Thinking Out Loud: FieldSense Expenses to Tally…

On digital workflows and the benefits of becoming paper-less..

Three of the words that really turn us on, and all in the same sentence – is that clickbait or what?!

But seriously, we’re always excited about ways that reduce the friction in field operations, particularly those involving tasks that interface with the HR and Accounts function, and one key area is expense reimbursement claims. For the vast majority, this involves lots of paperwork and lots of aggravation.

FieldSense already makes a dent in the process but handling the better part of the process – claim submission (with attachments) > Approval by reporting officer > disbursal by Accounts. But it stops short of integrating cleanly with an accounting software, e.g. Tally. Which our very own Accounts Team has been grumbling about since some time – they want to avoid having to key in data that’s already been entered by others, which is fair, right?

Here’s what they’d like: we have 7-locations across the country, organised by Regions, Territories & Teams in Tally, which we use. What our Accounts would like is to be able to export data from FieldSense along with the relevant information, or better yet, have a mechanism in Tally to import the data, where:

1. Vouchers would get created for each individual;
2. The vouchers would be assigned to the Region-ledger, along with territory/team details as applicable.
3. Amounts disbursed (if anything) would also be captured in the Paid-out (Cash) ledger.
4. A confirmation statement would be shown to the individual processing the import for review before the actual importing was done – eyeballing the entries for reassurance!
   Generating the PDF-vouchers.

We’re still trying to figure out how to handle the ‘supporting documents’, i.e. the attached bills, tickets, etc. submitted along with the reimbursement claims, will probably need to provide a retrieval link in the PDF that an auditor can click to retrieve the attachment when required.

Does this make sense for your business as well? Look forward to your comments and suggestions.