Field marketing wants to expense a £40 train ticket. IT wants to expense a £90 hotel stay after a tech conference. Sales wants reimbursement for a handful of client lunches over the past two weeks, totalling £229. 

When these low-cost expenses become claims, finance can spend up to a fortnight processing, querying and reconciling them. If a claim is rejected, the employee bears the financial consequence. 

Research from Soldo’s Blurred Lines report found that 55% of UK employees hesitate before submitting a legitimate claim, and 41% have purchased something for work but never claimed the money back. Almost a quarter (23%) said challenging an expense was one of the most stressful things they do at work. 

Faster expense processing can reduce administrative overhead, but the opportunity lies in moving financial control earlier in the process: before the employee spends.  

Put control before the claim 

Mobile submission, receipt capture, automatic categorisation and OCR have made expense management quicker. A claim that used to take two weeks now takes a day.  

That is an improvement. Your employees spend less time ticking boxes, and finance doesn’t chase receipts, which are less likely to disappear between purchase and month-end.  

However, the issue of who paid and whether the transaction was within policy at the time remains. 

When an employee uses their own money and waits for reimbursement, finance is the last to find out. Travel and expenses (T&E) controls are most valuable when they shape decisions before money is spent. Approvals after a transaction can identify an exception, but control earlier in the process can help prevent one. 

See what employees are spending  

Reimbursement limits visibility. Finance can only work with the data it has received, so forecasts reflect submitted claims and do not show employee spend on personal cards. And without reliable data or forecasts, the business cannot reallocate cash.  

While a £40 train ticket is insignificant in value, the cumulative impact of these small purchases does not appear in the data until employees submit claims. 

This disconnect is even more pronounced around close. Finance can spend the first two weeks of a new month working through purchases from a previous one, reconciling receipts and resolving queries about transactions that cannot be influenced. 

The same process consumes time that could be devoted to forecasting, planning and strategic work with the wider business.  

Employees are burdened with another type of cost. They front the money, then wait weeks to be paid back. For those who travel for work or regularly entertain clients, these purchases can have a detrimental effect on personal finances. 

Embed spending rules into the payment 

A different model starts with company money rather than reimbursement. Soldo can issue a card to an employee, team or project, with spend and rules pre-approved. 

Finance can decide how that money should be used before somebody travels or makes a purchase. Depending on the spending need, that can include: 

  • Who or which team has access to the card 
  • The amount available to spend 
  • The category the money can be used for 
  • The project or purpose the spending relates to 

The employee can then make an approved business purchase without putting it on a personal card. Finance receives data from company transactions rather than waiting for a reimbursement claim to confirm spend. It also answers a common expense question: Can I spend this money for this purpose? 

Biesse’s Director of Administration & Finance, Roberto Mazza, describes the value for a team managing business travellers: “I see significant advantages: instant notifications, receipt scans and expense categories allow us to constantly monitor budgets and intervene promptly.” 

Keep your expense system, but change how employees pay 

Moving control earlier does not necessarily mean rebuilding the expense process around a new system. Soldo runs alongside expense management systems such as SAP Concur, Expensify, Egencia and Zucchetti.  

Instead of asking finance to detect issues during reconciliation, finance can define spending rules in advance, so employees know what is available. This improves visibility for everyone. 

See how growing businesses are approaching T&E.