Streamlining Mileage Reimbursement for Southwest Network with PowerApps Solution

Client’s Background

Southwest Network is a renowned mental and behavioural health service provider based in Greater Phoenix, Arizona. They operate in seven popular facilities and provide integrated mental health and primary care services for adults. Moreover, they specialize in behavioural health therapy and support for youth on an outpatient basis. Southwest Network is about ensuring everyone in the community feels better and happier.

Business Challenges

Generally, employees of Southwest Network travel from their office to different locations, like other branches, rehabilitation centres, and patient facilities. The cost of their travel is reimbursed as a mileage claim. Earlier, they used an Excel spreadsheet to log the hours of the journey, the distance they travelled, and more. Then, they used to submit it to their payroll department monthly. However, this method often resulted in mistakes, such as recording wrong distances or double entries for one trip.

Moreover, these errors led to irregular reimbursement figures, which the payroll department had to check manually, thereby involving much effort. It also caused difficulty for employees to check on the status of their reimbursement requests and for supervisors to efficiently manage approvals. This led to increased delays in the reimbursement process, employee frustration, and administrative burden.  

Solutions Provided

To address Southwest Network's challenges, we provided them with in-depth PowerApps consulting services. We developed a Mileage Reimbursement App, a powerful platform that allows the swift development of custom business applications. This app addressed the unique needs of Southwest Network’s mileage reimbursement process.

The Mileage Reimbursement App is built with different functionalities, using the capabilities of PowerApps, to automate the entire reimbursement process. Here’s how PowerApps enhanced the functionality of the app:

1. Employee Perspective

PowerApps provides a user-friendly interface where employees can log their mileage, view their reimbursement status, and track the progress of reimbursement requests easily. It provides transparency and allows them to manage their reimbursement process efficiently.

2. Supervisor Perspective

PowerApps also provides a dedicated dashboard for supervisors. Here, they can review and approve reimbursement requests from their team members. They can also swiftly assess pending approvals, view reimbursement summaries, and export data for further analysis.

3. Admin Perspective

Administrators can monitor the overall reimbursement process, track open requests, and manage their permissions using this app. They have the flexibility to adjust supervisory assignments and ensure the smooth operation of the app.

4. Payroll Team Perspective

PowerApps simplifies the workload of the payroll team. It automates mileage calculations, reduces errors, and accelerates the reimbursement process. It has built-in controls, powered by PowerApps, that ensure accuracy and compliance with reimbursement policies.

Results

1. The Mileage Reimbursement App, developed by our PowerApps developers, helped them reduce errors and inaccuracies related to manual mileage tracking. It led to more accurate reimbursement calculations.

2. The automation of there imbursement process has eliminated all the tasks performed manually. This way, employees and the payroll team get more time to invest in other tasks.

3. The app delivered transparency throughout the reimbursement process.

Therefore, our PowerApps consultants transformed Southwest Network’s mileage reimbursement process by developing an app that eliminated manual work, improved accuracy, and streamlined approvals. Southwest Network achieved greater efficiency, productivity, and compliance across the organisation, and automated and optimised key workflows using this technology.

Do you want to streamline your business processes? Let SharePoint Designs do that for you. Contact us today and get our PowerApps solutions today and experience the transformation in your organisation’s efficiency and productivity!