Blog

Expense management

There are many choices to consider such as whether an invoice should be processed and paid within the accounts payable process or in expense management and to what extent purchase orders should be written. Another common issue is whether to pay travel related compensations within the payroll process or as a separate process. Equally important are organization’s policies for things like accepting new vendors, writing purchase orders and expense management.

Receiving invoice and receipts

Consolidating and automating the way incoming invoices and receipts are received and registered is the first step to improving the whole spend management process. Typically invoices and receipts are received in a number of different ways: paper, pdf, electronically directly from supplier and electronically via an operator or portal.

The least efficient and least reliable way of receiving and registering incoming invoices is to receive them on paper. 10-15 years ago, many people expected paper invoices to soon cease to exist, but this has not happened, and they are almost as common today as they were then. The main reason for this is that, despite many good intentions, no general ecosystem for electronic invoices has evolved. Between two independent companies the easiest way to send invoices is still simply to send a paper invoice. Perhaps even easier is to e-mail a pdf invoice and this is therefore also very common practice and slightly more efficient than paper invoices. A pdf is not equivalent to an electronic invoice though. An electronic invoice adheres to a certain format and can be read with precision by software. A pdf- invoice can be interpreted and also read by computer software but with significantly less precision and reliability than a true electronic invoice. The problem with electronic invoicing is, as mentioned above, that the sender and receiver must agree on a format and a communication channel and usually this also involves a technical set-up and a cost.

What can you do to make receiving invoices and receipts as efficient as possible? If you are a large powerful buyer, you can perhaps force all suppliers to join an electronic invoicing platform on a take it or leave it basis. Few organizations have such a position so that they can do that. Even if you have that buying power it might still not be the smartest thing to do as it might give priority to suppliers willing to comply with your requirements rather than to those who have the best offer. The best solution for most organizations is one that provides some flexibility for the suppliers but strongly gives them incentives to send invoices electronically. Some electronic invoicing operators provide interoperability with others so that a company can send invoices through one ”house-operator” who then forwards the invoices to their final destination. For suppliers who don’t want to join an electronic invoicing scheme or for those who are of one-time or few-time character it’s good to have the pdf-e-mail option at hand. To summarize, try to convince and give incentives to suppliers to join an electronic invoicing scheme but leave a general option for pdfs open. It is best to try to discourage paper invoicing.

For organizations using a procurement platform it is usually possible to create the invoices in that platform by ”flipping” a purchase order. That means that when a purchase order is fulfilled (which usually means that delivery has been made according to the purchase order) then the platform creates an approved invoice which is transferred to the accounting system for payment. The efficiency of such a solution depends on how well this is set up technically and how well the deliveries match the purchase orders. A few examples among the large number of procurement platforms available are Ariba, Jaegger, BasWare, Oracle and Coupa. A procurement platform works to some extent like a web shop where approved suppliers offers their product catalogues and the customer orders from these catalogues. Some platforms like Tradeshift also cater to organizations who only use it to send invoices without placing product catalogues or using ordering functions on the platform.

Self-billing is another interesting option for customers to efficiently ‘receive’ invoices from suppliers. Under a self-billing scheme, the supplier and customer must enter into an agreement which outlines the procedures to follow. Self-billing works so that the customer itself produces the invoices when the supplier has fulfilled certain requirements, and this has been documented and approved. The most important advantages of self-billing are that it saves time, guarantees that the format of the invoice is correct and, usually, the approval is automatic. As a self-billing set-up requires some work and incurs cost it is suitable for regular, large suppliers.

For expenses incurred through business travel or for various purchases by employees outside the procurement system, invoices or receipts also need to be received and registered. Traditionally employees would deliver paper invoices and receipts to an accountant who would book and archive them. Today more and more organizations use tools that allow employees to submit scans or photos and these tools also have approval and accounting functions. Example of such tools for corporate use are Expensify, Concur and Webexpenses. These tools offer, among many functions, travel planning and reporting, ocr- recognition of receipts and integration with accounting systems.

As is evident from what’s written above invoices and receipts can be received and registered in many ways. It’s an important decision for an organization to decide on which methods to use. Should all channels be used, or should options be limited? There is a trade-off between the flexibility of a multi-channel approach and the lower costs of limiting the options.

Home office

In accordance with our internal regulations, any EFF employee has the right to work from home for 40 days in a year, and if the need arises, anyone can apply for an extension of this period. However, the pandemic has forced us to prove that it is indeed possible to close all accounts from home, and that all processes regarding external clients from outside DUNI GROUP can go smoothly as well.

Recently, we have slowed down with any recruitment processes, as the current situation does not require us to hire any new employees. The company is considered trustworthy and appreciated by clients and employees alike, thus the rotation remains low. Currently, our team still consists of nearly 80 people. This low rotation means that our team can stay solid and integrated. We carry on managing internships (our internship consists of 10 students), which is not such an obvious choice, as many companies decide to part ways with their contract for work employees. Our intern team supports all of our main payables, receivables and general ledger processes, and their work is supervised by one of our team leaders, appropriately distributing tasks and controlling their working hours by means of e-Time, implemented last year as part of SAP Success Factors. Our students are provided with necessary hardware, software access and are given their tasks through Microsoft Teams, integrated with out IT system. Joint mailboxes have also proven useful for task distribution, controlling the number of responsibilities, progress and giving or receiving feedback.

Our recruitment

Thanks to state of the art technologies, nothing stands in the way of remotely recruiting new employees for our developing departments: VAT compliance (handling VAT registration for e-commerce companies and filing declarations) and payroll (an international payroll and HR department), as parts of our offer for external clients – should the need arise.

This pandemic has turned out to be a time of many trails – in this case, both for Duni EFF as an employer, and for Duni EFF’s employees. What we need right now is optimism. Fortunately, this situation has verified the efficiency of our teams, which is the source of our pride. For years, we’ve been putting emphasis on good communication in our company. EFF’s organizational culture closely follows the founding values of so called teal organizations which focus on the man in manpower and aim to create an atmosphere of trust, partnership and kindness. We greatly cherish values such as respect, loyalty, cooperation, and professionalism, thus we try to build our relationships with both employees and clients alike in an atmosphere that reflects them. We are fully aware that working from home requires more self-discipline and mutual trust than our standard routines. We are well acquainted with these rules and the pandemic has posed an opportunity for us to further experience what our employees have already been prepared for.

One of the most valuable projects our employees have embarked upon is the mutual sharing of experiences from daily remote work. It appears that each country has their own vision of what a break from work means. We exchange different ideas for arranging work spaces at home and how to best benefit from a break. We find inspiration all around the world. Some nurture their bodies with food, some prefer headstands or meditation and some still prefer to relish a cup of coffee on the porch or balcony, appreciating the beautiful weather.

Managing teams from all areas of remote work is supported by additional, less official projects, such as our Virtual Kitchen. It’s a daily, half hour long virtual meeting over coffee, where all employees are invited. During the first stage of transitioning to home office, Virtual Kitchen was scheduled twice a day – at 9 am and 2 pm. The purpose was to mimic what or routines at the office were – breakfasts, lunches or coffee breaks, so common in Swedish organizations and referred to as fika, meaning small talk over coffee, which usually revolves around our work. Sometimes, it’s simply more efficient and pleasant to engage in an interesting conversation face-to-face and then get back to work.

Times change and so do work standards, but our culture of prioritizing the employee and professional stability remains the same.