Women are "more honest" than Men!

Recent research from Barclaycard Business has revealed that when it comes to submitting expenses, only 11% of Female staff admit to filing false or padded claims, compared to 16% of Male workers, but does this mean Women are more honest than Men when it comes to filing employee expense claims?

Clearly this is unlikely to be the case, however the research carried out by Barclaycard does raise a few interesting questions like: Why do employees over claim? What is the real business cost of this overclaiming? and How can an employer prevent overclaiming?

Click here to learn more about how expenses can help prevent and detect fraudulent claims

Why do employees over claim?
According to Barclaycard's research, Women are particularly disgruntled by having to pay out for business expenses, with 50% of Women feeling that in doing this, their employer is taking advantage of them.

Whilst only 38% of men felt this way, having 45% of your total work force unhappy about making the outlay, is an unlikely environment for honesty.

What is the real business cost of overclaiming?
The cost of employee dishonesty to an organisation depends on two variables: how many people are doing it and how much they are overclaiming.

Taking a simple scenario, a team of 10 field sales representatives, doing the UK average 12,000 mile a year, with 2000cc engines being reimbursed at 13 pence per mile:

12,000 (miles) x 0.13 (ppm) x 10 (employees) = £15,600

If your team over claim by 10% (surely it's realistic to add 10 miles on to a round trip of 100?!):

13,200 (miles) x 0.13 (ppm) x 10 (employees) = £17,160

Now roll this calculation out to the rest of your workforce and consider meals, accommodation, office consumables, phone bills...

Looking further into the total cost of dishonesty to an organisation, it takes far longer to invent a claim than it does to process actual expenditure and whilst the majority of Women are completing their form in less than 30 minutes, Men are somewhat slower.

If your team of 10 field sales representatives earn £30,000 a year, work around 260 days a year and spend 30 minutes per month filling in expense forms:

£30,000 (salary) ÷ 260 (days) ÷ 480 (mins per day)
x 30 (mins) x 10 (employees) = £72.12

If your team are spend a full hour completing their form each month:

£30,000 (salary) ÷ 260 (days) ÷ 480 (mins per day)
x 60 (mins) x 10 (employees) = £144.23

How can an employer prevent overclaiming?
Barclaycard's research indicates that 91.5% of employees who submitted a false claim say they were never caught by their employer.

Introducing a robust employee expenses policy can enable the employer to ensure that fraudulent claims are spotted and rectified, but the root of the solution to overclaiming lies in confronting the larger problem of employees feeling short changed.

Just looking at the examples discussed in this article, there are real opportunities for change:

My employees resent putting their hand in their pocket for business purposes Introducing a corporate card system will solve this. Fuel Cards, Company Credit Cards and Purchase Cards are all viable options, as is the use of an external travel and accommodation provider, who will bill the company, not the individual. Additionally, an automated system will speed up the reimbursmenet process, reducing out-of-pocket time.

My employees frequently over claim mileage to cover their costs
Introducing an automated expenses system that calculates mileage between destinations will prevent over claims and ensure that each journey is a legitimate business expense. This is of benefit to both employer and employee, as the employer can reduce costs, and the employee can prove that the expense is for business purposes only, and not a personally taxable item. Plus, an automated system will speed up the entire reimbursement process even where corporate card schemes are not a viable or desirable option.

My employees spend too much time completing expense forms
Creating a more flexible process ensures that all employees can spend more time fulfilling their job remit and less time focused on claim administration. An electronic system completes all claim calculations including Totals, VAT and Tax. The automatic reconciliation of credit card statements is also a great way to save valuable business time.

My employees are trying to claim items they are not entitled too
A robust expenses policy is vital to discourage and mange fraudulent claims. The easiest way to implement policy is to automate the whole procedure and make sure access to the policy is simple for all. An automated system also enables the application of company policies on a role by role basis, for example your Sales Director may have a greater claim capacity than your HR Manager.

For further information on how automation can help improve your policy compliance and maximise your spend simply contact our expenses Team using the details below.

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