Introduction
Field force do a lot of travelling within and outside of their HQ. This results in various expenses like the stay, food, mementos for the customer, local travel, outstation travel etc. Apart from the reimbursement against bills produced, the sales team is entitled to daily allowance and fare which is based on distance travelled. Based on the number of field force and the area covered, the TAT from claim creation to final settlement might take anywhere from 2 weeks to more than a month.
What are the components of T&E?
Every field personnel are designated a geography within which the travelling is done. A Medical Rep is responsible for the sales in his/her territory. A FLSM is responsible for an area which would be a collection of territories and so on.
The geography will consist of towns/cities. The hometown or city of resident will be HQ for the sales person. Cities/Towns which are nearby and can be covered in a day and field person can be back home on the same day is categorised as Ex-HQ and city/town which involves overnight travel and stay is categorised as OS/Uptown
A field colleague is entitled to Fare and Allowance apart from claims against actual bills for certain types of expense. Allowance is set based on category and will vary designation to designation. Fare is based on the distance travelled and the mode of transportation used.
The field personnel are also entitled to other reimbursements like phone, internet and any other approved expense based on bills produced. This will come under other expense.
Automation of T&E
Considering the number of field personnel and the amount of travelling done by them, it is important that the entire process is automated with little or no editing by the field users. All the information needed to arrive at the expense is available in the Daily Call Report. Broad steps of automation
- Master Data – Distance between different cities, Allowance for category and designation, fare per kilometre designation wise and limits if any for other expense like internet, telephone and others
- Approved standard tour plan – this basically limits the travel to the specified cities in the plan.
- Daily Call Report data – The activities done, the cities travelled based on customers visited, final stay city for the day
- Logic applied on the above data – This is the complex part of the automation. Some highlights are
- Allowance and Fare are applicable based on the activity
- The various cities travelled is taken from the calls entered for the day. The order of entry is very important as it helps to understand the order in which the travel was done
- The distance between cities is added up to arrive at the total distance for the day. Rate is applied to arrive at the fare
- Allowance applicable is dependent on the category of the final city and also the total distance travelled
- Distance travelled will also consider the final stay city for the day.
- When calculation is done for managers, additional logic to consider inter territory travel is applied
- There are scenarios where there might be deviation and manual intervention is needed from the user
- Configurable approval workflow which allows for manager and finance to reduce and approve.
- Integration with ERP – The final approved data is moved to the ERP in the form of an accounting entry involving cost center and employee code. Data also includes Brand allocation so accounting is completing for the spend against each Brand. From ERP bank advice flows resulting in final payment
Advantages of Automation
- Lesser TAT from claim creation to final payment. A manual process would have taken anywhere from 3 to 5 weeks will get done in 3-4 days’ time
- Lesser errors as the entire process is based on call data and master settings
- Lesser time for the field personnel to submit the expense statement
- Digitalization of all the bills. This makes it easily retrievable for any audit
- Lesser data entry at all levels i.e. from field user to the finance department
- Notifications and reminders which ensures timely submission and timely approval
Final Summary
Automation of Travel and Expense claim allows for seamless reimbursement within reasonable time. It also allows the company to easily configure any policy change with minimal or no disruption. The field personnel are spending out of their pocket and it is the company’s responsibility to ensure their dues are compensated on time.
R. Priya
Chief Operating Officer
VSM Software Pvt. Ltd