Written by Jannik Lempken

Published on 24 December, 2018

Our team at Declaree is obsessed with the data security of all our clients and users. Seeking the best way to secure and optimize our system and database we decided to start the ISAE certification process. Last week our auditor, EY, visited Declaree to deliver our approved ISAE 3402 Type I report.

What is ISAE 3402 Type I, and what does it mean for our clients?

Outsourcing is a growing trend and companies increasingly depend on third-party providers to deliver critical services. Consequently, outsourcing companies are looking for third-party assurance to provide their clients with comfort about their internal control environment.

ISAE stands for “International Standard for Assurance Engagements”. As the name implies ISAE is a global report that indicates a company complies with the specific assurance standards. Hence, obtaining this report shows that the company in question follows adequate internal control of its processes and data management.

Overall, there are only two types of ISAE 3402 reports: Type I and Type II. Declaree has officially received ISAE 3402 Type I certificate.

Type I intends to document a “snapshot” of the organisation’s controls. Within this “snapshot” all internal processes and procedures concerning reliability and quality assurance are arduously reviewed and tested internally. A final report is then created consisting of an investigation into the existence and design of our control measures.

What does this exactly mean for Declaree and its users? After receiving the ISAE 3402 certificate, our auditor Ernst & Young confirms our organization has established adequate control and quality assurance, reliability of internal organizational management and correct handling of user data.

Why ISAE 3402?

The purpose of this ISAE 3402 assurance standard, amongst other things, is to provide our customers with an answer to some essential questions: how well does Declaree manage internal processes as a service organization, and how does Declaree deal with risk management, information security and anti-fraud?

Service organizations, such as Declaree, often have an influence on operational and financial processes of user organizations which in turn have an effect on their annual accounts. With ISAE 3402, we at Declaree demonstrate that we handle your data in the utmost responsible and reliable way.

Wish to know more?

We offer our customers the opportunity to view the ISAE 3402 Type I certificate at our office in Rotterdam. For more information, please contact our Compliance & Risk department via legal@www.declaree.com or via +31 (0) 10-8403784.

Declaree – Expense Management

Are your internal company processes slow, inefficient and fully reliant on paperwork? Do not worry! At Declaree we don’t only handle your data with care – our business tools also expedites all your internal company processes with regards to expense management.

If you wish to request more information regarding our services, you can sign up for a demo and we will contact you as soon as possible.

Written by Jannik Lempken

Published on 13 August, 2018

At Declaree, we are continuously working and striving towards making our solution the most user-friendly and flexible in order to accommodate the individual needs of your company. The following are the 10 smartest features of Declaree that can help you make your expense management process more efficient and time-saving.

#1 Daily allowances

Daily allowances can be reported in the Declaree app with few simple steps: Create a journey and select the days for which daily allowances apply. Breakfast is included in your hotel stay? You receive lunch at your conference or have a seperate dinner with client? No problem. Once the daily allowances have been selected, they can easily be adapted.

#2 Flexible workflow

In large organizations, processes often get stranded in the workflow due to hierarchy. We have focused on developing a built-in workflow that matches any requirements. For example, let’s assume that your workflow specifies that expenses over $500 require approval from an additional manager: you can easily set this up in Declaree. There are also other functions, such as sending a report to a specific approver depending on the project that the employee is working on. With Declaree, all policies and processes can be mimicked and implemented easily, no matter how complex.

#3 Merge your booking confirmations

If an employee receives a booking confirmation, for example for a flight or an hotel, he/she can forward the PDF booking confirmation to invoicing@www.declaree.com (from the e-mail address registered in Declaree) and the expense will be automatically added, with the booking confirmation in the attachment. The only thing left to do, is to assign the correct report and you’re good to go.

#4 Freelancer? Don’t you worry!

Employees working for multiple companies can easily switch between accounts within the app. Furthermore, it is also possible that assistants or managers can access the account of other employees and submit expenses in their name. In order to ensure full transparency, all changes can be traced in the history.

#5 Single Sign-On

Besides the conventional login option, Declaree can be accessed from the existing corporate portal using their existing username and password. The process that enables this is Single Sign-On (SSO). This makes it easier for organizations to manage and reinforce security requirements on the one hand and for employees to remember their login information. Additionally, SSO provides improved transparency of which platforms are available to whom. It gives a simple, clear interface for identity management and permissions across all integrated systems.

#6 A white label solution

Declaree offers your company the option to tailor the mobile and web app according to your corporate image. This way, Declaree becomes an integral part of the company as opposed to “just one more tool”.

#7 Report history

Declaree secures your data for at least 10 years. Not only bills and expenses, but a detailed history table shows all of the steps, approvals and changes made by each supervisor within the expense-management system.

#8 Export the information you actually need

Export formats can be individually specified and tailored to your accounting needs. Our Export-Generator tool lets you easily create your own custom export formats. Simply name the column headers and select the data that should be pasted from Declaree in each column of your export. Just drag and drop single columns to conveniently re-arrange the order if needed. Any kind of file formats can be supported support.

#9 Custom fields

Another feature which adapts to your organization are custom fields: you can easily define specific fields for your own administration. For example, if employees are working from multiple locations, an additional field can be customized to specify the office they report to when adding an expense.

#10 Smart Reports

The Smart Reports feature allows you to automatically create and associate reports, depending on defined conditions (such as a specific period or a project). This saves the employee the work of creating the correct report and selecting it manually. The biggest advantage is that the all departments involved in the process (e.g. office management, accounting, sales) have a clearer overview. Another feature of the Smart Reports is the automatic submission of reports according to pre-set specifications (e.g. at a specific date). This allows for minimizing the occurrence of errors and reduced overhead when submitting an expense-report

If you want to learn more about how Declaree can help you to streamline your expense-management process, reach out and schedule a personal demo with one of our consultants.

Written by Jannik Lempken

Published on 30 April, 2018

For many companies the travel expense report portrays a tedious additional task. However, with some basic knowledge in the field and the support of automated processes, accounting expenses can be done comfortably on the side.

1. Differentiating types of expenses

Travel expenses
Expenses can be claimed via invoices, receipts or internal receipts. This includes travel expenses, both with the car as well as different forms of public transport. When traveling with public transport, costs for the ticket and additional supplements must be handed in.
When employees choose to use their own car, most companies apply a mileage allowance of £45p per mile to reimburse employees for their expenses. However, this requires the employee to keep an exact driver’s logbook as well as to submit itemized receipts. A good digital expense management tool should automatically calculate his mileage allowance.

Ancillary travel expenses
Travel expenses include all sorts of additional, ‘hidden’ costs which are hard to account for before the trip starts. Some common examples of these costs can be extra luggage costs, business telephone costs, hotel internet fees, parking fees or even tips. In each case, a receipt of the expense is required to provide evidence of the costs incurred. Since these documents must be kept for 6 years, it is advisable to produce copies of those documents that can easily fade. As physical copies take up a lot of storage space, digital storage of the documents portrays a practical alternative in this case.
Ancillary costs tend to accumulate substantially during the course of every trip. Hence it is important for organizations to closely predict and manage these expenses. Online expense management services often allow companies to monitor and analyze the different types of expenses. Integrated data analytic tools can help identifying saving potentials.

Accommodation costs
Hotel costs can either be reimbursed in the actual amount, or as a fixed sum. How the costs will be reimbursed, is determined by the company policy. Additionally, many companies introduce a limitation for the overall costs per night.

2. Define individual policies for the expense management process

In addition to the standard company policies, organizations can make additional specifications per person or group. The details of the travel expense billing process can and should be determined by each company individually and are usually recorded in the company policy. This is important as the reimbursement of individual costs and fixed sums only applies as stipulated in the employment contract. For example, a lower mileage allowance may be applied, or a maximum amount may be determined for refundable business expenses. Expense management apps often allow for the respective company rules to be set individually, to ensure that they will be taken into account during the billing process.

3. Increase efficiency through automated processes

Especially with manual billing methods, there is a high susceptibility to error during the process. Failure to comply with company policies or incorrect billing of fixed rates can occur quickly due to the multiple steps involved in the workflow. As a result, costs are credited improperly. To avoid these traps, automated processes make billing more easy and intuitive. Right away, fixed rates and company rules are applied correctly, ensuring that additional work can be avoided.