Captura Software Releases Employee Payables 2.0; Captura Introduces First Comprehensive T&E Package That Incorporates Best Practices, Federal Per Diem And Year 2000 Solutions

Business Wire, May 12, 1998

BOTHELL, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 12, 1998--Captura Software Inc. today introduced Employee Payables(TM) 2.0, the first travel and expense (T&E) reporting software to automate compliance with federal per diem rules and accepted Best Practices for expense management, along with Year 2000 compliance. As distinguished from other T&E solutions, Employee Payables features the capacity to adopt and enforce changing business policies in real-time, and is now in use by such enterprises as Merrill Lynch, Computer Associates, and two of the world's largest travel agencies, Carlson Wagonlit Travel and Rosenbluth International.

Powerful yet easy to use, Employee Payables 2.0 is a robust and highly extensible e-mail-based client/server package that can dramatically reduce time spent on data entry, processing, policy enforcement and expense report tracking. The product pairs an expense reporting module with a versatile, proprietary Business Rules Engine that compares transactions to company policy from one central point to ensure compliance - enhancing a company's ability to control costs, manage cash flow and obtain accurate financial reporting data.

"Employee Payables 2.0 not only cuts red tape, it's easy to roll out and to use - to ensure that employees will use it and the corporation will realize the benefits of automation and accepted Best Practices, through a system that is tested and certified as ready for the new millennium," said Dana Bruttig, Captura president and CEO. "A software solution designed to meet the divergent needs of financial, travel and IT managers, Employee Payables' results go right to the bottom line by helping businesses reduce costs and make better decisions."

Employee Payables' flexible, open architecture makes it easy to integrate with current hardware and systems, maximizing a company's investment in technology. A simple, familiar user interface enables travelers to enter, submit and track expense reports with ease. Workbench[TM], the administrative tool, makes it easy for authorized personnel to update business policy without special programming knowledge.

Best Practices

Employee Payables 2.0 upgrades the server software with an enhanced set of business rules designed to bring companies into compliance with T&E Best Practices, a generally accepted set of guidelines developed by leading enterprises and T&E experts for reducing costs and streamlining business processes. These range from automating the reporting process, to integrating data (i.e., one-time entry) directly into general ledger, to eliminating travel authorizations and increasing reliance on automated statistical audits, to use of T&E data to negotiate better vendor rates.

This feature already has paid off for Merrill Lynch, where closer adherence to T&E Best Practices guidelines has helped improve cash flow by expediting expense reports. "By using Captura, we have streamlined our entire T&E reporting process - from months to just days. Our corporate credit card vendor is paid directly for approved transactions and employees are reimbursed faster (so much faster that we have been able to reduce the need for cash advances). In addition, our deal accounting system, through which we bill our clients for deal-related expenses, is significantly more current.

This benefit goes right to our bottom line in increased recovery of these expenses," said Mark McAndrews, CAO of Merrill Lynch Investment Banking. "The old T&E process often missed the 90-day settlement window for billing for expenses on public offerings."

"We chose to partner with Captura because the software meets the needs of our customers," said Mylle Mangum, executive vice president of Expense Management and Strategic Planning of Carlson Wagonlit Travel. "We are dedicated to helping our customers create Best Practices for Travel and Expense Management, and this is an ideal solution that helps us streamline processes and enforce consistent policies, resulting in significant time savings for travelers, managers and administrators."

Per Diem Module

The National Business Travel Association government contractor conference held May 8 featured per diem management as a major topic of discussion. Employee Payables 2.0 offers enhancements to a Federal Per Diem module, for companies to manage T&E expenses to government guidelines. Unique to Employee Payables, this module paired with the Business Rules Engine, enables companies engaged in government work to identify and calculate allowable and unallowable T&E expenses on the fly. By ensuring that individual items and reports comply with federal reporting regulations, the module helps expedite government reimbursements to contractors.

"Anyone who has done government work knows that compliance is vital," said Don Sturdivant, information architect at systems integrator SSDS Inc. "Captura's software helps us meet the precise reporting needs of our public sector customers, streamlines the expense reimbursement process for our employees, and improves our own cash flow. Employee Payables is the only product we've found that incorporates these capabilities. It is a win-win situation, with less paperwork required of all parties."