Complete Expense Management

Transcription

1 Complete Management

2 Welcome to complete expense We all know that Management Systems do a great job of letting your travelling employees file their expenses quickly and efficiently. However, gaining complete control over your organisation s travel expenses requires two additional crucial tasks that an Management System (EMS) cannot handle: 1. Auditing paper expense receipts for expense claim accuracy and travel policy compliance 2. Analysing those same receipts to maximise VAT recovery By taking those two additional steps, which is what Meridian s UNIQUELY does, you can save up to another 6 per cent on your total travel bill. So instead of looking like this: system complete, expense which truly maximises your savings looks like this: system EMS (or 3rd party provider) receipts auditing EXPENSE AUDIT VAT recovery VAT RECOVERY Welcome to Complete Management. Making paper work turns a bureaucratic nightmare into a dream solution. Paper expense invoices are a nuisance for every organisation, but you can t get rid of them: many national tax authorities still insist on seeing them. makes that paper work. We take all the invoices off your hands (we can even scan and archive them for you) and then we extract value from the paper by using it to check your employees expense claims as well as recover your VAT. It means we aren t just here to create process savings for your organisation; we reduce your travel costs too. Why finance directors like Minimises expense-handling process costs Provides full reporting of expenses Maximises employee expense compliance Integrates seamlessly with card provider, ERP and accounts payable systems Maximises VAT recovery a business in which Meridian is the world leader Why travel managers like Optimises compliance with preferred supplier policy Provides full spending data to aid supplier negotiations Removes the emotion from enforcing travel policy Integrates seamlessly with corporate travel self-booking tools Why business travellers like Reduced time for filing expense claims Reduced time for approving and reimbursing expenses Greater clarity about which expenses are acceptable and which aren t (in our experience, most employees happily follow the rules so long as they know what they are)

3 EMS system EMS (or third-party provider) receipts auditing EXPENSE AUDIT VAT recovery VAT RECOVERY Complete Management Why should we introduce an automated expense system? Okay, I m convinced. We need an expense system. But why should we choose EMS? It is estimated that well under half of corporations have an automated expense system. If you are not one of EMS excels in its simplicity of use and integration, the converted yet, here s why you should have one: while being flexible enough to handle the complexities of Reduces travel costs Provides information for supplier negotiation Boosts traveller compliance with preferred suppliers, via pre-trip approval Reduces process costs Eliminates many manual, paper-based tasks, reducing processing costs by up to 80% Reduces employee and time Radically reduces time taken for business travellers to complete expense claims and receive reimbursement Easy, one-click approval for line managers widely differing reporting requirements in each country. Simplicity ease of use The tool could not be easier for travellers to complete their expense claims or for line managers to approve it. In fact, if there are no problems with the claim, approval takes a single click.

4 Simplicity ease of integration systems don t exist in a vacuum. They have to integrate with your internal systems and workflow. They also have to work smoothly with a range of third-party systems, from online booking tools (as an independent company, we do not favour one booking tool in preference to all others) to ERPs. EMS has been developed on software architecture which ensures it integrates with other systems with ease. Complexity the German per diem test Germany probably has more complicated laws governing expense claims especially per diems than any other country. It is often said that if an expense system works there, it will work anywhere. EMS passes that test. It works in Germany, it works in the UK, it works in the USA and many other countries. It was not originally designed for one market, then adapted piecemeal in the hope it might be good enough elsewhere. EMS has been developed as a true multinational product both multi-lingual and multi-currency. Other benefits include: ASP-hosted quick to implement Any time, any place access for travellers and approvers On-demand, real-time reporting Multi-lingual helpdesk support Full paper digitisation, indexing and e-archiving service Your expense system or ours? Our expense system, EMS, is the best on the market. However, we recognise many companies already have an expense system and don t want to change. That s not a problem. We can plug any expense system (or more than one) of your choice into EXPENSE AUDIT and VAT RECOVERY so you can get the full benefit of complete expense.

5 EXPENSE AUDIT system EMS (or third-party provider) receipts auditing EXPENSE AUDIT VAT recovery VAT RECOVERY Complete Management One expense claim in eight is wrong Our EXPENSE AUDIT experts can check every one of your business travellers expense receipts against their expense claims for accuracy and policy compliance. has delivered savings of 1,700, Lawrence Vanderbijl, EMEA Disbursements Manager, Global Financial Services Sun Microsystems We find that on average one expense claim in eight needs amending. Some errors are accidental, some deliberate. Either way, they cost your company big money. Huge savings The results speak for themselves. When one major European manufacturer signed up for EXPENSE AUDIT, our team found 3.5 million of savings in 63 million of submitted expenses. Why not? Each year, approximately 15,000 companies worldwide send Meridian their travellers receipts to recover the VAT on them. Since we are looking at all that paper for you anyway, why not let audit those same receipts for accuracy and policy compliance?

6 How it works 1. What the traveller does One of the beauties of the system is the traveller has so little to do. They submit their online expense report and then they put all their receipts in a pre-addressed envelope, which is sent to Meridian. That s it. 2. Receipt matching The EXPENSE AUDIT team matches each line on the expense report against the paper receipts. They verify details including: Receipt amount does it match the claim, e.g. has the business traveller claimed 600 for a 60 receipt? Receipt type has the expense been correctly categorised as taxi, rail, hotel etc? This is very important for tax authority declarations. Is there an original VAT receipt? business travellers often get this wrong, e.g. assuming an express check-out hotel statement is a valid VAT receipt. Is the currency conversion accurate? 3. Checking claims against policy compliance Our expert auditors analyse each line of your business travellers reports to spot any claims which breach policy. Examples include: Exceeding limits for meals Incurring car rental refuelling charges Claiming both per diem and actual expenses Claiming for in-room movies and other non-allowable items 4. Following up invalid claims If there are no problems with the claim, payment is authorised and the receipts passed on to the VAT RECOVERY team. If there is a problem, we do one of three things according to what you tell us you want: a) Refuse ineligible lines in the claim b) Send the query to the traveller, explaining which line in the report is being queried and why it breaches company policy c) Send the query to the traveller s line manager 5. Full multi-lingual support If travellers are at all unclear, they can call our unique multi-lingual help desk to resolve the issue. Our staff speak more than 20 languages between them. 6. Management information including preferred supplier auditing We send our client a full summary of spend total, claims refused (and reasons) etc. can also help clients audit their preferred supplier agreements. Are travellers paying at hotel check-out the room rates negotiated by their procurement team? Data from will tell you the answer.

7 VAT Recovery system EMS (or third-party provider) receipts auditing EXPENSE AUDIT VAT recovery VAT RECOVERY Complete Management The final stage of the complete travel system is Meridian s world-leading VAT recovery process. We help you maximise your local and foreign VAT claims. In case you aren t familiar with VAT recovery, here s a quick summary: Why recover VAT? That s a simple one. It is estimated that companies could reduce their travel budgets by 4 per cent if they recovered all applicable VAT. What we do However, it is not as easy as it sounds. That s why the European Commission reckons more than half of major corporations fail to recover VAT incurred on foreign trips and the figure for smaller businesses is even higher. It s estimated that 5 billion of potential refunds go unrecovered in the EU alone each year. The reason many companies fail to recover their VAT is that it is time-consuming, highly technical and very easy to get wrong. VAT claims have to be presented to each country s tax authorities in completely different ways with all original receipts present and correct. Each country also has different rules about what VAT is recoverable, with plenty of details to trip you up, like whether a meal was for clients or for colleagues only. Our experts check every receipt to identify all incurred local and foreign VAT. Local VAT is reported back to the client and uploaded directly to the client s ERP or other financial accounting package. Foreign VAT is claimed from the relevant foreign authorities on behalf of the client and handled from submission to refund. Expertise and experience We are the world leaders. Each year we handle more than 300 million in claims and to date we have recovered refunds of more than 2.5 billion for our clients. Engaging with Meridian has enabled Airbus to work with real experts on expense claim control and VAT recovery solutions. Marie-Laure Moncamp, Head of Travel Management Airbus in France

8 Summary of benefits Significant cost and spend reduction EMS AUDIT VAT Recovery Reduced process costs Reduced IT expenditure Compliance Consistent application of travel policy Accurate returns of VAT, reducing exposure to risk (penalties) and ensuring compliance with legislation Enhanced employee experience Ease of use: anywhere, anytime Multi-lingual helpdesk Automated calculations, reducing human error Real-time status for submitted expenses Automatic split of business and private expenses Speedy reimbursement Simpler, consistent process Visibility and reporting Highlights policy violations, facilitating focused reviews Assists with planning and forecasting Business intelligence enhances supplier selection VAT Maximisation of VAT resulting in a positive impact on cash flow Global expertise and reach Well-established relationships with VAT authorities Restyling invoices Meridian Tallaght Business Park, Tallaght, Dublin 24, Ireland. T F E expenseflo@meridianglobalservices.com Search: expenseflo 2009 Meridian. All rights reserved.