Issue: October 2004

1. P11d mileage allowance payments

By law, at the end of each tax year organisations must give the Inland Revenue particulars of any expenses payments, benefits and facilities provided to each employee or director earning at a rate of £8,500 a year or more.

Any excess over and above the approved tax-free limit must be declared in the P11d report.

For mileage allowances, the approved amount is the number of business miles travelled multiplied by the appropriate rate for the kind of vehicle used. Approved mileage allowance payments can only be made in respect of travel in the employee's own vehicle.

As company policies on the amount of pence per mile paid to employees vary significantly, even between departments, it can be difficult to calculate the exact amount to report and can result in the wrong amounts being entered, and employees being taxed incorrectly:

Example:
Company A pays their Sales Manager 25p per mile. Sales Manager A drove 12,000 miles on business between April 2003 and April 2004. Sales Manager A can claim £3,000 business related mileage payments tax-free as the pence per mile does not exceed the tax-free allowance.
Sales Manager A's P11d will have nothing to declare under Section E: Mileage allowance and passenger payments

Company B pays their Sales Manager 28p per mile. Sales Manager B drove 12,000 miles on business between April 2003 and April 2004. Sales Manager B can claim £3,000 business related mileage payments tax-free for the first 10,000 business miles travelled, but must pay tax on the remaining business miles as the pence per mile paid by Company B exceeds the tax-free limit by 3p per mile (3p x 2000 = £60).
Sales Manager B's P11d will declare a £60 benefit under Section E: Mileage allowance and passenger payments

If you currently have difficulty in valuing any benefits for the purpose of calculating the excess over £8,000, consult your local Inland Revenue office with details before you complete the P11d form. Any advice Software Europe provide regarding P11d completion is subject to the approval of your local Inland Revenue officers.

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2. expenses to launch at Softworld

Software Europe is pleased to announce the greatly anticipated launch of expenses
at Softworld Accounting & Finance 2004, Hall 12, NEC, Birmingham.

expenses is a fully flexible, user friendly, web based automated expense management system designed by Software Europe to give greater control and provide genuine cost reductions. This revolutionary system saves time by allowing employees to input their claims faster than with a traditional paper based system, and from anywhere in the world.

expenses manages employee expenses effectively, ensuring maximum savings in time and money and drastically improving the amount of VAT claimed back by organisations. Most users will find a 15% saving in the total cost of expense claims within the first 12 months.

Your FREE seminar programme for Wednesday 20 & Thursday 21 October 2004
Seminar Room No. 29: 10.00am, 12 noon & 2.00pm each day.

We look forward to welcoming you to our stand (no. 252) and seminar room (AFS 29)

If you are unable to make Softworld: Accounting & Finance 2004 but would like to hear more about expensessimply click here

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Increasing profitability through employee expense management

Over 90% of companies in the UK still process their expenses manually. This manual employee expenses process is still in place because organisations are familiar with the format and method.

UK commerce and industry spends £2.2 billion a year on employee expenses,
nearly a quarter of this is processing costs.
<A £500 million pound spend on processing expenses.

Although many organisations have a written policy, it is clear that most do not have the ability to proactively manage, or have the facility to be able to review the policy. expenses provides clear and concise reports. By being able to understand your data, you will be able to identify needs for new, or updated, policies. Policy exceptions are automatically highlighted for sign off groups, showing further areas for cost reduction.

expenses identifies valuable areas for improvement to employee expenses management, streamlines processes, controls costs and enhances information exchange across an organisation. Companies have embraced the internet for email, e-commerce and content distribution, yet still use a paper based system for an essential process that touches the majority of a company's employees.

For some companies a 5% saving in operating costs
would put more on their bottom line than a 25% increase in business.

With automatic compliance to company policies, totals, mileage calculations and VAT, sel-expenses provides greater accuracy and an exceptional reduction in errors, optimising the time required by the finance department.

By focusing more on controlling your variable expenses, your organisation can become more profitable.

To find out how automation can help your organisation contact our expenses team on 01522 881300. Alternatively you can simply click here

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4. FREE online demonstration

The purpose of this Interactive Online Demonstration is to show you how simple expenses is for all users: Claimants, Managers and accounts departments. The demonstration only takes 20 minutes and will enable you to see the special product features first hand. All you need is an internet browser and a telephone close to hand.

A member of our expenses team will call you at a mutually agreed time, give you your demonstration log in details and remain on the telephone through the active system demonstration talking you through features and answering all your questions.

The demonstration covers the 5 main areas used by expenses claimants: Logging in, Using expenses
Submitting an expense claim, Viewing a returned expense and Payment notification

To arrange a 20 minute online demonstration or simply find out more information, please call a member of our expenses team on 01522 881300. Alternatively you can click here

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