Research indicates that between 8-10% of an average company’s budget is dedicated to overhead expenses. Transportation is a significant overhead and if this is not managed efficiently, the costs can pile up very quickly. Managing the cost of processing, paying, and auditing employee expenses can directly impact a company’s net income, i.e. the bottom line. Yego Innovision Ltd., the Rwanda-based company behind YEGOMOTO and YEGOCABS, has rolled out yet another innovative initiative that will enable companies to effectively manage their employees’ transport-related expenses. A ‘Yego Corporate Account’ is an efficient system, which provides greater control over an employee’s transport expenditure, ensures compliance with organization’s policies, and also provides confirmation that staff were picked up on time and reached home safely. Karanvir Singh, the CEO of Yego Innovision explained, “in order to manage expenses effectively, organizations need clear visibility into how much is being spent, when and by whom. It is also important to ensure that only necessary travel is being done at the company’s expense.” He added, “furthermore, automating the expense process rather than using a manual or paper-based system simplifies the analysis of spending patterns, which allows organizations to make adjustments and control costs where required.” In Rwanda, many companies still use a manual process, where employees submit envelopes full of paper-based receipts, that then needs to be collated by the accounts department and put into a spreadsheet. This makes monitoring cumbersome and the difficulty in measurement creates blind spots. “The challenge with the system of employees claiming reimbursements via a manual process is that it is inherently inaccurate and the fact whether the trip actually took place or not cannot be verified, this means that there is an opportunity for inflated or false claims. The manual process makes it very difficult to control costs and almost impossible to ensure compliance with transport policies. Furthermore, a Yego Corporate Account helps immensely during audits by quickly pointing out mistakes and non-official trips as they happen, rather than attempting to recover costs long after they have occurred,” Singh pointed out. Most importantly, the organization is able to claim the transport-related costs as a business expense since the billing provided by Yego is accepted by RRA, which is not the case with handwritten or paper bills. Automated expense management provides timely, accurate visibility into employee spending across the organization, and eliminates the need to track and manage paper receipts. Companies that are using our Corporate Account have reported not just the streamlining of the entire process, but a 40% reduction in their employee’s transportation costs, which is a huge saving for any organization”, Singh explained. According to Singh, “the Yego Corporate Account comes with a web-based dashboard that allows the HR department to add rules on an employee-by-employee basis, such as daily limits for the type of transport (Moto or Taxi Cab, or both), the number of daily trips, the daily spending limit, the days of the week and the hours of a day when an employee is allowed to use official transport, etc. With the rainy season here, it makes sense for organizations to use the Yego Corporate Account to pool rides for employees, where one Taxicab can be shared by three employees. This is cost effective, prevents one from being stranded in the rain, and is much safer than using Motos in the rain.” How it works The employer or HR Manager (Admin) uses the Yego Corporate Account Portal to fill in information about all the employees allowed to use the Corporate Account and their individual entitlements. Employees with smartphones download the Yego Passenger App and those with feature phones are provided with Yego’s NFC Tags. The Apps and Tags are then linked to the respective employees by the Admin. Employees can then call a Taxicab or Moto either by using the App, by calling 9191 (24/7 Call Centre), or flagging down the Taxi on the street. When the Trip ends, the employee can simply tap the NFC tag on the Meter to pay. If you have the Yego App linked to the Corporate Account, you can pay seamlessly with the App. Yego has also just launched a QR Code-pairing feature that allows anyone with the Yego App to instantly pair with a Moto or Taxicab. This means, even when you manually flag down Moto or Taxicab you can use the QR Code-pairing option, to get all the benefits of the App. This includes selecting the destination, paying with the Corporate Account or other cashless means, all of which are so important during these times of Covid-19. The Corporate Account is a pre-paid account and can be simply topped up with Mobile Money. When the balance runs low, the Admin is automatically notified to top-up the account. According to Yego, the strength of their platform lies in unparalleled visibility, accountability and transparency, providing organizations with one user experience, one set of reconciled data, and one source of truth for budgeting, analytics and reporting. Singh explained, “every organization’s goal is to optimize costs and yet deliver excellent service – the Yego Corporate Account is designed to help every organization achieve just that!”
