Each company that manages the field service is well aware of the fact that planning, controlling and accounting business trips is a challenge that has so far consumed a lot of time and work. Fortunately, modern technology offers innovative solutions that allow much faster and more convenient planning and settlement of business trips. Let's take a closer look at them!
Challenges related to the traditional settlement of business trips
Planning a business trip can be extremely troublesome for many reasons. The selection of suitably experienced employees, the choice of the date and place of departure, the way of travel, adjusting to the client's preferences - these are just some of the challenges associated with organizing a delegation. One of the most important issues that both the fieldworker and the accounting department must pay attention to is the accurate settlement of all travel expenses. Expenditure should be assigned to appropriate categories that take into account, inter alia, hotel invoices, meals, gasoline, or highway tolls. Of course, each expense that will be settled must be properly documented, e.g. with an invoice, ticket, or other confirmation that is accepted by the accounting department. The employee must scrupulously collect all accounting vouchers and pass them to the appropriate department after returning. It happens, of course, that business trips are organized at the end of a given month or even at the turn of two months. Such a scenario is a real problem for the accounting department, which requires all invoices, tickets, and paper forms that are in the possession of the employee who is currently traveling.
Online settlement of business trips
It is not difficult to notice that the traditional methods of settling business trips have many disadvantages and take up valuable time of employees at various levels. That's why more and more companies decide to introduce newer solutions that help efficiently manage business travel. Innovative service software, such as Luceos Smart, allows for quick and convenient online settlement of business trips. It consists of both a mobile application for the employee traveling and an application for management and accounting that allows you to monitor the course of the trip in real-time. The trip planning is largely automated and can also be supported by field work scheduling which is a popular feature of the system.
The program allows you to create a new business trip and define its key parameters, including the selection of a designated employee, duration of the trip, the most important locations, and the currency of the settlement. And thanks to the trip statuses (new, in progress, completed), managers can monitor the delegations in real-time. A field worker has the ability to register his current expenses and assign them to specific types of costs. Also, it is possible to attach photos of invoices, receipts, tickets, and other accounting documents to each of the expenses, which will allow quickly complete travel documentation. It should be emphasized that during the planning, managing and accounting for business trips, paper is not used at all, and all information is provided online. The data is automatically synchronized, and thanks to that accounting department is able to control the emerging expenses on an ongoing basis and does not have to wait for the employee's return to the office to settle a business trip.
Electronic settlement of business trips
The implementation of the online business trip settlement system is associated with significant time and costs savings that apply not only to the employee on the go, but also his supervisor and the accounting department. Moreover, accurate documentation of a business trip allows you to avoid any misunderstandings, and the whole process is much faster and more efficient. Of course, each delegation can be finalized with a detailed report that presents the key parameters of the trip and informs about the expenses incurred. It is also possible to generate reports for longer periods, e.g. a quarter or a year.