From manual expense reports to an electronic expense report system

Imagine 1,200-1500 employees sending manual expense claims by post or email. This quickly becomes cumbersome and demanding. With a new electronic travel expense report system, SalMar experienced increased efficiency in payroll processing, fewer duplicates and fewer errors in submitting travel expense reports.

A cost-effective choice

Before the implementation of 4human's travel expense management system, the amount of manual travel expenses was becoming so large and time-consuming that we had to look for solutions to handle this. When anywhere from 1,200 to 1,500 employees send manual travel expenses with receipts by post/email, this is an extremely demanding process to handle.

Morten Sæther, responsible for payroll and travel expenses at Salmar, found 4human online and contacted Øivind Hunsrød at 4human for a demo. Morten had mapped out three possible suppliers. 4human was the most cost-effective choice, and the supplier that could deliver a ready-made standard API with Aditro Payroll, which was important to SalMar.

4human was therefore considered to be the most cost-effective supplier. SalMar has many users, but with few journeys. Thus, a solution with a fixed price for each trip was more beneficial than paying a license for each individual user.

"It was more beneficial for us, cost-wise, to choose 4human. With our competitors, it was a license per user, while we are very many users who write very few travel invoices."

An improved and more efficient workday

After a conversation with a reference customer of 4human, Morten was told the following "Do what you want, but don't replace the travel expense system with 4human".

On the choice of 4human, Morten also adds - "When we chose 4human, I had in mind that 4human has a powerful HR system, so if we chose 4human as our travel expense system, we would have "a foot in the door" if we needed a modern HR system.

We had certain requirements for the travel system. It had to be cloud-based with electronic certification/attachments, and electronic flow with a good overview and logging.

We have a fairly powerful payroll system, and one of the criteria was a fully developed interface for implementing and integrating files. 4human had already done that," says Morten.

"Previously, we might have spent a working week registering all travel expenses each month. After the implementation of travel expenses, we now spend a whole working day," says Morten.

Morten reflects - "Logging and tracking will be much easier, not least in relation to auditing, control and historical reference."
He praises the support and thinks it has been excellent, but emphasizes that they have not had any major problems, either with the implementation or in the time afterwards.

- "Previously, we might have spent a working week registering all travel expenses each month. After the implementation of travel expenses, we now spend a whole working day," says Morten.

Tailoring for a better fit

SalMar has locally adapted the travel expense system to suit their organization and "agreements". Among other things, there was a requirement from the finance department for a field with a prefix code indicating the type of travel involved. This field was designed into the solution.

- So here we now have four internal prefix choices (the Travel Category field), and the field came into place reasonably quickly. It was great!" explains Morten.

- "4human's digital travel expense management system saves SalMar several man-days a month, and we get a better ongoing flow in handling all travel expenses and expense reimbursements," concludes Morten.

Morten Sæther - Payroll and travel expenses
SalMar is one of the world's largest and most efficient producers of farmed salmon. They own 100 licenses for marine production of Atlantic salmon in Norway. The business started in 1991, and has grown from 25 to around 1,500 employees over the years. Morten Sæther (54) is responsible for payroll and travel expenses at Salmar.
SalMar has a stated business ambition to be the world's best fish farming company. With the following vision "Passion for Salmon".

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