Workflow based cost accounting system

EFFECTIVE TRANSPARENCY, AUTOMATED PROCESSES

Managing expense receipts

Managing expense receipts may involve a number of human tasks, which increases administrative workload and therefore the cost of administration. By using xFLOWer's receipt management function, checking, forwarding and approving - based on business processes - becomes less stressful and more effective, saving time and money for the enterprise. Of course, the sstem is able to manage multiple types of receipts: unique business processes can be created for each respective receipt type, so that the system can adapt to existing, well-tried routines, hence supporting daily operations. Moreover, most such tasks can be automated with xFLOWer. Interested? Click and learn more!

Managing cost requests

Corporate expenses and expense claims usually require work from many participants, even from more deprtments. Any department may issue an expense claim, however, in most cases the finance department must be involved for administration, while leaders have to approve such requests. In most cases, only definite expense requests can be issued by particular departments or functions, however in some cases different expense request can also be approved based on individual consideration. xFLOWer cost accounting system provides a unified, but customizable interface for expense claiming, approvals and administration. Behind the interface, a powerful workflow engine runs tailored claim, approval and administrational processes. xFLOWer is also able to automate expense claims, therefore saving time and resources for your company. Click and learn more!

Expense claim approvals

Managing internal approvals is also applied for expense claims. Is there a system that guarantees, that each request gets to the right approver on time? Or one that can automatically check expense claims and reject those inappropriate? Or one that can automatically approve requests based on a set of rules, defined during its implementation? xFLOWer offers all these functions for cost accounting - and more! Click and learn more!


Managing accountable costs with xFLOWer

Manage your expense claims in a unified, transparent system!

Most cost accounting policies detail precisely which job or function is entitled for which costs, in which cases shall such costs be approved, and also which organizational level or department is allowed to approve such claims. xFLOWer supports cost requesting linked to job functions, or any other complex set of rules which determine cost eligibilities for employees. Therefore, one can set up different approval processes and many approvers for each and every job function or any other employee segment, based on preset rules. xFLOWer however goes beyond the management of cost request approvals by providing advanced integration and automation features and with complex business process management features. Consequently, xFLOWer is not only able to automate certain tasks related to cost requesting and approvals - say automated approvals based on value limits or other rules - but the whole business process the request is involved in: from request through ordering - tendering if needed - to managing certificates of completion or invoice approvals. Of course, the system is able to manage many different business processes beyond cost accounting and related processes - should you need CRM, ticketing, document management, internal approval or any other business processes, xFLOWer is always there to support you. Contact us and request a tailored demo to know more!

 
Custom cost approval processes with xFLOWer

Tailor made approval processes

Since xFLOWer is able to handle all types of business processes, any type of business process can be modeled - and run - in the system. Therefore, business leaders have the opportunity to decide what kind of approval process they'd like to associate to given cost request types. The system adapts quickly and easily to the existing corporate policies, such rules can be modeled even without IT knowledge with the xFLOWer WYSIWYG Process Editor. Moreover, unlimited user or employee profiles, groups and segments can be created the same way. Therefore, employees falling into a given group or having the same job function will only be able to issue cost requests based on the request/approval process defined for them. However, xFLOWer delivers more: based on preset rules, the system can approve or deny requests automatically, and even tasks of manual approval processes can be automated. For example, in case a request contains a product the requestor is not eligible to purchase, the system will automatically reject the request, without forwarding it to the responsible approvers. Even limits can be associated with requests or job functions and also for automation. For instance, the system approves all requests from a certain organizational level which are below $500 or any other amount desired. Allocations can also be defined with freely assignable time frames; so in case a department has a spend limit of $100 000 per year, the system will reject requests beyond this amount for the given timeframe. The possibilities are endless: even if the limit is reached, there could be exceptions defined or the yearly limit can be divided for monthly limits, or the other way around: there's no monthly limit based on the yearly limit, so the yearly budget can be spent in the first 3 months of the year. (Marketing departments might find this useful as they usually have to order their advertisement spaces in advance, preferably for a whole year) Contact us by clicking below and learn more about your possibilities with xFLOWer by requesting a quote or a free demo!

 
Managing expense receipts with xFLOWer

Manage all expense receipts - even automatically

xFLOWer takes care of managing the expense receipts related to cost requests. In case the whole cost accounting process and all of its documents are managed in the system, then data from all such documents can be associated to receipts. What does this mean in practice? The system is able to check automatically whether a given receipt's data is in line with the preceding documents' data or not. Hence it is not possible to approve a receipt which - for example - contains a different total than the contract - or offer - related to the receipt. Therefore many problems arising from false invoicing and payments can be avoided while the invoice checking workload is decreased. Of course, denied invoices can be managed in the system too, providing the opportunity to create different business process for managing such invoices - keeping in mind that different business processes might be suitable for different denied invoices. Thanks to this rich set of features, xFLOWer can manage all cost accounting related business processes and more - any business process can be modeled and run in the system without the need of IT or programming knowledge! Know more about xFLOWer by requesting a free demo or quotation!

 

AUTOMATED COST ACCOUNTING – EFFICIENT TRANSPARENCY

Employee costs may arise anytime, when the completion of operative tasks require travelling, car usage, accommodation or any activity that involves costs which should be paid on location by the performer of the task. Accounting of such costs is required, and the payments shall be done in line with company policies and the applicable laws. Requesting, administration and approval of costs is a huge workload if done manually, and it does not create any value by itself. At the same time, all information related to such costs – eg. aim, result, prices, etc. – shall remain transparent, plan – able and sustainable. Therefore, unnecessary costs can be avoided, since it becomes clear which costs brought the desirable results ( eg. in case of sales and marketing costs) and cash flow planning becomes easier too.

 

WHAT IS XFLOWER COST ACCOUNTING?

xFLOWer Cloud cost accounting module enables comprehensive settlement process management including requesting, approval, payment and warrant management alike. The resulting documents are archived automatically, providing case – based traceability. The module supports multi – level approval cycles, so that complex approval processes from various organizational levels are manageable.

 

WHY CHOOSE XFLOWER COST ACCOUNTING?

xFLOWer is a robust and mature cloud based workflow and business process management solution with DMS functionality. Its development started more than 18 years ago, and it evolved through the years based on international business experience and the actual needs of business leaders throughout Europe. Contrary to other workflow systems, xFLOWer is not a functional, isolated system, but a much more sophisticated, yet easy to use cost accounting tool with comprehensive workflow capabilities.

Search information is also formed during the processes the documents are involved in. This way, much more complex search criteria can be defined compared to a simple tree structure. That is because xFLOWer uses tagging for searches and as many tags can be attached to a document - manually or automatically - as needed. Therefore it will be possible to find documents based on such sets of criteria instead of its name only. 

 

COST ACCOUNTING FRAMEWORK

The xFLOWer cost accounting module is part of the xFLOWer process management framework, including the most required business processes and data sets predefined. Although, all these predefined values can be tailored and expanded as needed during the implementation period or anytime later!

xFLOWer cost accounting is a cloud based solution, however it "only" ensures a framework to create a business environment for your company - one in which you don't have to change your systems and operation frequently. Check out the xFLOWer product range - you can access all these features anytime: if you need any of it now, it is available, if it will be needed later, implementation into your existing xFLOWer instance will be flawless.

 

COST ACCOUNTING PROCESSES

In the xFLOWer cost accounting module, everything is controlled by business processes to which documents are attached. The processes are guiding all colleagues step by step through the administration tasks, so it is not possible to omit any required step of cost accounting processes.

Cost accounting processes do not end at approving costs. The module manages the end to end operative processes required for requesting, approving, paying and warranting costs. Also, archiving of all documents that were used during the processes is resolved, and usually done automatically. By using further modules, business processes throughout the whole organization can be managed:

Of course, you are free to decide what processes you use, however, we will suggest the processes to start with. All processes can be tailored to your exact needs during the implementation period. By default we suggest using the cost requesting and approval processes, parameterized to fit your exact needs.

 

COST ACCOUNTING – EMPLOYEE DATA SETS

xFLOWer cost accounting module includes employee data sets by default, however, you are free to decide what further types of data you want to store and manage. The possibilities are endless: store unique data types such as foot size, language knowledge, political relationships or - really whatever you may imagine!

FURTHER DATA SETS

In case you decide to manage further process types in the xFLOWer framework, it is really up to you which data sets you use. Define customer, product, service or any other data sets as you need.
Related to your specialties, information linked to your product or service can be managed at the level of individual cases, or you may create different processes for different product or service types. 
In case you have existing data sets in different systems, it is possible to establish interface connections to these systems. Hence, there's no need to re-enter existing data into xFLOWer during implementation. 
In case you need different data sets, not only a customer database, it is also possible with  xFLOWer. Create data sets for HR, real estate, receivables, accessories, partners or anything else. Business processes will always be attached to the appropriate data set.

 

HOW XFLOWER MANAGES COST ACCOUNTING PROCESSES

The following example describes a travel cost management in sales.
 

  1. Incoming request – A sales colleague requests travel costs to pay a visit at a customer. He defines the request with exact costs, aims and enters the request.
     
  2. Alternatively, the sales person can use predefined request templates – for example travel, conference attendance, promotion, etc. The module identifies whether one or multiple round approval is needed and forwards the request to approvers.
     
  3. in case of multiple round approval the module controls if all approval rounds were completed or not.
     
  4. Approval or denial – the module records returning approval or denial and informs the requester.
     
  5. In case of an approved request, the module prepares and records the required documents and all other receipts as defined by legislation.
     
  6. The module archives all requests to enable retrieval later.

 

 

 

READY TO USE SOLUTION

Even the best system can’t provide a complete solution if operational processes are designated erroneously. For this reason, ready – made processes based on international best practices are integrated into all xFLOWer modules, which ensure professional organization of work from the first moment of usage. This unique feature enables business leaders to redefine operational processes solely by appointing coworkers for certain tasks – the rest is done by xFLOWer.

xFLOWer Cloud request management module contains all the above features and enables the definition, management and automation of all operational processes regardless the number of processes, users of documents involved. By automating certain tasks, resources are freed within the organization, hence saving costs, time and energy for your enterprise. Therefore the company is enabled to focus on sales, clients and the constant development of its core competence to retain its competitive edge.