From covering business flights to paying employee commuting costs, managing business travel expenses can be a pain – especially when you do it on your own.

Reports estimate that automated business reporting can cost as much as 39% less than doing it manually. Not convinced to make the switch yet? Let’s take a look at what business reporting may already be costing you in terms of time, money, and employee satisfaction – which is arguably the highest cost of them all.

The hidden costs of business accounting

Any company, large or small, understands how time-consuming it is to keep track of expenses. For starters, filing a claim takes time out of the day of your accounting team, the employee filing the report, and the manager that needs to approve it. Multiply this a few times over, and you’re looking at a bureaucratic process that dramatically slows several teams down.

Here’s a breakdown of the many ways manual business accounting doesn’t work in your favour.

The price of business reporting (in employee hours)

Let’s look at a simple example. One of your sales employees goes for a meeting with a big client across town – say three miles away. The round-trip alone can cost anywhere between £3 in Cairo or £50 in Zurich, but that’s neither here nor there. We’re more concerned about the costs that come up after the bill is paid.

After what is hopefully a promising meeting, your salesperson files a claim and passes it on to their manager with the receipt. The manager will take a look at the receipt and, if all is well, pass it on to accounting. Now a third person, if not a fourth or fifth depending on your accounting hierarchy, is taking time to validate the claim and file the expense report.

Assuming that there are no issues or errors, your accounting team is finally ready to reimburse your employee. While it may not sound very complicated, imagine a department of thirty salespeople having six to eight meetings a day.

That adds up to a whopping 4,800 claims a month – but for the sake of objectivity, let’s look at some real-life data.

How companies spend £380,000 a year on expense accounting

In a 2015 survey by the Global Business Travel Association, companies reported an average of 51,000 expense reports filed each year. What that translates to on your annual reporting is around £380,000 in purely travel-related expense costs!

What adds most to this figure after wages is the cost of human error. The same survey reported that one in five claims have some mistake that makes it impossible to file. From losing a receipt to making a typo, these easily avoidable errors rack up an average of 3,000 employee hours spent fixing them.

And that’s not all it will cost you.

Even the silliest mistakes can mean delayed reimbursement for your employees, who usually pay out of pocket unless they rank high enough to have access to your company credit line. If we go back to our sales team example, would you be happy if you had to wait for weeks to get paid back for all those business rides? Doubtful.

Bolt Business accounting

Bolt Business keeps accounting, employees, and investors happy

Whether it’s focus, money, or employee satisfaction you’re concerned about, Bolt Business is here to save the day. In today’s digital world, no business should drown in receipts and bureaucratic processes. The reason is pretty simple – we have software that does it for you.

Here’s how Bolt Business users save time, effort, and money on business accounting.

Set custom limits and expense budgets

Some teams need bigger travel budgets than others. Plus, if we’re honest about incentives, some individuals have earned more travel perks than others. That’s why Bolt Business allows you to set clear rules for company rides that make it impossible to go over budget.

Not only will you be able to relax, but your employees will also be relieved to know that they won’t need to hold on to their receipts for dear life. All expenses are covered instantly, from commutes to work to business trips and meetings depending on what your company decides to cover. Simply put, you decide what each team or individual uses Bolt Business for, and we’ll handle the rest.

Say farewell to manual reporting

Your accounting team has better things to do than chase down employees or decipher faded receipts. Bolt Business users get a monthly summary of rides and expenses, and all of the billing is taken care of without a single paper receipt – think of all the trees you’re saving.

Worried about giving everyone access to your company credit line? Thanks to custom limits, it’s impossible for employees to exceed their allocated travel budget. As soon as they finish their ride, we’ll ask them to describe the purpose of the trip and deduct the fee from their expense budget. And yes – invoices are taken care of right in the app.

Bonus perk: save 30% compared to regular taxi rides

One of the benefits of being one of the fastest-growing transportation platforms in the world is that we can offer the best deals on rides.

Besides enjoying effortless expense accounting, Bolt Business users save as much as 30% compared to regular taxi fares. If that doesn’t sweeten the deal enough for you, you might enjoy being able to select the level of luxury you, your employees, or clients get to travel in. Remember the salesperson we mentioned earlier? Picture them rolling up to a big meeting in a Merc instead of a Toyota.

If you’re planning on scaling, automated business reporting is a must. Available in over 20 countries, we’re here to help you grow no matter where you are or what you do. Learn more about Bolt Business, and keep an eye on our blog for more cost-cutting tips.

Accounting made easier with Bolt Business

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