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Expense FAQs

Find Answers to Frequently Asked Expense Management Automation Questions

  1. What is expense management automation (EMA)?
  2. What makes CyberShift different from other suppliers of expense management systems? 
  3. How does CyberShift's Necho Expense solution differ from competitors' solutions?
  4. Does CyberShift's Necho Expense solution support Level III and Hotel Folio data?
  5. I understand how automating my expense report process can save time, but how can it save money?
  6. What are the most important features or capabilities to look for when selecting an expense management system?
  7. How do I know when it makes good business sense to automate my expense management process?
  8. Will this require a large up-front investment for my company?
  9. What kind of resources will be required by my company to implement a solution like this?
  10. What are the pros and cons of a subscription service versus a traditional software license?
  11. Our travelers do not always have access to the Internet. Can your solution address the requirements of these road warriors and provide access offline or through a BlackBerry®?
  12. Can your expense automation system integrate with ERP systems to avoid duplicate data entry? Which systems?
  13. Can your expense automation system integrate with my corporate charge card provider for pre-population of charge card transactions?
  14. Can your expense automation system integrate with my travel booking system?
  15. Only part of our expenses come from travel and entertainment transactions. Can your expense automation system accept feeds beyond travel and entertainment?
  16. How much money can I expect to save through automating?
  17. Will this software help me gain compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley?
  18. I have lots of international travelers. Can your solution support them as well as my domestic travelers?
  19. I am interested in finding out more. What should be my next steps?
  1. What is expense management automation (EMA)?
    Employees who incur expenses on behalf of the company seek to be reimbursed for these costs. It is common for manual processes to cost a company as much as $70 per expense report and to take a month or longer for reimbursement. EMA dramatically cuts the cost of processing an expense report and increases employee satisfaction by issuing a payment in a few days. It also saves money by improving the expense management process. CyberShift's Necho Expense Management Automation solutions handle every aspect of employee business expense processing including:
    • Integration to multiple charge card programs such as travel cards, purchasing cards, fleet cards, vendor direct and more
    • The capture of information such as value-added taxes, attendees, trip purpose and cost accounting data
    • Intelligent approval workflow shortens cycle time
    • Integration with the company's back end G/L systems including accounts payable, direct deposit, payroll or vendor direct billing programs
    • Policy configuration, audit, receipts management and reporting modules to ensure process integrity and to provide greater insight into spend
  2. What makes CyberShift different from other suppliers of expense management systems?
    CyberShift focuses solely on workforce and expense management automation, making it a true best-of-breed supplier. As a result, CyberShift provides solutions and services which are a cut above many suite applications and "me too" products. In addition, CyberShift prides itself on its long-term customer relationships, providing both a world-class expense management solution and a high degree of client service.
  3. How does CyberShift's Necho Expense™ solution differ from competitors' solutions?
    CyberShift's Necho Expense solution is designed for more than travel and entertainment expenses. Although T&E are a substantial portion of discretionary expenses, the benefits are that much greater when you manage the whole range of employee expenses. Necho Expense can handle feeds from all major charge card providers, receipts management, value-added tax recovery, travel booking integration and multiple modes of access including Web browser, offline and BlackBerry.

    CyberShift's Necho Expense solutions support multiple countries, languages, currencies, workflow preferences and policies making it a true global solution.

    CyberShift's Necho Expense provides a full-featured solution available any way you choose, subscription or license, in-house or On Demand Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) hosted environment. This is not the case with many competitive solutions that offer a scaled down version of their solution via subscription service.

    Because expense management is a major focus, our solutions are constantly being enhanced and expanded to ensure that our customers are getting the best tools and the highest return.
  4. Does CyberShift's Necho Expense solution support Level III and Hotel Folio data?
    Necho Expense accepts what is referred to as "Level III" and Hotel Folio data. Level III data provides another level of transaction detail that can be transferred directly from a corporate charge card to an expense report. This detail can result in greater visibility into employee spending. Greater visibility results in more control and fewer instances of unauthorized expenses.
  5. I understand how automating my expense report process can save time, but how can it save money?
    One way that CyberShift's Necho Expense helps organizations save money is by making it easier to establish, communicate and enforce spending policies. These policies can prohibit spending with unauthorized vendors or limit approvals to specific categories of expenses or amounts. With Necho Expense, policies can be enforced automatically. Also when an organization has detailed spend data available, they are in a much better position to negotiate favorable rates and larger discounts. We would be happy to prepare a cost savings estimate for you based on your current expense report processing volumes and methods. Please contact CyberShift for more information on determining your cost savings potential.
  6. What are the most important features or capabilities to look for when selecting an expense management system?
    The most important thing is to select a solution that can support best practices for your business and your industry. Consider what elements make your company's requirements unique: international taxes, remote employees, purchasing card programs, policies, culture, etc. Then consider what the leaders in your industry are doing. There are many ways to find out more about best practices from professional associations, peer companies and research reports or case studies. Please contact CyberShift for additional information.
  7. How do I know when it makes good business sense to automate my expense management process?
    There is no better time than now to automate your expense management process. Answering these simple questions will help you understand how expense management automation will benefit your organization.
    • How long is the approval cycle for an expense report? What about the reimbursement cycle?
    • What is the rejection rate for reports? Why are they rejected?
    • If you re-bill expenses to clients how long is that cycle?
    • Are you spending more with certain vendors than in the past? Is it time to renegotiate?
    • Are the required receipts being provided?
    • Are there opportunities for expense fraud with the current system?
    • How much time is spent by users creating expense reports and by approvers submitting reports?
  8. Will this require a large up-front investment for my company?
    Having the option to subscribe to a service makes it feasible for smaller businesses or companies without a capital budget for the project, to justify automating their expense management process today. By opting for a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) approach rather than a perpetual software license, there is no need to support an in-house implementation or maintain the software. As a result, you don't need to invest a large amount in software or IT resources, making payback that much faster.  Of course, CyberShift also offers its products in the traditional perpetual license fee model for those organizations where this approach is preferred.
  9. What kind of resources will be required by my company to implement a solution like this?
    A lot depends on the size of your company, the number of users and the extent to which you prefer to use internal resources or utilize CyberShift resources to manage the entire implementation. Most clients have a project manager responsible for overseeing the project, which may or may not be the same individual who takes on the role of application administrator. The administrator is responsible for the configuration and the day-to-day running of the system.

    The more structured the current process, the less time will be needed to configure the system to reflect your expense and workflow policies. Some organizations choose to rollout the system in phases, especially in geographically widespread operations. Some opt for enabling a subset of the solution feature set and then enable new functions, rules and processes as determined by need, and as your experience and confidence grow. Typically, the application administrator is needed to bring new users on-line, be the 'go-to' person for the system and adapt the system as requirements change.
  10. What are the pros and cons of a Software-as-a-Service approach versus a traditional software license?
    We are seeing more pay-as-you-go software-as-a-service models replace traditional, perpetual licensing models. Software providers are seeking a more predictable revenue stream and software users are demanding a less expensive, easier way to manage software licenses. While no single approach satisfies everyone, the good news is that more options are available, including outsourcing the entire process.
  11. Our travelers do not always have access to the Internet. Can your solution address the requirements of these road warriors and provide access offline or through a BlackBerry®?
    Yes.  CyberShift's Necho Expense is one of the only solutions in the market to offer a full offline module that allows road warriors to create expense reports when they are disconnected from the Internet.  In addition, CyberShift has taken this connectivity to the next level and is the only enterprise-class vendor to provide users with the ability to create expense reports on the BlackBerry device.  CyberShift empowers our clients to bring their enterprise expense applications to their mobile workers – not bring their mobile workers to the enterprise applications.
  12. Can your expense automation system integrate with ERP systems to avoid duplicate data entry? Which systems?
    Yes.  CyberShift's Necho Expense can be fully integrated with all business systems related to the expense reporting process.  This includes all major ERP systems - SAP, Oracle/PeopleSoft, Lawson and many others.
  13. Can your expense automation system integrate with my corporate charge card provider for pre-population of charge card transactions?
    Yes, CyberShift's Necho Expense accepts data feeds from all major corporate charge card providers including American Express, MasterCard, Visa, and Diners Club International as well as other proprietary and vendor direct providers.
  14. Can your expense automation system integrate with my travel booking system?
    Yes.  CyberShift has taken an “open platform” approach to travel booking integration, allowing our clients to have ultimate flexibility.  To facilitate this level of integration, CyberShift has also entered into formal partnerships with many of the leading travel booking system providers.  Our integration with travel booking systems provides our clients with meaningful and actionable data that compares bookings with actual expenses.  This is delivered to our clients with no added steps or inconvenience to the traveler.
  15. Only part of our expenses come from travel and entertainment transactions. Can your expense automation system accept feeds beyond travel and entertainment?
    Yes, Necho Expense can integrate charge card transactions from multiple cards and providers into a single expense report. For example, many of our clients have one charge card provider for travel and entertainment and another for purchasing card transactions, fleet cards, or other direct billed expenses such as cell phones, etc.
  16. How much money can I expect to save through automating?
    This varies from company to company and is dependent on many different factors including: number of expense report submitters, total amount spent on discretionary expenses and cost-saving measures and policies that have already been put in place. Many CyberShift customers have reported that the cost of processing an expense report can drop by 50 to 80% because the entire process is streamlined from purchase to payment. In effect, everyone's productivity is enhanced, from the employee who submits the report, to the manager that approves it and the administrators who process the report, file the receipts and reimburse. Beyond the processing and compliance savings, many organizations experience additional savings in areas such as VAT recovery, better travel and spend management, merchant negotiations, uncovering hidden savings, etc. Please contact CyberShift for more information on determining your potential cost savings.
  17. Will this software help me gain compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley?
    Yes.  Sections 302 and 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley require management to certify that internal controls over financial reporting are effective. CyberShift's Necho Expense provides a framework for control over discretionary expenses which can be a significant piece of a financial report. Therefore, it is critical that this process is automated with a solution that provides features to prevent and detect fraud and errors.
  18. I have lots of international travelers. Can your solution support them as well as my domestic travelers?
    Yes.  Necho Expense was conceived and designed as a solution for global organizations. This is an advantage for organizations with operations around the world because everyone can use the same system making it very cost effective and efficient. Necho Expense supports multiple languages and currencies as well as tax structures. Necho Expense also offers VAT recovery services to help reduce the cost of international travel.
  19. I am interested in finding out more. What should be my next steps?
    The first and most important step is to understand your organization's requirements. We suggest that you consider contacting a CyberShift consultant who can help you define your requirements and estimate your potential return on investment.

CyberShift's extensive expertise in the fields of Workforce Management and Expense Management allows us to offer advanced technology, multi-faceted functionality and flexible deployment options, including both license fee and On Demand (Software-as-a-Service) models to meet an organization's needs.

Contact us to learn how you can put The CyberShift Advantage to work for you!

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