Taking the Pain Out of Expense Claims with Convenient Mobile Apps
What we achieved
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Frees up employee time
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Accelerates expense processing
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Enables in-depth analysis of expenses
To who
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Industry: Professional Services
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Products: Domino
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Region: EU/Denmark
Overview
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Part 1
Challenge
Instead of holding onto and submitting a stack of paper receipts at the end of a work trip, employees want to use a smartphone to immediately report expenses.
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Part 2
Solution
Acubiz digitized and automated expense management by bringing mobile functionality to its online software-as-a-service offering.
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Part 3
Results
Employees can now photograph, upload, and register receipts in a matter of seconds — freeing them from completing tedious expense reports.
The Challenge
Modernizing Expense Management
For most people, setting aside an hour or two to sort through receipts and complete an expense report is a necessary evil. Not for Acubiz. Founded in 1997, with the aim of taking the complexity out of expense management, the company is committed to helping its clients streamline and automate what is typically a time-consuming, manual process.
Anders Holm Petersen, Business Development, Acubiz, takes up the story: “We find that most organizations rely on spreadsheets to manage business expenses. For example, an employee will enter details of their expenses into a spreadsheet and submit it to the finance department along with an envelope stuffed full of paper receipts and invoices. The finance team must then manually input that data into the organization’s accounting system. This puts a heavy burden on staff, with each expense submission taking upwards 60 minutes on average. Manually inputting data across different systems also introduces the risk of human error.”
To make submitting, processing, and managing business expenses quicker and easier, Acubiz launched Acubiz expense Management System (EMS), based on HCL Domino collaboration software.
“We’ve been helping our clients streamline expense management and increase processing productivity for over 20 years,” says Anders Holm Petersen. “But we don’t rest on our laurels — we’re always looking for ways to improve our service. That’s why we decided to incorporate mobile functionality into Acubiz EMS.”
We’ve been using HCL Domino for more than 20 years, so we know how reliable it is. Over the coming years, we plan on scaling the infrastructure to handle 1 million users. We’re confident that we can continue revolutionizing expense management supported by HCL Domino.
— Anders Holm Petersen
Business Development Acubiz
The Solution
Going Mobile
Keen to expand its service offering, Acubiz wanted to make Acubiz EMS easy to use on mobile devices. Anders Holm Petersen recalls: “We realized that there was a way of making submitting expenses even more convenient — and it was sitting in everybody’s pocket. We designed and developed a smartphone app, called Acubiz Capture, that enables employees to snap a photo of a receipt and upload it directly to their company’s Acubiz EMS. The expense claim is processed using a series of fully digitized and automated workflows. Then the data is channeled into the payroll system and the employee is reimbursed for the expense — without having to complete any spreadsheets or send off any paper receipts.”
Rapid, reliable communication between the mobile app and clients’ Acubiz EMS is critical, as Anders Holm Petersen explains: “HCL Domino, the foundation of Acubiz EMS, provides all the interfaces needed to ensure communication between the app and the web portal — meaning photos are instantly visible in Acubiz EMS. We really appreciate how HCL Domino enables us to expand our core solution and introduce new features, all while serving as the bedrock for our services.”
He elaborates:“HCL Domino is at the heart of Acubiz EMS. We store and handle more than 25 million transactions a year in the HCL Domino platform, which provides rich built-in security features to keep sensitive financial data secure. We’ve also been impressed with how easy it is to maintain the platform.”
We’re confident that we can continue revolutionizing expense management supported by HCL Domino.
— Anders Holm Petersen
Business Development Acubiz
The Results
With Acubiz Capture and Acubiz EMS, companies can get their expenses completed faster and more cost efficient than ever before. Anders Holm Petersen says, “employees can upload photos of their receipts in a matter of seconds, so they can discard the paper receipt and get on with their day. They no longer have to worry about collecting receipts and submitting an expense claim when they get back to the office. Finance teams, meanwhile, no longer have go through piles of paper receipts and enter the data into different spreadsheets and accounting systems. We’ve found that, on average, clients can process an expense claim in just five minutes using Acubiz Capture and Acubiz EMS — compared to upwards of an hour in the past.”
Since all company credit card transactions are automatically imported into Acubiz EMS, finance teams can easily match these transactions with employees’ receipts in Acubiz Capture, saving even more time. Card transactions are visible in Acubiz EMS within 24 hours, saving finance teams the hassle of entering the details and matching them with the corresponding electronic receipts manually.
The mobile piece has proven to be very popular — since launching the smartphone app a few years ago, Acubiz’s user base has grown from 40,000 to over 110,000. Acubiz has also launched an app that allows management to approve employees’ expenses on the go. “Uptake has been fantastic, and clients are very happy with the Acubiz solution,” says Anders Holm Petersen. “But, as I said, we’re always looking to improve services and add new features. For example, we recently introduced a VAT (value-added tax) reimbursement add-on that makes it easier for clients to claim this back on purchases in foreign countries.
“We’re also looking to harness all of the data stored in Acubiz EMS by introducing analytics services. We want to help clients gain deeper insight into their expenses spending and help them answer questions like, ‘What type of expenses am I spending most on?’
With big plans for the future of Acubiz EMS, the company has complete confidence in the underlying HCL Domino platform.
About the company
Headquartered in Birkerød, Denmark and serving more than 110,000 users in more than 30 countries, Acubiz is one of the Europe’s leading providers of expense management solutions. The company’s core cloud-based expense management system and supporting smartphone apps help clients take the time and hassle out of managing their employees’ expenses.
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