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The price of oil – all 87.5 million barrels produced every day throughout the world – is sensitively poised. Geo-political factors such as the ongoing stand-off with Iran over its nuclear programme, the revolution in Libya, and more recently the destabilising impact of the Nigerian terror attacks, all conspire to increase wholesale prices.

We are trying to cure our addiction to oil, but change is slow. The limitations of electrically powered vehicles such as range and a lack of charging infrastructure mean that hybrid vehicles remain the best option.

Organisations that reimburse employees for business miles driven in personally owned petrol and diesel powered vehicles must take positive action to limit the impact of rising fuel costs. Questioning the necessity of journeys and substituting technology such as videoconferencing is one strand; ensuring the accuracy of necessary fuel expenses is another.

Expense On Demand verifies mileages based on highly accurate mapping data. This eliminates overpayment due to rounding up and ‘guesstimation’ of mileages. The system is so accurate that it is able to factor in differences in distances driven between outward and return journeys over the same route that result from one-way systems or roundabouts.

Click this link to read more about how Expense On Demand can help reduce the risk of increasing oil prices and inaccurate mileage claims.

In a rapidly changing economic environment, flexible and future proof technology solutions are an essential requirement for most businesses. These are some of the features you need to ensure your expense management system stays the course.

1. Comprehensive reporting – detailed analysis of expenses is vital for a thorough understanding of profit and loss. Expense management systems must provide a high degree of granularity to ensure that finance can see the real cost of doing business.
2. Scalable categorisation – systems need to support category customisation by administrators. Traditional expenses such as fuel, food and accommodation are only part of the expense portfolio. It is often impossible to envisage every possible employee expense when integrating a system. Soaking up items such as training, professional memberships and eye tests under ‘sundries’ or ‘misc’ is no aid to accurate analysis.
3. No user organisation lock-in – systems must support open formats for data exchange; proprietary digital formats lock in customer businesses by creating a barrier. This may make it difficult to move to another solution provider if legacy data is held in a proprietary database.
4. Full functionality as standard – avoid the need for additional modules at extra cost. Selecting a fully functional system at the start guarantees a known, budgeted fixed cost. Paying extra for whistles and bells later may reflect poorly on the finance function.
5. Support for multiple operating systems – web based solutions should function from browsers enabling transparent and seamless operation across a range of operating systems and user devices. Windows, MacOS, Android, Ubuntu; IE, Safari, Firefox, Chrome; all should be included as well as practically anything else you care to mention. Apps are sometimes another solution-centric nice-to-have.
6. Low impact on internal resources – web-based systems should be free from the need for internal IT support; user training and application support issues should be owned by internal evangelists in finance or by the solution provider. Once configured on firewalls and gateways, and integrated as required, bandwidth requirements should be readily absorbed within existing web connections with minimal impact on internal IT workers.
7. Compliance as standard – systems should be fully auditable and enable compliance with all applicable legislation in every territory in which it is used, including Sarbox and anti-bribery laws.

In the UK many of us are aware that claims for items like ‘duck houses’ and ‘moat cleaning’ lie at the heart of the national scandal that is MPs expenses.

However such expenditure on the necessities of life is only relevant to those that operate in the rarefied atmosphere of the aristocracy, (or on its lower slopes) or those that occupy high office.

Meanwhile back in the real world, what do expenses cheats really blow their companies’ and co-workers’ Xmas bonus pot on?

Expense On Demand thought this list published by Travelodge should raise an eyebrow, if not a chuckle or two.

• Extravagant holidays to Monte Carlo, Paris and New York
• Neutering a cat
• Hamster for son’s birthday present
• Services rendered by a “lady of the night” whilst abroad
• Pregnancy kit for a one night stand
• Masonic door knocker
• Collectable stamps for personal collection
• Dancing lessons
• Family trip to Disney World
• Luxurious Caribbean cruise
• Gucci watch
• Used wife’s receipt to claim a USA flight – she worked in a different company
• New furniture for the house
• Condoms
• New wardrobe of clothes after wife threw respondent out of the house

If you’ve come across one that would not look out of place here, add a comment to this blog post.

Take a look at the full article on Travelodge’s website by clicking this link.

As the economic outlook remains uncertain and with budget deficit reduction the name of the game for many governments, businesses must continue to strip out cost. Reducing business travel spend not only reduces the cost of doing business, it also prevents your company for paying more than necessary into the tax system.

Fuel prices are escalating. Some of this is demand based, but other components of the price include subsidies for the shift to renewable energy or carbon taxes.  The Carbon Reduction Commitment, the UK’s first mandatory scheme to make ‘polluters pay’ targets big private and public sector consumers of electricity – those that in 2008 metered usage per half hour was greater than 6000 Mwh. This equated to an annual bill of around £500,000 in Oct 2010.

“That’s got nothing to do with us!” chimes 75% of the business sector. That may be true now but the trickle down effect is going to be felt by mid-market and smaller organisations. The Climate Change Bill commits the UK to a 60% reduction in CO2 by 2050. It’s a gradual process; however the first milestones are coming up fast – 2020 – so going forward, taking control of travel spend is vital if we are to minimise HMRC’s slice. Here are some ideas for reducing travel expenditure.

Do you really need to travel (is a conference call better?)

Why physically travel to a meeting when you can telephone, voice or video conference? No time, fuel or cash wasted on physical travel, just send your image and voice at the speed of light. Sending the physical you, teleporting – as in ‘Beam me up Scotty’ – will be a game changer, but don’t expect it anytime soon.

Car sharing

If you’re lucky enough to only need space for a toothbrush and a laptop when you use the car for business and don’t have to get involved in the school run, then the Ferrari 458 is the one for you. We wish. Most of us have at least 4 seats, so if we have to drive, why not use them in a way that is carbon tax friendly to the business? Why take two or more cars when you can take one to a meeting?

Environmentally friendly cars

They may not have the adrenaline releasing performance or head turning looks but have you looked at the tax incentives for environmentally friendly cars? Lower road tax, better fuel economy, lower insurance; and state of the art hybrid technology make them hard to ignore.

Consolidate business meetings

If at all possible, try doubling up on meetings. If you have to travel, why not try to arrange two or three meetings in close proximity if it makes make geographical and business sense? If it’s not possible to travel there and back in one day and an overnight stay is required why not try to schedule meetings a day apart?

Do you have to fly business class?

Air travel may be a necessity for some businesses. And what ever class you travel the tax policy seems to be uniformly applied. So the best way to reduce air travel costs is to minimise journeys and purchase the lowest cost ticket. While this realistic for short-haul, long haul economy travel leaves a lot to be desired. But if it’s long haul, why not overnight to recover from an economy trip before business?

This Expenses Management white paper explains how Expense on Demand helps reduce the cost of doing business by controlling T&E spend.

For many, the paper chase of rounding up receipts and going through card statements marks the start of another lap in the endless cycle of expenses processing. If you’ve finally seen that this is an outdated practice that is not the best use of time, the chances are that you are exploring your options to take expenses online. To help make sure that you make the right decision for your business, here are five questions that you should consider.

1. Independent solution provider or proprietary module for an existing software package?

If you already operate a finance or management information database package that supports a proprietary expenses module, it is clearly worth exploring if this solution works for you. However, don’t be smitten by the illusion that it will be the best option. Proprietary software solutions have a reputation for not providing the best value, and of locking customers in. Also expenses modules may often be bolted on as an after-thought rather than being a well thought out core product, so they may not deliver ease of use or the best functionality. Independent solution providers focus on simplifying expenses as the core design objective. The independent expenses software market is competitive; providers focus on delivering value and seldom lock you in.

2. Business wide rationalisation or limited scale expenses only project?

If your business is considering rationalisation across all areas then you might want to wrap expenses management into a bigger project, perhaps using an ERP solution from a tier 1 vendor. However, such projects force change across the entire business and tend to be difficult and expensive. If you look elsewhere you find that mid-market solution providers readily offer limited scale deployments with an emphasis on integrating with your current IT investments. This usually wraps in lower cost, faster time to go live and quicker ROI. Remember if you are adopting ERP for rationalisation, it does not necessarily tie you to that vendor’s expenses solution. A good dedicated mid-market provider is often readily able to integrate its products to work in harmony with other systems.

3. What are the risks of operating expenses online?

Online software is browser based so there is no proprietary application to maintain on your computers. It is delivered from the internet, often referred to as a ‘cloud service’. Cloud services often quote availability of better than 99.9%, and to all intents and purposes this means the service is always there for you. In terms of security, look for ISO27001 quality accreditation as this means a solution conforms to the latest international standards for information security. Encryption of data saved in the cloud is also an excellent risk reduction feature that helps ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act.

4. What is included in the monthly subscription fee?

Many pricing plans are based on cost per user per month or cost per expenses claim submitted. However, this does not necessarily mean that multiplying it by the number of staff is the total cost. Some providers may charge extra for pre-sales consulting, integration services and support may be an additional monthly fee. Others may bundle everything in for one fixed price. To understand costs better, separate one-off start up costs from recurring monthly fees. Pay particular attention to the SLA, especially with regard to support. Make sure you are satisfied that the correct level of help is on hand when you need it.

5. What is to be expected of training and support for online solutions?

Good business solutions need to be accompanied by a structured and focused training programme if you are to get up and running quickly and benefit from productivity gains. Gone are the days of tossing a 300 page manual on someone’s desk and expecting them to get on with it! Administrators in particular need to be well trained as in the day-to-day scheme of things they may be the first point of contact for your users. Fundamentally, a solution needs to be intuitive and claimants should not need formal training. Look out for online user guides. Videos are excellent tools that ensure everyone gets up to speed quickly.