Nissan Manufacturing Rus

Tasks:

• accelerate the process of expense reports processing and save labour;
• decrease the number of errors in expense reports;
• reduce the number of errors upon manual reconciliation of the travel agency’s data;
• reduce the accounts receivable;
• reduce expenses on business trips;
• signing of expense reports with electronic digital signature.

Solution:

• launching a portal for expense reports processing being accessible from mobile devices;
• creating an electronic archive with an option of retrieval and analysis of data for any period;
• introduction of electronic digital signature;
• automatic reconciliation of the travel agency’s data with reports.

Result:

• time for expense reports processing has reduced;
• expenses on hard-copy document flow and logistics have reduced;
• employees and managers can create and approve documents remotely from mobile devices;
• tax risks associated with incorrect execution of documents have decreased;
• managers have obtained a tool for detailed analysis of expenses on business trips, which made it possible to reduce these expenses;
• employees timely receive payments under expense reports, the company’s accounts receivable have reduced.

Task:

The company’s average staff number is 2248 employees, of which more than 400 regularly go on business trips. 300 persons use corporate bank cards and other 200 undertake expenses requiring compensation without using corporate cards. Previously, employees drew up expense reports in Excel, and errors often appeared in the tables. The managers whose signature was required on documents were often out of the office, and the process of expense reports confirmation took considerable time.

All that increased the documents processing time and the employees’ debt under unreviewed expense reports. Due to complicated approval and payment delays, there arose issues requiring constant diversion of employees to solving these issues. The company’s accounting services manually reconciled the data of expense reports and of the travel agency that booked tickets and hotels for business trips, and this caused additional errors. An excessive load on the accounting service specialists was created.

Due to inability to track all costs related to business trips, executives could not manage the budget efficiently. The company’s accounting system did not allow for retrieving all the data necessary for that, and the data could only be viewed in the form of Excel tables.

Solution:

In 2015, the company management decided to outsource the process of expense reports processing and to implement a system of electronic document flow with an option of complete automation of expense reports signing.

Jointly with Unicon Outsourcing, the customer introduced electronic digital signature into the online system of electronic document flow on the basis of Hamilton Apps software.    

Based on the Hamilton Expense Report cloud application, a system for creation, approval, and further processing of expense reports in electronic form was developed. The option of remote access to the system from mobile devices was arranged for employees and their managers.

The right of signature for approval of expense reports was delegated to chief accountants of offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Result:

The system of expense reports processing was introduced in a short time. Currently, employees create reports through a mobile application, attaching copies of all primary documents. An electronic expense report comes through the system to Unicon Outsourcing specialists who verify whether the company’s policies have been complied with and whether the programme has correctly made the transformation into the accounting system, for the purposes of the RF legislation. After approval by a Unicon Outsourcing accountant, the document passes to the employee manager. Managers can approve documents remotely from mobile devices, their signature and personal presence is no longer required. At the final stage of approval, the expense report is reviewed and signed by chief accountants of the company’s offices.

Detailed reports and analytical data for any periods are available to managers. This has made it possible to optimise the annual budget for business trips.

The customer’s accounting department gained total control over the process of expense reports processing. The number of errors in expense reports was minimised, the time of expense reports approval and compensation of employees for expenses reduced. Reconciliation of data from expense reports with the travel agency’s data takes place in an automatic mode.