Many people get confused about what “document management” means. The first step is to store your documents electronically. Once you’ve moved from paper to digital documents, you can route them through workflow and automate distribution. But now sophisticated smart forms have been added to the mix, and they can be used to streamline all kinds of processes – like expense reporting.
Think about how you currently process expense reports. Maybe you are used to having employees fill out an Excel sheet, print it out and staple all of the related receipts to it. Then this stack of papers will need to be set on a supervisor’s desk for their approval before it is then set on the desk of the Accounts Payable clerk. If the supervisor goes on vacation or loses track of the expense reports on their desk, that paper expense report could sit there for a while. And the employee who submitted it might not know what is delaying them from receiving payment.
If you used a Smart Form to manage that process instead, it would look something like this:
Step 1: Fill out the expense detail online on your customized Smart Form.
Step 2: Take a picture of the receipt and upload onto your DocLink mobile app, scan the paper receipts or save receipts you received via email. Electronically attach them to the Smart Form.
Step 3: With the click of a button, route this expense report and supporting documents for approval and entry into financial system.
Routing the expense report electronically speeds up the approval process while giving you visibility to its status. Since the document is already electronic, you won’t need to scan or index it to be able to retrieve them at a later date. Rather than searching for a document in a file cabinet or on another employee’s desk, you can type in a search value and look up that document right from your desktop.
So don’t stop once you get rid of the paper – make sure you’re using all the available tools to streamline your current processes and come up with electronic alternatives to save you time. Smart Forms are just one of the many process improvement tools Altec has available. Give us a call to find out how you can go paperless to manage expense reporting and all of your other processes.
Find out more on our upcoming DocLink webinar "Expediting the Expense Report and Corporate Credit Card Processes" and register here:
