Six of the best new ways to #BurnYourReceipts whilst travelling

This is emphatically not a blog about encouraging the pyrotechnic tendencies of any closet arsonists, but a genuine attempt to streamline your business travel expenses management whilst the pandemic lingers – and the advice will apply equally once we’re into the groove of the ‘new normal’.

Advice about staying safe during the pandemic has always included a dimension of keeping your distance, so we’ve drawn up a quick list of ways you can do that, but still keep close to the receipts you need for expenses management. That way, at least keeping the books will be straight even though the world has become ever-more convoluted.

(Before we get into that, here’s a ‘wow’ moment – did you know that paper produced for printing receipts worldwide robs the planet of 10m trees every year? Nor did we…)

1.     Refuse it: You don’t have to have a receipt, and your refusal will strike a blow for trees everywhere. However, although the person approving your expenses claim may applaud your green stance, they could #BurnYourClaim in an instant for lack of supporting documents. Better to adopt one of the following strategies instead.

2.     Photograph it: You don’t need to carry paper. Expense reporting software offered by ExpenseOnDemand has the built-in capability to read a receipt and note payee, date, and amount without you having to touch the paper. That means you can ask the receptionist to bin the paper copy.

3.     Get it emailed: Many locations will email receipts to you, which is especially useful if you’re buying something online in an old-school phone conversation. Emails deliver the information without the paper.

4.     Snap the pump: Pay at pump fuel sales give you the option to take or refuse a receipt. You could always photograph the details on the pump, and then decline the receipt. It’s worth checking with your company if this practice is acceptable, but. We can’t see why it wouldn’t be, if you were to key in the details to the expense report app.

5.     Pay by phone: In the UK the upper limit for paying for goods using your phone is going up from £45 to £100.That change brings a golden opportunity to do away with old school paper, because the phone will record the transaction. Make the system even more effective by having an account or credit card exclusively for business spending; that would create an instant one-stop paper trail to back up your expenses claim. Expenses could be reimbursed into there, for a truly slick expenses management solution

6.     Use an online wallet: For larger spends, turn to a banking app. The same benefits apply as those we list above. Simply create a new payee, and money can be moved instantly, with the software always keeping a record of what you’ve spent and where you spent it.

The common thread running through these ideas is that expenses management is done to the highest possible standard, whilst simultaneously eliminating paper from the equation.

Every spend can be recorded accurately, and, if you’re using the ExpenseOnDemand expense report app, can be incorporated into an expenses claim ready for approval and reimbursement, filed against the right cost centre, office, department, or individual, and fed back into the business accounts thanks to our ability to integrate with

• Sage,
• Xero,
• QuickBooks,
• Tally.

Picture: Mimagephotography | Dreamstime

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