If you read this blog, you’re familiar with terms like “employee service management” and phrases like “every department is a service provider.” These are important mentalities in creating a positive work environment, where employees feel enabled to do their best work. Recognizing the importance of employee experience is a great start, but now it’s time to create specific practices that make life easy for employees. In this series, we’ll travel department-by-department throughout an organization to look specifically at services that can be automated and improved for maximum efficiency, and ultimately, maximum employee satisfaction.
In this post we’ll focus on the finance department, and help your organization pay its bills and employees on time, with as little friction as possible.
Also see:
20 Employee Services to Automate: Human Resources
20 Employee Services to Automate: Facilities
20 Employee Services to Automate: Marketing
Payroll, budgets, and accounting tools are difficult, but it’s nearly impossible to create efficient financial services when email requests are missing key information. As any business grows, these processes become more complicated and more frequent. The good news is, you can build streamlined workflows for financial requests, complete with automated tasks and approvals. The service catalog will help your team get a handle on (at least) these twenty services:
Payroll
1. Payroll Deposit Account Change
Change of bank? Make sure that new account information gets to the right place so the money gets to the right account!
2. Commission Review
Sales and commissions go hand-in-hand. Any discrepancies should be resolved quickly.
3. Salary Update
For employees, the most critical part of new positions and promotions is often the new salary. Put a process in place for updating employee compensation.
4. Payroll Report
Headcount and payroll are the most important aspects to any budget. As managers prepare for the next year, or even quarter, give them one easy place to get their numbers.
5. Payroll System Password Reset
It’s the one place you should have the best, most complicated password. So, why can’t you remember it? Request your reset, stat!
6. Adjust Time Clock
When employees forget to clock in, make it easy to request an adjustment and get paid for the work they’ve done.
7. 401(k) Contribution Change
Saving for retirement is a special benefit that your company may offer. As employees’ lives change, their contributions might change as well. Build a service catalog request to easily increase/decrease contributions.
Accounting
8. Customer Billing Assistance
Get help from billing, accounts receivable, and the purchasing team to ensure payment is processed on time.
9. Transfer Payment
Overpaid on that last invoice? Instead of a reimbursement, ask for the funds to move to the next bill.
10. Locate Funds on Account
Not everyone will have permission to this information, so create a request form and a process to help the right parties run reports.
11. Invoice Tracking and Send
“Who has the invoice? What’s the status? Wait, did we ever send it?” These are questions that you’ll never have to ask with automated tasks and approvals.
12. W-9 Request
Tax time already? Automate this process to keep the IRS in the loop.
The good news is, you can build streamlined workflows for financial requests, complete with automated tasks and approvals.
13. Credit Card Payment
Many employees will need approvals to use the company plastic. Make those requests easy to submit.
14. Proof of Insurance
That’s the thing about insurance -- you never know when you’ll need it. When an employee needs it, make sure there’s an easy way to request documentation.
15. Purchase Approval Tracking
Did that recent purchase get the green light? Build the process out beforehand so it’s ready to go as soon as the approval comes through.
16. Purchase Orders
Every department will need to buy supplies for one reason or another. New subscriptions, software, office supplies -- whatever it is, give them an easy form to complete so you can get to those POs quicker.
17. Invoice Request
Send tasks to your account managers and ensure vendors provide the invoices you need when you need them.
18. Vendor Payment
Your awesome vendors work hard, they submit an invoice, now they need to be paid. Don’t leave them hanging because you’re still sending manual email approvals.
19. Payment Authorization
“Can I buy this?” If an employee has to ask, he/she probably needs an approval. Give them an easy place to get a fast answer.
20. Travel Payment Approval
Visiting clients? Attending a training session? There are lots of trips that are worth the cost, but employees need approval from finance to stay under budget. The service catalog is a great place to put these requests in.
Some of these are simple requests, and some are complicated and time-consuming. Either way, the finance department can't afford to get bogged down in communication tools, and the business can't afford financial mistakes born out of flawed internal processes. The service catalog will help your team collect all of the appropriate information to deliver service quickly and efficiently, giving the rest of the company accurate service level agreements (SLAs) for all of their money requests.
