A question from a reader states: We send electronic statements for corporate credit cards to users, but it takes up to a week to receive expense reports for the statements. This interfers with our fast close process. What can I do?
Here are some possibilities:
- There are usually repeat offenders every month, so target them for special treatment. Assume they will NOT submit an expense report on time, so immediately start hounding them as soon as they receive the statement. The normal escalation path is an e-mail, then a phone call, then a call to the supervisor, and then to the CEO. The total warning period is four days.
- Card users may be on vacation when you issue card statements, so periodically review all vacations listed in the corporate Outlook calendar, and ask employees with vacation plans to download their preliminary card statement from the issuer’s web site and send you an expense report based on this information – before they go on vacation.
- If you don’t receive an expense report on time, charge expenses to default accounts based on best guesses, and then route the default expense reports to the department manager for review.
- Worst case, you can roll back the credit card period to a point earlier in the month, though this may result in a significant amount of unrecognized expenses that are incurred on the cards between the card closing date and the end of the month.