FOI Reference: FOI/2022/4560
You asked
Please could you answer some questions about how you are currently handling your spending:
Expenses
- What finance system do you use?
- What system do you use to manage and process your staff's expenses?
- What is the expense submission & reimbursement process?
- What is the current period of reimbursement (from submission) for staff expenses?
- What is the current approval workflow for expense claims?
- How long does it take on average to process one expense claim?
- How many expense claims were made during your last financial year? And what was total value of expense claimed?
- Can your staff submit expenses remotely?
- Are staff able to submit claims on their mobile device via a dedicated application?
- How are you claiming VAT on mileage?
- Do your staff have to manually deduct commute distance from their mileage claim?
- What percentage of expense claims are you auditing?
- How many FTEs (full time employees) do you have processing expense claims?
- Which department oversees / owns the expense processes/workflows?
- Who is the named contact within the organisation who owns the expense process?
Invoices
- What system do you use for managing/processing invoices?
- What is your current invoice process for handling supplier invoices, from receipt to when it is posted in the ERP/finance system and ready for payment?
- How many invoices were processed during your last financial year?
- How many FTEs (full time employees) do you have in your accounts payable team who process invoices?
- What percentage of invoices were paid late during your last financial year?
- What is the approval workflow for Invoices?
- Who is the named contact within the organisation that decides which systems are upgraded each year?
- Do you use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to scan invoices?
- Do you currently have a PO system or a non-PO system? If you use both types -- what is the percentage of PO invoices vs. non-PO invoices?
- Are you claiming VAT on invoices? If so, how are you doing this?
We said
Thank you for your enquiry,
Expenses
1. What finance system do you use?
Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications
2. What system do you use to manage and process your staff's expenses?
Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications
3. What is the expense submission & reimbursement process?
Claims are submitted for line manager approval via designated expenses area of the system. The line manager receives a system notification of claim pending approval and then takes the relevant action. Unpaid, approved claims are uploaded daily to the payables function and payments are processed.
4. What is the current period of reimbursement (from submission) for staff expenses?
4 days - Expenses are approved by line managers and uploaded to the payment process the next working day. Payments are then made by BACS which takes 3 working days to reach recipient's account.
5. What is the current approval workflow for expense claims?
All claims require on-system approval by the claimant's line manager.
6. How long does it take on average to process one expense claim?
Claims are processed in batches with volume of claims varying each day. The process from approval to payment takes an estimated 10 minutes per batch.
7. How many expense claims were made during your last financial year? And what was total value of expense claimed?
27,000 Claims were processed at a total value of £1,080,000 during the financial year 2021/22
8. Can your staff submit expenses remotely?
Yes, but only on official Office for National Statistics (ONS) devices.
9. Are staff able to submit claims on their mobile device via a dedicated application?
Yes, but only on official ONS devices.
10. How are you claiming VAT on mileage?
We do not reclaim VAT on mileage claims.
11. Do your staff have to manually deduct commute distance from their mileage claim?
Yes
12. What percentage of expense claims are you auditing?
Our Finance team carry out an audit on a sample of claims that are randomly selected each month, which can vary in terms of scope and scale.
13. How many FTEs (full time employees) do you have processing expense claims?
The processing of expense claims requires one member of the Finance team, working an estimated one hour per week. The process is carried out daily over a 5-day working week. This equates to 0.03 FTE.
14. Which department oversees / owns the expense processes / workflows?
The Office for National Statistics Finance Division
15. Who is the named contact within the organisation who owns the expense process?
There is no named contact, and the process is owned by the Office for National Statistics Finance Division
Invoices
1. What system do you use for managing/processing invoices?
Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications
2. What is your current invoice process for handling supplier invoices, from receipt to when it is posted in the ERP/finance system and ready for payment?
Invoices are entered on to the Accounts Payable ledger system within 48 Hours of being received. Invoices that are fully matched to a purchase order and receipted or have been allocated for off-system approval, will be paid within 5 working days of being received.
3. How many invoices were processed during your last financial year?
17,200 supplier invoices were processed during the financial year 2021/22.
4. How many FTEs (full time employees) do you have in your accounts payable team who process invoices?
5 FTE employees
5. What percentage of invoices were paid late during your last financial year?
Please see link to payment performance publication: Prompt payment to suppliers - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
6. What is the approval workflow for Invoices?
Invoices are automatically released for payment via a 3-way matching mechanism once the associated purchase order has been receipted by the purchasing department. Non-PO invoices are approved manually by a representative of the purchasing department who holds the relevant delegated authority limit.
7. Who is the named contact within the organisation that decides which systems are upgraded each year?
There is no named contact. The Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications software is periodically upgraded through system patches and new releases.
8. Do you use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to scan invoices?
No
9. Do you currently have a PO system or a non-PO system? If you use both types -- what is the percentage of PO invoices vs. non-PO invoices?
Both PO and non-PO systems are in place with 96% of invoices matched to a PO and 4% relating to non-PO during the financial year 2021/22.
10. Are you claiming VAT on invoices? If so, how are you doing this?
Yes, either at point of invoice entry or via a monthly review exercise.