The secret to streamlining travel and entertainment (T&E) expense processing isn’t just in getting rid of manual processes.

Handing a few manual tasks back to the travelers can help shift the burden. Here are a couple of tips for getting rid of some of the paperwork that tends to bury folks on both ends of the expense pipeline:

1.) Link up the back-end. Whether you’ve got a handful of travelers or a fleet of road-warrirors to manage, both third-party vendors and travel Web sites usually have a way to link payment info to accounts payable systems.

Limiting travel planning to a single source makes it easy for employees to book flights, hotels, cars, and other services.

You’ll need management buy-in to set up the system, but you’ll have savings on your side – a vendor will often give your company a discount for dealing exclusively with it.

And, once management and workers catch on, you’ll be able to link up accounts payable to the vendor’s systems.

2. Work on the road. Instead of mailing paper receipts to approvers, consider asking workers to fax receipts directly to A/P.

Accounting will be able to jump on needed paperwork faster and catch mistakes before they jam up proceeses. Just be sure you wait until A/P receives paper receipts before sending reimbursements or other payments.

Even though few people are on the road without a laptop or smartphone, most use them only as a means to make calls or check e-mail.

Uploading T&E software directly onto these devices can take work off accounting’s plate. They’ll have fewer manual tasks to handle while getting speedier, more detailed info.

Tags: expenses, receipts, smartphones, travel & entertainment