How to analyse the impact of coronavirus on your expenses
Coronavirus has been a massive shift for pretty much every sector of the economy.
Some businesses have had to close whilst others have never been busier but there can be few that are still working in the way they were this time last year.
Businesses are faced with two challenges as we start to see lockdown eased.
The first is to find ways of working that will be able to cope with issues like this if and when they occur in the future.
The second challenge is to fully understand how their systems and processes coped during lockdown and to use the information gained to inform future developments.
In this post, we are going to look at a few ways that managers can look at their expenses system and see what went well and what worked perhaps a little less well.
There are two aspects of understanding expenses during COVID lockdown; the system impacts and the change on spending.
These tips are designed to look at both of these aspects and the aim is to give you a few tips to allow you to gather feedback and properly appreciate its value.
Tip #1 – Understand how you expected things to work
Humans have an unerring ability to re-write the past but, when you are completing a systems analysis, this isn’t helpful!
What we need to understand is what our expectation was, what actually happened and then revise our forecasting method in light of the gap.
So, for example, let’s say you assumed that everyone would be able to log on to your expenses system and use apps but you found that some people never managed to achieve this.
The learning from this is that assumption is the mother of all mistakes. Especially with systems, it is important to make sure that you check rather than assuming that things will work out fine.
It’s also important to look in-depth at your management accounts. How did the value and type of spend change?
Was a reduction in travel claims matched by an increase in claims for home office equipment for example?
Tip #2 – Get as much feedback as you can
Speak to people and make sure that you get as much honest feedback as you can.
Use survey software such as Google Forms or Survey Monkey if you would like to obtain honest answers but, at the same time, don’t neglect actually talking to people directly.
Why did people find it difficult to log on?
When you see big changes in people’s spending habits then again, go and speak to them.
What sort of things did they find they needed to buy?
What did they stop doing?
Tip #3 – Understand what you can change and what you can’t
If people had problems with your expenses system then it is likely that this is something you can change.
You can reconfigure the system to better suit homeworking or, if you are using a manual system, then you can look at cloud-based solutions.
If people found that your company expenses policy was too restrictive then you can change it or lobby for the organisation to adopt your suggestions.
There may be things you can’t change – such as tax law for instance, but you can build these into a communication plan that will tell people why certain rules are in place.
Tip #4 – Build your findings in to your processes
For example, if you know that travel costs reduced by 90% during lockdown then you need to capture that sort of information and have it available to build into your planning and forecasting.
Alternatively, if you find that there is a cash requirement to provide people with equipment to use, or you need to buy more licences for video conferencing software then you’ll be well ahead of the game.
Next time there is an unexpected event you can quickly and easily draw on this knowledge to reforecast accurately.
Tip #5 - Set yourself goals
What would really add value to your company?
What would really save time?
How could you improve morale at what is, after all, a difficult time?
In other words, you are trying to set out how you want your expenses systems to work and to use your analysis to add value.
If people have complained that it takes too long to get paid then can you improve this?
If we think of our example of people not being able to connect, your goal could be to make sure that 100% of people have the ability to remotely access your expenses system.
By the same token if you have found that there is a massive reduction in hotel, travel and subsistence spend then ask whether it is time to have a root and branch review about whether your people need to travel so much in the future.
Tip #6 – Tell people what you have found
So far, we have seen that analysis can point out difficulties but can also highlight opportunities.
However, all of that information will be wasted unless we do something with it.
How are you going to communicate what you have found?
A good suggestion is to put together a mini whitepaper that you can hand to relevant directors or senior managers.
Tell them what you have found.
But importantly also tell them what your plan is.
This shows that your analysis isn’t a way of picking holes in things but more that you have come up with positive and workable suggestions as to how things can be improved.
Coming out of lockdown can be a time of opportunity
The business environment has changed and even the most change-resistant senior management are now finding that new ways of working are actually possible.
For finance managers with ideas this is great news because it means that with a thorough analysis and a workable plan, real value can be added to the company and improvements can be made to benefit colleagues.
The shock we have been through also highlights the need for business resilience and disaster recovery measures.
Without a doubt, finance has a massive role to play in analysing the effect of COVID and putting in place systems and processes that will help mitigate the downsides.
