mobile device Managers can even approve or reject expense reports from their mobile devices. Automatically pre-populate expense reports with transactions from your corporate credit card - increase efficiency, reduce errors System-provided and user-defined default values speed up the completion of the expense report. Copy saved or submitted expense reports to expedite the entry process for repeating expenses Withdraw expense reports from the approvals process if they need to make corrections. Default expense preferences data from prior expense reports. Enter expenses offline using Excel Template and upload later. Excel Template includes all validations for lookups like expense type, currency codes etc 22

23 23 iexpense Home One screen view

24 24 Add CC transactions

25 25 Review & Submit Expense Report

26 Implementation Overview

27 As is Process Employee downloads Expenses Report template from Quick Expenses system Is Expense Report in order? Yes Enter Expenses Report into Legacy system Employee fills the form submits for Supervisor's approval with original Receipts No Travel Accountant clarifies the issues with the Employee AP Manager approves Expenses Report in legacy system Supervisor approves the Expenses Report Sends the approved report to AP Travel Accountant verifies the approved expenses report with Company Travel Policy Employee/Travel Accountant makes necessary changes to the Expenses Report End Payment to / Refund from Employee Approve Invoices Import approved Expenses Reports as Standard Invoices in Oracle Accounts Payable Apply prepayment if any Validate the Invoices 27

28 To Be Process Employee makes an expense Approved Travel advance request in Form 801 Credit Card Transactions Employee enters expense report for OPE and Credit Card Transactions AP executes Expense Report Import AP Manager processes prepayment in Oracle AP AP runs Credit Card Invoice Interface program System finds approver Expense Report Invoice is Created AP Manager applies prepayment Approver verifies report. and takes action Rejected/ More Info AP performs Invoice Validation Approved No Yes Approver has signing limit? AP Manager runs Payment batch to clear expense reports Outbound Interface 28 More Info required AP audits and takes action Approved/ Adjusted T&E, travel premium, excess per diem data extract

29 Implementation Challenges Employee data had to be cleaned and synchronized with PeopleSoft master as part of this implementation. Controls it is all in the setup Signing limit updates in case of shared HRMS Supervisor Changes modifying supervisor assignment for an employee whose DoJ is earlier than that of new supervisor Reimbursement through PeopleSoft Payroll required Interface to be developed Custom solution to split the allowance amounts into taxable and non-taxable buckets based on location. Cancellation of invoices having AMEX corporate pay credit card transactions wouldn t release those credit card transactions to be used in new expense reports. Custom reports were developed to identify such transactions and help reconciliation process. For security reasons Employee number display on various Internet Expenses screen had to be removed Approval hierarchy modifications Attachments 29

30 Best Practices Custom solution developed to reconcile cc charges, travel advances and employee payment Accurate and updated employee information maintained Reusable code components were deployed for loading employee data into Oracle HR. Mapping model developed for mapping between AMEX transactions folio type and MIC codes Execution of payments accelerated as well to complete the cycle quickly Extensive QA Dedicated teams for QA only Multiple CRPs Intense UAT Use Individual Pay Policy 30

31 Process Comparison Pre Implementation Paper based system involving lot of manual efforts, errors and delays. AP bogged down with calls requesting status of expense reports Turnaround time for a typical expense report t around 15 days Manual and error prone process to check for policy violations poses financial burden in terms of administrative costs and unauthorized reimbursements. Approval process manual and paper based Corporate Pay program increases Corporate responsibility and diminished control over the entire process. Post Implementation User friendly web based system available to every employee, accessible from anywhere Employees can track and find up to date status online Automated policy verification, approval and payment turnaround time reduces to 3 days. Policies defined at the system level get enforced automatically reducing substantial manual effort and errors. Totally automated approval process supporting vacation handling and delegation Individual Pay program brings in efficiency and timely reporting allowing greater control 31

32 Questions

33 THANK YOU Chetan Manjarekar Patni Computer Systems, Inc. One Broadway Cambridge, MA chetan.manjarekar@patni.com 33