Detailed Reporting for Real Business Benefits
expenses stores every item of every claim in a centralised database. You can create any report you want to using that data, defining the report by category, employee, cost code, department or any specific report your organisation requires, all at the touch of a button.
Reports and graphs are easily assimilated and available for all managers. This allows them to take ownership of their team’s spend and also gives a clear indication of the team’s activity.
One expenses customer, HL Display, recently ran a report of business mileage by claimants. This showed that many of the Sales Managers were spending an excessive amount of time in their cars driving. This was not only unproductive, but dangerous for their health.
The above graph shows the mileage during the first six months of the financial year 05/06. For many travelling sales persons, mileage was already approaching 25,000 indicating that there was an issue needing to be resolved.
As a result of this report, HL Display decided to reallocate the sales regions and the average business mileage will drop from 30,000 to 25,000 next year – providing an estimated saving of £1,250 per sales manager per annum, and an improvement in the health and safety of employees on the road.
If you have any questions about how expenses can help you to manage your employee expenses simply and effectively, please call our expenses team on 01522 881300. Alternatively you can request that a member of our team contacts you by clicking here
Expense Management Events
We are pleased to announce that we are holding a series of seminars this year aimed at helping UK organisations get the most from their travel and expenses budgets. The first two confirmed dates are:
- 16 February, Lincoln, UK:
- 22 March, London, UK:
At these events, you will be able to learn more about how effective and proactive expense management can benefit you.
The events will also allow you to network, listen and exchange knowledge with other professionals similar to yourself. For further information simply click here or call a member of the expenses team on 01522 881300.
expenses Customers have their say
USER STORY: S BLACK
In August 2005, S Black implemented expenses to improve their Expense Management process, here Paula Sutton, Group Financial Manager, explains how the system has been helping the organisation to achieve their goals:
“Our in house spreadsheet system was becoming increasingly cumbersome and we recognised the need to increase the flexibility of our process.”
“We reviewed four expense management solutions to find one that met our main purchase criteria of Barclaycard statement import and easy data export to our current financial system. expenses was chosen above the competitor products because of the intuitive, user-friendly interface, the credit card import facility and it's value for money.”
“The service we received from Software Europe whilst we were making our decision was excellent, and the implementation was well managed, which really helped us to get the system up and running smoothly. Since implementation, we have had continued excellent support both from the technical consultants and the office hours helpdesk.”
S Black Ltd is the leading independent specialist in the sales, marketing and technical support of innovative ingredients in the UK and Ireland.
Building upon its reputation and many years of experience initially in Personal Care, the company has expanded rapidly and is now well established within the Aromachemicals, Food and Nutrition, Healthcare, and Nutraceutical/Supplement industries.
Additional User Stories can be downloaded by clicking here
6th VAT Directive Update: Fuel Claims
We reported in our November issue that the The European Court has found the UK to be in violation of the 6th VAT directive and as a result organisations in the UK may now be unable to reclaim millions of pounds in VAT, incurred as a result of business mileage.
Software Europe had spoken with HM Revenue & Customs who said there were no plans for this to come into force and, in the event of implementation, there would be significant notice of 6 months to 1 year. However, this legislation came in to play 1 January 2006 bringing with it changes to the process of VAT recovery businesses on fuel purchased by employees on their behalf.
The new legislation replaces the Value Added Tax (Input Tax) (Person Supplied) Order 1991 which the ECJ (Case C-33/03) ruled to be incompatible with the terms of the 6th VAT Directive and means that an invoice must be retained in support of a claim for VAT recovery.
The Guidelines provided by HM Revenues & Customs are as follows. Please ensure that any issues arising from this new legislation are confirmed with you local HM Revenues & Customs department:
- The change came in from 1.1.06 regardless of the VAT return period end date. From this date, employers should retain VAT invoices, including less detailed VAT invoices, that their employees obtain from the fuel supplier as proof of purchase.
- However, HMRC acknowledge that businesses will need a little time to make the necessary changes to their arrangements in order to hold VAT invoices in support of their claims. Therefore, HMRC will be administering the change with a light touch until such time as businesses have had a reasonable period to adjust to the new requirement.
- As with the existing system, input tax may only be claimed on the cost of fuel for business use. As such, invoices only need to cover this amount.
- HMRC accept that the amount of the invoice in many cases will not match the input tax claim in respect of business fuel in any one claim period and invoices may cover more than one period, particularly where fuel is purchased towards the end of a period.
- Clearly, a claim cannot be supported by a VAT invoice which is dated after the dates covered by the claim. This means, in practice, that it may be advisable for employers to arrange for their employees who use, or may use, their cars for business purposes to retain all fuel invoices. This will ensure that, at the end of the claim period, the value of business fuel is covered by an invoice.
- The input tax deduction rules with regard to PE are unaffected by these changes.
- The fuel prices per mile rates used to determine the business fuel cost remain unaffected. HMRC publish their own rates but also accept rates set by recognised motoring agencies, eg RAC, AA etc.
Source: VAT Information Sheet 08/2005
For further details of how VAT is recorded and reported in expenses email expenses-info@software-europe.co.uk
Please note that this article covers FUEL issues only.
The 6th VAT directive covers all receipts issued through a non-VAT registered party.
