The Co-operative Group Streamlines Employee Expense Claim Management
British retailer, the Co-operative Group, has deployed P2D’s online expense system to manage the staff expense claim management process within its trading group of businesses
The software-as-a-service (SaaS) P2D provides staff full visibility of where their claims are in the approval cycle. Now fully rolled out, claims are charged on a per unit basis with implementation cost return on investment realised within the first year of deployment. Within its trading businesses, the Co-operative processes around 60,000 staff expense claims per annum or 1,200 per week.
With an annual turnover of £13.7bn, the Co-operative Group operates over 5,000 retail outlets and serves 17 million customers every week. In 2007, the group merged with United Co-operative, and over the past three years has integrated Britannia Building Society and Somerfield food stores into its business.
Staff now login to the P2D eExpenses system through a browser from their home or office computers, complete their claims online which are then automatically routed to the appropriate managers for review and sign off. Around 80% of staff scan and upload their receipts to accompany each claim, with the remainder sending actual receipts to P2D’s scanning bureau partner, Quantor Scanning, for processing.
“Authorised managers get an email alert from our system telling them claims have arrived for review. If they ‘approve’ the whole claim, it’s then routed to the financial team for a last check, with data integration to the Co-operative’s accounts software made on a daily basis to initiate payment. If an expense is rejected, this in turn generates an email back to the employee saying why. What is key, is that only the rejected items are held back – approved elements are processed immediately so the whole claim isn’t held up,” said Robin Colla, P2D’s chief executive officer (CEO).