Three Tips to Manage the End-Of-Year Expense Report Rush With Ease

The end of the year doesn’t only mean season’s greetings, holiday shopping, and taking that much-needed vacation. For your finance team, year-end close and making sure invoices, purchase orders, and expense reports are submitted, approved, and paid before ringing in the New Year can be anything but relaxing.  

And while your employees not only been wrapping up gifts – but that last business trip of the year – they’re also working on submitting any leftover business expenses. According to our own customer data from 2022, the volume of expense reports in the month of December was 20% higher compared to the rest of the year. This influx in volume during what is already a busy time for finance and accounting can put added pressure on your staff. It can also increase the risk of late reimbursements to employees and your corporate card partners. 

Luckily, there are some ways you can prepare your finance team for this influx of expense reports, so it doesn’t put you in a pickle come year-end close.  

3 Tips to Prepare for the Wave of Expenses: 

Tip #1: Plan for this inevitably busy period. 

The first step to being prepared is to anticipate! Are any of your current processes underperforming? How long does it take on average to process a single expense report? Wow many approvers or auditors are involved in the process? How long does each step take to approve?  

Identifying these metrics can help you formulate a game plan for handling the influx of expenses. It can also help the team to be better prepared, and ensure a healthier financial process for the year ahead. 

Tip #2: Be clear about your expense policy. 

Make sure everyone knows when, where and how they need to submit their expenses. Send your expense policy around as a friendly reminder and don’t be afraid to set boundaries for cutoff dates. For example, request that employees don’t ‘sandbag’ their expenses as this behavior can affect cashflow and your visibility into employee spending. Need to give your policy a refresh before year-end? Check out our 4-Step Expense Policy Refresh.  

Tip #3: Use automation to your advantage.  

Intelligent technology can help buoy your team’s processing time and efficiency and give you added visibility into your cashflow and forecast. It also works to reduce costly errors that you’ll have to correct in the New Year.  

Enable employees on systems and the process before the rush so everyone can work quickly and effectively. 

Expense Payment Manager: A New Resolution for a Smoother Year Ahead 

Expense Payment Manager used with Concur Expense can help lift the load during the end-of-year rush and year-round. With Expense Payment Manager you can: 

• Save time and money by automating payments to employees and corporate card partners – reducing errors, eliminating costly late fees, and freeing up finance and accounting team time. 
• Integrate the entire expense process from spend to reimbursement. You and your employees will have insight into when payments are going out the door and the finance team gains a more comprehensive view of spend. 
• Simplify global payment processes for your team with payments available in 25 currencies around the world and more freedom to choose the right payment partner for your business. 

Making these changes now leads to a smoother year ahead. Make it your new year’s resolution to get your expense process into shape and learn more.