Navigating Your Business Through Turbulent Times: FAQ

SAP Concur Team | 05-05-2020

On April 2, 2020 SAP Concur hosted the live thought leadership webinar Navigating Your Business Through Turbulent Times. The webinar featured a panel of executives from various industries discussing the actions that their businesses are taking in the current economic climate to stabilize their operations, survive the downturn and position their businesses for the recovery.

The webinar, which can be accessed on-demand, also included a Q&A session with questions sourced from both social media and webinar attendees. While we couldn’t answer every question during the webinar, we wanted to provide answers to the most broadly applicable questions below:

 

What types of expenses do employees submit now that they work from home?

With the workforce now working largely from home, travel expenses are greatly reduced. However, that doesn’t result in instant cost savings for businesses because new expenses have emerged in their place. Items like monitors, cell phone and internet costs, basic office supplies, online fitness class reimbursements, and more all must be considered and tracked to control costs.

It’s also important to create a travel and expense policy that establishes what is and is NOT included. Can employees expense magazine subscriptions? Childcare? Home furnishings to create the perfect video conference backdrop? To avoid confusion and reduce the risk of fraud, it’s important to anticipate and evaluate potential work-from-home expenses, and then clearly communicate what complies with policy and what does not.

 

How are companies connecting with employees during this time? 

There’s never been an easier time for employees to stay connected from afar. Email, IM, text, video conferencing … businesses can choose from any of the countless digital communications platforms and services that are now standard in business.

Connection isn’t simply about making it easy for colleagues to stay in touch or see one another on a screen. Companies must also take steps to understand how employees feel during this difficult and emotional time.

SAP Qualtrics recently created and released solutions that were designed specifically for navigating working during COVID-19 pandemic. Its primary solution, Remote + On-site Work Pulse, allows businesses to quickly assess employee well-being, safety, and resourcing. By listening to employees, and supporting them in the new remote work environment, leaders can identify gaps in employee morale, make adjustments, and help everyone stay productive and satisfied as they work remotely.

SAP Qualtrics is offering these solutions free of charge.

 

What tools are companies using to analyze weekly, monthly, or daily cash flow?

In the new work climate, controlling employee-initiated spend is more challenging and more important than ever. One good way for companies to achieve this is by making the most of tools they already have.

SAP Concur customers can take advantage of a number of reports and analytics. With this data, businesses can increase visibility on spend, improve compliance, and manage spend more effectively. A few of the many reports that can be leverages include:

  • Expense Accrual by Date Range: Review your outstanding credit card transactions and cash liabilities.
  • Missing Receipt Audit: Analyze expenses that commonly miss receipts to better enforce policies and help new users submit expenses.
  • Top Spenders by Employee: Easily see which employees spend the most and ensure that all expenses are justified.
  • Workflow Cycle Times Details: See an expense report’s workflow cycle time and optimize your submission-to-reimbursement process. (Intelligence solution only)
  • Invoice Aging: Get a detailed view of unpaid invoices and see how long it’s been since they were issued.

If you are an SAP Concur customer, we encourage you to contact your client success manager, who has additional resources to share regarding recommended policy adjustments to make given the current climate and SAP Concur reporting to leverage and better control spend.

 

Want to learn more about what your business can do to survive the current economic climate? Watch Financial Data Analysis on-demand where Scott Duffy, host of What Next? and Gene Marks, CPA and president of The Marks Group discuss how businesses can use the data that exists in their accounting systems today to analyze spend, drive cost savings, and optimize cash flow. Register here to watch now.

 

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