Every year, French employees forgo an average of 212 euros in expense claims because they have lost receipts or the procedure is too cumbersome. Every year, there are also cases of expense claim fraud, averaging 700 euros per employee: duplication, exceeding limits, etc.
To avoid these problems, Anytime can help you find the most virtuous ways to manage your employees' expenses.
STEP 1 - Define an expense policy.
We recommend that you publish a guide or send an e-mail to your employees clearly setting out the rules in force in your company: special conditions, ceilings, rules for validating expense claims, etc. Consult our practical guide to help you implement these rules.
STEP 2- Define how your employees will pay for expenses.
Several payment methods can be set up to cover the costs incurred by your employees in running the company.
Advance payment of expenses :
Many companies let their employees pay part of the costs up front, and reimburse them on presentation of receipts at the end of the month.
Disadvantages :
- your employees don't always have the cash to do so;
- there is no upstream control of expenses incurred;
- this involves a lot of red tape: ... draw up the expense claim, ... have it validated (and once out of 3, have it corrected), ... send it to the accounting department, which has to enter it in the accounts and issue the payment order.
A deferred debit card:
American Express-type cards allow employees to pay for expenses that are not debited until the following month, giving them time to get reimbursed.
Disadvantages :
- if they don't get their money back in time, they can find themselves with cash flow problems;
- the Amex card represents a significant cost for the company;
- there is no upstream control of expenses incurred;
- the administrative procedures for the employee are cumbersome.
A company card :
Expenses incurred are financed by your company's business bank account.
Disadvantages :
- You have no upstream control over expenses;
- You cannot control cash withdrawals.
- Expenses are debited directly from the company account, and this represents a risk for the company, especially if the employee forgets to provide receipts.
Anytime Business cards:
By opening an Anytime neo-bank pro account, you can benefit from 3 to over 1,000 Mastercard cards, and an unlimited number of virtual Mastercards, which you can allocate to your employees.
What are the benefits? Cost control:
- You can configure each card specifically for each employee: budget and/or ceiling, temporary or total suspension of the card, etc.
- After each transaction, the employee receives an email inviting him or her to respond by adding the invoice justifying the expense.
- The manager can be notified in real time as soon as an expense is incurred.
- At the end of the month, if the employee has not entered all the receipts, Anytime automatically sends an email reminder.
- You have real-time access to all expenses incurred, which you can classify by employee, or by type of expense. This allows you to keep an overview at all times.
- Real-time access to receipts means that - in the case of expenses that can be re-billed to your customer - you can do so without delay. + Last but not least, you can automatically feed transactions into your accounting software (CSV export or automatic integration with your software).
STEP 3 - Be careful with your expense receipts.
The receipt is the key element in the expense reimbursement process. It ensures that the employee is reimbursed for his expenses, and enables the company to be exempt from social security charges on these expenses. Strict controls are therefore carried out by the tax authorities. It is therefore essential to keep an expense report at all times.
Fortunately, the State is modernizing, and since March 2017, digitized versions of invoices have the same value as the paper version.
When one of your employees uses an Anytime Mastercard, he or she is invited to take a photo of the invoice, upload it and associate it with the corresponding expense. The receipt is then stored digitally, and its URL link can be retrieved with a single click. From your Customer Area, you can check that the receipt has been attached to the payment.
If you want to optimize control over your expenses, consult our practical information sheet.
What should you do if one of your employees loses a receipt?
Legally, you cannot reimburse an employee who is unable to produce a receipt. The following solutions are available to you in the event of a lost receipt:
- ask the supplier to provide a copy of the missing invoice;
- use the bank statement to justify the existence of the expense, specifying the amount, date and purpose. This solution is tolerated by the tax authorities if it is not frequently used, and concerns small amounts (less than 35 euros), and you can attach a sworn statement drawn up by your employee.
Thanks to Anytime, you don't have to take the slightest risk, thanks to our automated, digitized solution!
STEP 4 - Integrate expense reports into your accounting system.
Thanks to Anytime's automated expense management solution, you save precious time:
- Your employees no longer have to waste time writing monthly expense forms.
- Your managers no longer have to waste time checking them, having them corrected if necessary, and checking them again.
- Your accounting team saves time.
Each month, you can automatically create a csv file containing all expense report parameters, ready to be integrated into your company's accounting system. You can even integrate it automatically into your software if Anytime has already developed the connector.
And every month, Anytime sends you a complete statement, so you can complete your VAT return with ease, and reduce your administrative workload.
By opening an Anytime business bank account, you can easily manage your employees' expenses, with access to a simple, intuitive solution.
