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Reimbursement Management

Introduction

Modern companies offer a variety of reimbursements to their staff.  These reimbursements have become an important component of the benefits package, and now encompass much more then the traditional expense account.  With these changes in reimbursement and the increasingly dynamic nature of the workforce, the reimbursement process has become a much more complex and time-consuming function of the Human Resources Department. 

SunFish HR supports these needs by providing extremely flexible methods for the definition of reimbursement policy, an open employee self-service environment for the management, definable approval workflows and a complete set of reporting and analysis tools.

SunFish HR improves the efficiency or reimbursement processing by reducing the cost of processing reimbursements.  SunFish HR allows the complete online processing of reimbursements subject to the companies rules and policies regarding reimbursements.  All processing and approvals are performed instantaneously without the need for paper records or the costs of transferring paper records between departments for approval and consolidation.

SunFish HR allows transparency into the reimbursement processing, virtually eliminating human error and allowing management to easily understand and control reimbursement costs.
Benefits

SunFish HR automates the Reimbursement process, proving efficient, error free processing.  Specifically Reimbursement Administration delivers of the following benefits:

Increased HR department efficiency
The HR Department is able to configure rules and workflow related to reimbursements.  Once configured, reimbursements can be processed with only special items requiring HR deptartment approval.  All approved reimbursements can be automatically added to employee salaries.  The HR department can be completely free from the current time consuming job of processing reimbursements and focus their full effort on employee development.

Better management oversight with no time wasted
Managers at all levels can easily be a part of the approval process based on different criteria, or be able to look into the details of reimbursements they do not need to approve.  Approval's appear in the managers inbox as soon as they are available and all required details can be easily accessed by the manager in a single location.

Easy of use, quick and accurate processing for employees
Employees can easily submit reimbursement requests through the system.  Time required to fill in complex forms and forward them for approval is minimized.  Employees can login at anytime to review the status of their request and be confident that once processed the correct amount will be paid quickly.

Improved Analysis of Reimbursement costs and allocation
Managers and the HR deptartment have a variety of tools to create reports and analyze reimbursements by employee, department, type, account, project, etc.  These tools allow managers to determine if the company is spending too much in certain areas and make appropriate adjustments to policy.

Better definition and adherence to company policies
Reimbursement management allows the company to set a variety of rules, controlling limits, budgets, payment methods, approval requirements, and other variables.  SunFish HR will automatically ensure that all reimbursements follow the appropriate policy every time.

Improved cost control
More transparency and easier adjustment of reimbursement related policies allow the company more flexibility in controlling the costs.  

Lower paper, printing, approval and mailing costs
SunFish HR dramatically reduces the costs associated with the processing of reimbursements.  Online and automated processing drives down these costs without sacrificing control over reimbursements.

Happier employees (pre-paid reimbursements and quick turnaround)
Support for pre-paid reimbursements allow the company to issue cash advances for expected reimbursements.  These cash advances are automatically adjusted after the fact.  Additionally the rapid processing of regular request ensures that employees will always be confident about receiving their reimbursements promptly.

Features

Employee self-service
SunFish HR is a 100% web based solution.  All functions are made available for employee self-service based on the security settings.  For Reimbursement administration, this gives the company flexibility in allowing transparency to employees, oversight by management, and easy distribution of reimbursement processing and approval to the appropriate people.  The flexibility of the open interface and process will completely change the way reimbursements are processed within the company.

Approval work flow
The workflow manager allows the flexible definition of approval steps for reimbursements.  Reimbursements can be classified by type and where they originate.  The system will automatically determine which people or positions are required for approval, allowing several steps for approval and allowing several people to process any single step.  Notifications are sent automatically by email, and each user can easily see which approvals are waiting for processing when they login.  Users are able to approve many items in a group or process each individually, and easy drill-down allows the users to inspect the details of any request.

Online approvals
All approvals are process by the appropriate users online.  Once approved, a request is instantaneously forwarded to the next approval process.  If approvals are not processed quickly enough, indicator lights in the application will identify any bottlenecks and help managers resolve the inefficiencies.

Email alerts
Both the employee requesting a reimbursement and all users involved in the approval are kept up to date on the process by email alert.  Users can easily click on links within these emails to get more details on the reimbursement, or to process required approvals. 

Trouble lights
Dashboard lights in SunFish HR allow managers and HR deptartment users to watch for and identify issues related to reimbursement processing.  Dashboard lights can be used to indicate a slow down in approval processing, reimbursement costs getting too high, or virtually any other aspect of the reimbursement process that needs to be tracked.  Dashboard lights allow the system to keep track of the process rather then forcing users to waste time reviewing reports to identify any problems.

Payroll interface
Once approved, all reimbursements can be automatically interfaced with the payroll process.  Reimbursements can be included in the regular payroll process and appear on the employees normal pay slip, or run as a separate process more frequently.  The payroll interface can automatically deduct any reimbursement advances from the employees' normal reimbursements.

Reimbursement rules
The system allows for the complete and easy definition of a wide variety of reimbursement rules. Employees can have fixed maximums or maximums related to their salaries.  Maximum limits can also be set according to departmental budget, project, client, etc.  An unlimited number of different reimbursement types can be created with different rules, data tracking and approvals.  Different types of expenses may also have different methods or timing or payment. 

Analysis and reporting
Reimbursement Administration includes a wide range of reports which can be used to analyze reimbursement costs.  All reimbursement data are stored within SunFish HR for a definable period.  Reports can be run based on a variety of criteria useful for analysis or auditing.  If current reports are not sufficient for all requirements, SunFish HR allows the users to define their own reports or interface the data to MS Excel™ where they can analyze the data in their preferred method.  

Office supply requests
In addition to the complete reimbursement interface, Reimbursement Administration also includes management for office supply requests.  Similar in function to reimbursement, the Office supply manager allows the company better control and efficiency when processing requests for office supplies.