Complete Management
Welcome to complete expense We all know that Management Applications do a great job of letting your traveling employees file their expenses quickly and efficiently. However, gaining complete control over your organization s travel expenses requires two additional crucial tasks that an Management Application (EMA) cannot handle: 1. Auditing paper expense receipts for expense claim accuracy and travel policy compliance 2. Analyzing those same receipts to maximize VAT recovery for corporate travel By taking those two additional steps, which is what Meridian s flo uniquely does, you can save up to 6% on your company s T&E spend. So instead of looking like this: application Complete expense that truly maximizes your savings looks like this: application flo EMA (or 3rd party provider) receipts auditing flo EXPENSE AUDIT VAT recovery flo VAT RECOVERY Welcome to flo Complete Management. Making paper work flo turns a bureaucratic nightmare into a dream solution. Paper expense invoices are a nuisance for every organization, but you cannot get rid of them since many national tax authorities still insist on seeing them. flo makes that paper work. We take all the invoices off your hands, we can even scan and archive them for you. We extract value from the paper by using it to check your employees expense claims as well as recover your VAT. If your receipts have already been scanned, we could also perform audits on the scanned images of your receipts. It means we aren t here just to create process savings for your organization; we reduce your travel costs too. Why CFOs like flo Minimized expense-handling process costs Full reporting of expenses provided Maximized employee expense compliance Seamless integration with card provider, ERP and accounts payable systems Maximized VAT Recovery a business in which Meridian is the world leader Why travel managers like flo Optimized compliance with preferred supplier policy Full spending data provided to aid supplier negotiations Emotion removed from enforcing travel policy Seamless integration with corporate travel self-booking tools Why business travelers like flo Reduced time for filing expense claims Reduced time for approving and reimbursing expenses Greater clarity about which expenses are acceptable and which are not. In our experience, most employees follow rules as long as they know what they are
flo EMA application flo EMA (or third-party provider) receipts auditing flo EXPENSE AUDIT VAT recovery flo VAT RECOVERY Complete Management Why should we introduce an automated expense application? It is estimated that well under half of corporations have an automated expense application. If you are not one of the converted yet, here is why you should have one: Reduced travel costs Management information provided for supplier negotiation Traveler compliance boosted with preferred suppliers, via pre-trip approval Reduced process costs Many manual, paper-based tasks are eliminated, reducing processing costs by up to 80% Reduced employee and time Radically reduced time taken for business travelers to complete expense claims and receive reimbursement Easy one-click approval for line managers
I m convinced. We need an expense application. But why should we choose flo EMA? flo EMA excels in its simplicity of use and integration, while being flexible enough to handle the complexities of widely differing reporting requirements in each country. Simplicity ease of use The tool could not be easier for travelers to complete their expense claims or for line managers to approve them. In fact, if there are no problems with the claim, approval takes a single click. Simplicity ease of integration applications need to be highly adaptable to what you currently have. 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 to ERPs. (As an independent company, we do not favor one booking tool in preference to all others.) flo EMA has been developed on software architecture, which ensures it integrates easily with other systems. Benefits include: ASP-hosted quick to implement Any time, any place access for travelers and approvers On-demand, real-time reporting Multi-lingual help desk support Full paper digitization, indexing and e-archiving service Your expense application or ours? Our expense application, flo EMA, is the best on the market. However, we recognize many companies already have an expense application and do not want to change that. That s not a problem. We can plug any expense application (or more than one) of your choice into flo EXPENSE AUDIT and flo VAT RECOVERY so you can get the full benefit of complete expense.
flo EXPENSE AUDIT application flo EMA (or third-party provider) receipts auditing flo EXPENSE AUDIT VAT recovery flo VAT RECOVERY Complete Management One expense claim in eight is incorrect Our flo EXPENSE AUDIT experts can check every one of your business travelers expense receipts against their expense claims for accuracy and policy compliance. We find that on average one expense claim in eight needs amending. Some errors are accidental, some deliberate. Either way, they can cost your company a lot of money. flo has delivered savings of $2,400,000 Lawrence Vanderbijl EMEA Disbursements Manager Global Financial Services Sun Microsystems Significant savings The results speak for themselves. When one major European manufacturer signed up for flo EXPENSE AUDIT, our team found $4.9 million of savings in $88 million of submitted expenses. Why not? Each year, approximately 15,000 companies worldwide including over 50% of the Fortune 500 send Meridian their travelers receipts to recover the VAT on them. Since we are already looking at all that paper for you, why not let flo audit those same receipts for accuracy and policy compliance?
How it works 1. What the traveler does One of the main advantages of the system is the traveler has so little to do. They submit their online expense report and put all their receipts in a pre-addressed envelope, which is sent to Meridian. That s all. If your company already scans the receipts, Meridian would arrange for the scanned images to be transferred to us. 2. Receipt matching The flo EXPENSE AUDIT team matches each line on the expense report against the paper receipts or scanned images. They verify details including: Receipt amount does it match the claim? For example, has the business traveler claimed $600 for a $60 receipt? Receipt type has the expense been correctly categorized as taxi, rail, hotel, etc.? This is very important for tax authority declarations. Is there an original VAT receipt? For example, business travelers often incorrectly assume 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 analyze each line of your business travelers reports to spot any claims that breach the policy. Examples include: Exceeding limits for meals Incurring car rental refueling charges Claiming both per diem and actual expenses Claiming for in-room movies/mini bars and other non-allowable items Using non-preferred vendors 4. Following up invalid claims If there are no problems with the claim, payment is authorized and the receipts passed on to the flo 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 traveler, explaining which line in the report is being queried and why it breaches company policy c) Send the query to the traveler s line manager 5. Full multi-lingual support If travelers are at all unclear, they can call our unique multi-lingual Help Desk to resolve issues. Our staff speaks 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. flo can also help clients audit their preferred supplier agreements. Are travelers paying at hotel check-out the room rates negotiated by their procurement team? Data from flo will tell you the answer.
flo VAT Recovery application flo EMA (or third-party provider) receipts auditing flo EXPENSE AUDIT VAT recovery flo VAT RECOVERY Complete Management If your company does European travel, you would benefit from our world-leading VAT recovery service. The final stage of the flo complete travel system is Meridian s VAT recovery process. We help you maximize your local and foreign VAT claims. In case you are not familiar with VAT recovery, here is a quick summary: Why recover VAT? It is estimated that companies could reduce their travel budgets by 4% if they recovered all applicable VAT. However, this process is not as easy as it sounds. 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 is 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 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 coworkers only. What we do 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 in VAT Recovery. Each year we handle more than $420 million in claims and to date we have recovered refunds of more than $3.5 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
Summary of flo benefits Significant cost and spend reduction EMA AUDIT VAT Recovery Reduced process costs Reduced IT expenditure Credit card data pre-population, minimizing manual data entry Compliance Consistent application of travel policy Accurate returns of VAT, reducing exposure to risk (penalties) and ensuring compliance with legislation Reconciliation of actual receipt against spend Paper free office-archival service Enhanced employee experience Ease of use: anywhere, anytime Multi-lingual help desk Automated calculations, reducing human error Real-time status for submitted expenses 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 Maximization of VAT resulting in a positive impact on cash flow Global expertise and reach Well-established relationships with VAT authorities Restyling invoices Meridian Westchester Financial Center, 50 Main Street, Suite 274, White Plains, NY 10606, USA T: 212.554.6617 F: 914.328.3325 E: sales.us@meridianglobalservices.com www.meridianglobalservices.com 2009 Meridian. All rights reserved.