A fresh approach to expense management

The COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyst for transformative changes across near all industries and sectors, and local authorities were no exception. With stripped budgets, reduced workforce and generally navigating the pandemic, councils had to adapt to new, hybrid ways of working and fast.

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, however, was already well-prepared when COVID-19 hit, having implemented its Digital First initiative years previously.

As part of the initiative, the council took a look at transforming its expense management, bringing in SAP Concur and its Concur Expense solution. What they didn’t expect was that this transformation would result in a new, sustainability-driven change for the organisation and its employees. Here, David Robinson, service director at Barnsley Council explains why.

Modernising expenses

In 2018, we decided to reshape how we processed expenses to not only help save on cost but also give our employees – particularly those out serving local citizens – efficient reimbursement on expenses. Ultimately, we needed a smarter way of working to shift into the digital age and help reduce expenditure, given our budgets had been regularly cut over the previous ten years.

We are responsible for 3,000 employees which includes crucial services like waste management, road safety, and social care. These roles and many others demand employees to be out travelling, which would incur personal cost to them.

The old way of expenses relied on employees manually filling in and submitting e-forms, an inefficient process which would leave staff out of pocket for around six weeks. It also meant that we were unable to manage expenses in a more accurate and timely way.

This is why we decided to replace the manual process with a digital-first solution. Thanks to its simplicity, it was quick for our staff to adjust to and they started to see benefits, such as more time to focus on their role instead of admin, and quicker reimbursement of around four days. From a management perspective, for the first time we were able to see all expenses in a single, detailed view. This enhanced visibility enabled us to review our policies and provide better clarity to our staff on what they can reasonably claim, helping us save money across the board. But more importantly, we also could see how much our employees were travelling and what carbon impact this was having.

Shift to sustainability

Sustainability is a huge focus for us, and thanks to the accurate travel data on our ‘grey fleet’ – personal vehicles being used for business purposes – we were able to monitor our carbon footprint more closely.

We utilised this data to help us to encourage our employees to think more sustainably when it comes to travel, opting for public transport over personal vehicles where possible to reduce their emissions. It also has helped inform our own way of thinking when it comes to travel policy decisions as well as our own infrastructure, something that we continue to adapt even now.

For example, we have been gradually moving our 300-strong council fleet to more energy efficient electric vehicles, such as our vans and bin wagons.

Although sustainable practices are key in our eyes, and always have been, our accurate expense data certainly has helped play a big part in reducing our carbon emissions.

Putting people first

At Barnsley, we are committed to putting people first, whether it be our local citizens or our employees.

This was in our minds as we went on our digital transformation project and when we refreshed our expense process.

We believe this is why the rollout of our digital-first solution has been a hit with our staff, regularly reporting high levels of satisfaction, even during the tougher times in the pandemic. The quick reimbursement we now offer is vital for our staff, even more so now with the rising cost-of-living. A

lso, we are able to save our staff vital time meaning they can focus more on what they do best - offer vital services to the local community. Finally, we are also happy to see that our staff are thinking sustainably. More staff have been opting for public transport over their own personal vehicle, which all adds up to a smaller carbon footprint for us.

With our staff’s commitment we imagine this positive trend will continue particularly as the UK as a whole adapts to a possible net zero future.