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TECHNOLOGY Q&A

Don’t forget to schedule a start and end time so And in those situations where you are already
you don’t have to worry about turning off the auto on the plane headed to your vacation destination
replies when you get back to work. A newer feature but forgot to set your automatic replies, the settings
allows you to block your calendar and have Outlook can all be adjusted from the Outlook app on
automatically decline meeting requests scheduled your phone.
for your time off. — By Byron Patrick, CPA/CITP, CGMA

EXPENSE REPORTING SOFTWARE
Card-carrying ways to automate expense reports

Q. During the A. I am blown away every day by how many automating this tedious process. Put down those
pandemic, we had companies still use paper receipts and complicated paper receipts and read on.
far fewer expense spreadsheets to manage expenses. Think about all
reports to process, the time and money being wasted for the human Solutions to streamline the process
which saved us hours it takes to scan the receipts, copy last month’s Expense reporting software has quietly been ma-
many hours of spreadsheet, update the cells, and then print, sign, turing for many years. These applications eliminate
manual work. and scan again to submit the expense report. On the need for the monthly “hokey pokey expense
Now that we are top of that, consider the hours put into review- report shuffle” mentioned above and simplify the
processing a lot of ing and approving the PDFs (fingers crossed for process of collecting, submitting, approving, and
expense reports no questions), entering them into the accounting ultimately paying the expenses.
again, it’s taking software, and cutting the checks. These solutions typically integrate with many
up way too much Fortunately, as we start 2022, just about every- popular applications, including all the major ac-
time. Is there a thing we do daily has been automated in some way. counting general ledger packages and many payroll
better way to do And that includes expense reports. providers. In addition to the core applications,
expense reports? I’ve broken down some of the best options for these solutions include many popular vendors used

46 | Journal of Accountancy January 2022