When an employee at your company needs to attend a meeting in another city on behalf of the company and receive reimbursement for the expenses incurred, what is the standard procedure? Typically, they have to go through a hectic process of collecting all the records, writing them down on paper, and then submitting them to the accounting department. With Zoho Expenses, all these tasks are reduced to a matter of minutes. This blog provides detailed insights into this fascinating travel and expense management system offered by Zoho.
What Is Zoho Expense?
Zoho Expense is a cloud-based travel and expense management solution from Zoho Inc. that helps businesses maintain accurate and transparent records of all travel-related expenses. With distinct admin and employee views and access levels, this tool simplifies and streamlines the expense workflow for both employers and employees.
Notable Features of Zoho Expense
Managing Expenses:
Zoho Expense allows the management of expenses in a centralized place where businesses can track expenses in real-time, figure out areas for cost reduction, and optimize informed financial decisions.
Mileage Monitoring:
The Zoho travel expense tool will automatically log and calculate mileage expenses. You don’t have to remember and manually add your travel lengths for business trips. Through accurate logging, the system ensures proper tracking and reimbursements.
Task Automation Tools:
No more worries or wasting time on repetitive tasks, such as expense report approval and reimbursement every time. The task automation tools with Zoho Expense will minimize manual workloads and increase efficiency.
Secure Infrastructure:
The Zoho Expense app and the web portal are powered by enterprise-grade security measures to safeguard your sensitive financial data. It employs encryption, access controls, and regular backups to keep your data safe.
Receipt Organization:
On Zoho Travel Expense portal, you can digitally store all your receipts in their respective categories for easy access and tracking. You can quickly pull out any required compliance documents as and when needed.
Reimbursement Workflow:
Zoho Travel Expense is designed to make the reimbursement process smooth and fast. Its customizable workflows allow your team to ensure timely and accurate reimbursements to your employees.
Integration with Third-Party Services:
Zoho Expense Tracker not only tracks every expenditure correctly, but it can also connect with external services, such as accounting software and credit cards, to maximize its functionality and provide a complete solution.
Expense Report Oversight:
Get real-time access to and visibility of your expenses through Zoho expense expense Reports. Whether you are seeking approval or making modifications to align with compliance policies, these reports make it easy to accomplish both.
Why Choose Zoho Expense?
Zoho expense management is a blessing for companies that regularly handle travel records and expenses for their large workforce. Here are some reasons why a business must choose it for its spending management.
Scan expense receipts automatically
With Zoho’s auto-scan feature, you can automatically capture receipt data. It effectively gets rid of the need to manually enter the data and thus reduces errors.
Auto-Match Card Transactions:
The Zoho expense app quickly matches card transactions with corresponding expenses. As it does the card reconciliation faster, you can save a significant amount of time otherwise required for matching and verification.
Make Multi-Tier Approvals Easier:
Simplify the approval workflows with Zoho’s customizable, multi-tier approval processes. Generate accurate expense reports for reviews without any delay and get the approvals done quickly.
Maintain accurate policy compliance:
Ensure that your expense bookkeeping is done in compliance with company policies and regulzoho-expense-the-ultimate-guide-for-expense-managementations with Zoho’s advanced compliance monitoring mechanism. Ensure accurate expense reporting and minimize compliance errors.
Optimize Expense Report Review:
Improve the expense report reviewing process with Zoho’s innovative and AI-powered expense report feature. It facilitates the detection of anomalies while minimizing delays in the approval process through minimal manual effort.
Simplify Accounting with Automation:
Expense accounting is faster than ever with Zoho’s automated expense accounting capability. It offers smooth integration with your accounting software and helps you maintain accurate financial records.
Get your expense tracking and management done quicker and more accurately than ever. Get started with Zoho Expense today.
Understanding User Roles in Zoho Expense
There are three different user roles—Submitter, Approver, and Admin—within Zoho Expense, allowing you to utilize this service efficiently as per your business demands. If the business realizes the need for more user roles, the option to customize them is also available.
Submitter: The user role known as submitter is meant for employees to allow them to submit receipts and expense reports for reimbursement.
Approver: Once employees submit receipts, assigned team leaders or managers will be notified. Upon their approval, the status is updated, and the request proceeds to the reimbursement channel.
Admin: Admins are the overall in-charge of Zoho Travel Expense for an organization. They can add submitters, assign approvers, and create custom roles.
How Zoho Expense Works – An Overview
As you've discovered, Zoho Expense is a cloud-based platform that enables businesses to manage expenses smoothly and efficiently. Its user-friendly interface makes it easy to navigate. Here is a quick overview to help get you started promptly.
Log your Business Expenses:
When a business expense arises, you have two options to log it in Zoho Expense: upload the receipt or manually record the expense in Zoho Expense.
Auto-Scan Receipts:
After your receipts are uploaded, Zoho Travel Expense will auto-scan them and convert them into an expense entry.
Generate an Expense Report:
After logging your expenses, you can quickly generate an expense report.
Submit Expense Report:
Submit the consolidated expense report to your manager for approval.
Manager Review:
Your manager will review the report you generated and will either approve or reject it based on the specified criteria.
Reimbursement:
If the report has been approved, you are eligible for reimbursement for your expenses.
Revisions on Rejection:
If the report is rejected, you can make necessary revisions based on the reasons provided in the approver's comments and resubmit it for approval.
File Travel/Trip Requests in Advance:
Before starting your business trip, you can file a travel request for your supervisor's review and approval if you need hotel or travel bookings arranged in advance.
Post-Trip Expense Logging:
After your trip, track and record all business-related expenses, then prepare and submit your expense report for review and reimbursement approval.
Explore Help Documentation:
For effective expense management, you can explore Zoho Expense's comprehensive resource center. It contains in-depth tutorials and guides to help you make the best use of the platform's features.
Conclusion
Given the complexity and time-consuming nature of expense management for most businesses, a smarter approach is essential. Zoho Expense simplifies this process by automating tasks and ensuring accuracy. We hope this blog has provided a clear overview of Zoho Expense and its benefits for your business. For further guidance or consultation, please feel free to contact our experts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Zoho expense cost?
Zoho Expense offers four tiers: a free plan with limited features and Standard,
Premium, and Custom plans. You can choose the plan that best suits your
business needs. The Zoho Expense pricing for the custom plan varies based on
your specific requirements.
2. Is it possible to submit multiple expenses at once in Zoho Expense?
Yes, it is possible to submit multiple expenses at once in Zoho Expense through
the 'Bulk Expenses' feature. It allows your employees to upload multiple
expense reports at once. For each expense entry, the user can upload up to 5
receipts, each not exceeding 7 MB in file size.
3. What is the procedure for logging an expense in Zoho Travel Expense?
To log an expense in Zoho Expense, the user should go to the 'New Expense'
page, followed by category. There, they can add details of the expense, attach
receipts, and submit it for approval.
4. How can I get started using Zoho Expense?
To get started with Zoho Expense, you can sign up for a free trial, then set up
your organization, configure policies, and add users. Use the resources or
interactive guide to familiarize yourself with the features. Once you determine
the best plan for your needs, you can proceed with a purchase.
5. Can I use Zoho Travel Expense on my mobile device?
Yes, Zoho Expense is available as dedicated mobile apps for both iOS and
Android operating systems. Users can log expenses, scan receipts, and submit for
approval on the go using either app. It syncs in real-time across devices for user
convenience.