Program for business trip expense reports – Jira

Settling local and overseas business trip expenses is a process which companies would like to go through in possibly the least complicated and most automated way. TTPSC Atlassian team have proven properly configured Jira to work well in this context. 

Transition Technologies PSC is Atlassian’s Platinum Partner, as well as it has Enterprise status. The company’s activities connected with configuration, implementation, extending Atlassian’s products with the use of original applications requires a strong team which deal with this area only. TTPSC Atlassian department means nearly 50 experts who can carry out not only simple orders related to e.g. selling licenses or software renewal, but also make more complicated projects – transferring a process connected with business trip expense reports to Jira was one of them.

Business trips expense report in Jira

Proper configuration of Jira and the right choice of extensions make it possible to implement functionalities for management group, HR team, and users who send requests, in the program. Each group has power and possibilities according to their responsibilities. Because of that, Jira software can become a main tool to settle business trip expenses. The most important sections:

• Submitting absence declaration
• Business trips, including:
  • Requests for a business trip
  • Settling business trip expenses
  • Calculation of subsistence allowance
  • Settling mileage allowance
  • Requests for down payment
  • Settling other business expenses
• Providers and recipients (including additional, specific functionalities)

The system cannot also lack settings strictly related to users: they can change settings of their accounts, check what projects they are assigned for, how many open issues they have, as well as what groups they belong to. They have a possibility of choosing a language which they want to use in the system, and can choose access – i.e. Choose whether elements which they create will be available to everybody by default, or not (they can also change it in the process of creating a particular object). In the next part of the text, we’re going to describe briefly the most important steps connected with reporting and settling business trip expenses in Jira.

Request for a business trip in Jira

Settling business trip expenses starts with submitting a request for a business trip by an employee; in Jira, we have treated it as a separate project for which a user determines a type of ticket; we called it „Podróże i wydatki służbowe”(”Trips and business expenses”), while the type of ticket  is  „polecenie wyjazdu służbowego” (”business trip order”). Obviously, we can have any name here – the most important fact is for it to reflect the sense and the aim of the functionality as much as possible.

Submitting a request for a business trip in Jira requires an employee to determine all crucial information, such as country and city, destination, departure and return date, transportation, and costs. People who like, want or are asked to give more details can enter it in the description of the request along with attachments. An additional option is a request for advance payment – we have created a separate, simple form which makes the request go to the finance department for consideration.

Saving a filled in application for a business trip is almost the last step connected with sending the ticket – data has been entered and still can be edited. If the employee makes sure everything is correct, they choose ”send for approval” command – the request goes then to a supervisor.

Settling business trip expenses in Jira

Business trips are closely connected with costs and necessity to settle them correctly – the process does not have to be long and boring. Because of right configuration, all activities can be performed in Jira software – which allows reducing time of document circulation, and information stays in the system. We also ‘skip’ the need to look for a decision-making person in an office and to generate additional expenses.

Settling business trip expenses in Jira is possible when an application for a business travel get a status ”waiting to be settled” (again, we emphasize that the names can be changed). A button ”settle  business trip expenses” appears in a form, and it transfers the user to the right form and causes change of the application’s status into ”in progress”.

In the screenshot above, there are examples of fields which should be filled in during the process of settling business trip expenses. What information should be included in the form depends on agreement with a client made at the moment of discussing the needs connected with the program – we implement solutions according to client’s requirements.

After an employee has filled in all the bars/windows, the form can be saved (with a possibility to be edited) or can be sent straightaway for acceptation.

If, after calculations, a user can see negative amount, they need to return money to the counter or transfer it to a company’s bank account. A business trip request is automatically closed and marked as ‘settled’ after being accepted by the financial department.

Program for business trips, additional functionalities

The above description concerns an individual action connected with settling business trip expenses: request for a business trip, request for advance payment, and settling business trip expenses after coming back. We know, however, that in most companies it’s just not enough. In Jira, you can successfully implement additional functionalities, such as e.g.:

• Calculation of additional subsistence allowance – necessary when in case of one business trip, an employee spent time in more than one country. In this kind of situation, they have to create additional requests for each of visited countries and connect it to the previous settlement.
  

• Settling mileage – necessary in case of every business trip. Settling mileage in Jira has been treated as a separate form (type of report), which needs to be connected with a request for settlement of all business trip expenses.
  
• Invoice Request
  
• Searching for requests – one of the most useful functionalities from both employees’ point of view and from a perspective of HR and management.

Business process optimization

If your company is looking for solutions which will improve document circulation and project management (in the word’s broad meaning, regardless of industry type), we invite you to contact us. Well-configured tools by Atlassian will meet even the highest expectations and specific needs.