NSW Nurses & Midwives Association

Introduction

The NSWNMA is the registered union for nurses and midwives in New South Wales. The Association represents the industrial interests of nurses and midwives employed in NSW in the public, private, aged care and disability sectors. Our role is to protect the interests of nurses, midwives and the nursing and midwifery professions.

The NSWNMA also represents and provides for the professional, educational and industrial welfare of nurses and midwives in government and non-government forums at state, national and international level.

The Problem

Prior to using ProSpend (formerly expensemanager) NSWNMA were managing employee expense reimbursements and the reconciliation of their corporate credit cards manually. This process involved filling out paper forms and this meant a lot more staff time.

The calculation of our fuel expenses was also very manual. This meant our employees had to fill in a form and use log books. The calculations were then having to be done by the finance team and often this paper form went back and forth for clarification. These expenses added up quickly with over 120 employees on the road and thousands of miles clocked monthly.

The goal

NSWNMA’s finance team had these main efficiency goals:-

• Reduce the time taken to reconcile its credit card expenses
• Pay out of pocket expenses quicker
• Reduce the coding input required for processing expenses.
• Make the process of claiming mileage simpler and automated

How we changed our expense process

We changed our manual expense process from paper forms and paper receipts to online statements and receipt images. This reduced the hours and frustration for our staff with keeping receipts and filling out forms. Approvers could then review and approve expense claims remotely and we were able to pay out of pocket expenses in a timely manner.

Our Finance team could see exactly where the credit cards statements were in their billing cycle and email alerts reminded our staff to submit and get approvals on time.

For out of pocket expenses our staff are now paid quickly and directly with their next payroll.

How we changed our fuel expense process

expensemanager (now ProSpend) was able to totally automate the reimbursement for our staff for fuel expenditure, corporate vs personal.  When the credit card statement is created for our users the system automatically creates a ‘fuel’ expense and the employees just have to add the business portion and ProSpend will calculate the personal amount to be paid by the employee.

This automated calculation was a customisation that ProSpend were willing to do for us.

Our expense reimbursement process is now pain free, paperless and automated

ProSpend’s spend management platform has made a significant change to NSWNMA expense claim and accounting processes. This has saved us time and money and our staff like using the product.

Additionally, as a not for profit organisation we are audited every year and a critical need for us is the ability to track who spent what, where and why. ProSpend has an audit trail so every expense has a history of the creation, changes and approvals. There is also benefits in the administration areas which is important for us and our auditors.

We have been working with expensemanager (now ProSpend) for many years now and they are continually developing new modules and enhancements that can benefit our organisation. They are also willing to customise the product and have done so for our needs.