Is It Time For Your Company to Implement a BYO Program?

Ever miss an important event? A dinner with old friends or a birthday? Too often you don’t know until it’s too late. Sometimes all you need is a simple calendar alert. A reminder. Well, that’s the point of this post. We’ve made it to help you identify when your company may be ready to implement a bring your own (BYO) program. Take a look at your corporate expense process. Do your employees use their personal devices for work? Is it in-house or outsourced? Let’s dig in to some warning signs that now might be the time. 

What is bring your own (BYO)? 

Bring your own is an approach to reimbursing employees for using their personal assets for business purposes. What makes a BYO program stand out is the customizability and specificity. Companies can choose the assets to reimburse and the reimbursements are specific to employee locations and job roles. 

What does a BYO program reimburse? 

A BYO program enables employees to use personal assets such as phones, tablets, broadband and home office and receive accurate reimbursements. Companies rolling out a BYO program can pick and choose the assets they wish to reimburse for, as well as how much to reimburse. For example, workers that work from home two days a week may receive a different internet reimbursement compared to an employee who works from home five days a week. Motus BYO allows you adjust the program to fit your employees. 

How do I know my company needs a BYO program? 

It really depends. Every company is different. A number of factors, from industry and size to location and number of employees within each department, impact company needs. Different employers require different things of their employees. Here are a number of signs that signal it might be time for your company to adopt a BYO program. 

Don’t have a reimbursement policy?

Not having any reimbursement policy in place can create serious headaches across the company. Take, for example, an employee using their personal phone for work submits three months’ worth of phone reimbursements at once. From a budgeting perspective, this can pose a serious challenge. And who can say how long the employee will wait to submit their next expense. From an administrative perspective, this is a large and unexpected burden. A BYO program streamlines this process and limits unexpected expense submissions. 

Spending too much time with expense reports? 

Speaking of expense reports, they aren’t cheap. They cost the company time and money. If it’s a recurring, reimbursable expense, your company shouldn’t have to run it through the expense system. This can lead to business expense fraud. Employees could, for example, submit their family cell phone plan bill and unless you’re going through that bill with a fine-tooth comb, you may overlook it because you have many reports to review and approve. Sure, your company may rely on their personal device, but not the personal devices of everyone in that employee’s family. With a BYO program, you can reimburse them for a more accurate, equitable amount. 

Not sure how accurate the reimbursement you’re providing are? 

Reimbursements for the business use of personal assets are often seen as an employee benefit. But it’s important that those reimbursements are accurate. If they fall short, it could give rise to resentment from employees and potentially a lawsuit. When was the last time you reviewed the amount you were giving employees? Do you know why you chose that amount? Do you offer different reimbursements based on location? How about job roles? With a BYO program, the Motus platform calculates accurate rates specific to employee location and job role. 

Don’t want to deal with a corporate device program?  

We get it. Whether your corporate device program is outsourced to a managed mobility services vendor or managed internally, it can be a lot of work. The onboarding and off-boarding process can pose serious challenges. That’s especially true if the program is being managed without a platform, or on an older, pieced together platform. Depending on your program, repair and replacement might also be a significant hassle. A BYO program? Considerably less so. A BYO program is extremely simple to set up and manage. 

Is your workforce growing? 

If you only have a couple of employees, you may not need to think about a BYO program. And that’s okay. But if you’ve experienced some serious growth, or you already have several departments full, it might be time to take a look. Especially if some of those departments are using their personal phones for business reasons. 

Is your workforce spread out?

If your company has a single location in one city, and all employees drive in to work, you might not need all that a BYO program has to offer. But if your company has multiple locations in different cities, or employees working remotely, you should take a look at a BYO program. Why? The answer is simple. Things cost different amounts from location to location. The rate each employee receives should be specific to their location. And a BYO program takes that into consideration.  

Do you have concerns around labor law and IRS compliance? 

How your company tackles reimbursement and the level of urgency around it might depend on where you operate. Labor law varies by state. IRS compliance on the other hand is national. Ensuring you’re reimbursing, and that those reimbursements meet state and federal requirements is important. Fortunately, a BYO program can do all of that for you. 

Challenges to Overcome

Whether your company has said yes to only one, a couple or all of the signs above, you may still be facing some hurdles. One of the biggest challenges companies fear when looking to adopt a BYO program is change management. Fortunately, setting up a BYO program is super simple for admins and employees. Employees just need to set up their BYO account and input their direct deposit information. The program is just as easy for administrators. After a couple hours with our team they’re good to go.

One other issue is a potential decrease in reimbursement amounts. Moving to BYO program may cause some employees to receive less than what they currently get. That’s especially true if employees were expensing entire internet plans, or your company was reimbursing them for their family phone plans. It’s important you know that a BYO program is customizable. We will build a program first based on employee zip codes, but adjustments can be made. Depending on what you want to offer, we can increase the amount or decrease it.  

Next Steps 

Reimbursing employees for the business use of personal assets like their phones, home office or internet shouldn’t be difficult. With the hurdles of labor laws and accurate rates for each employee, an internal program could be challenging when it should be easy. Fortunately, with Motus it is easy. If you’re ready to connect with us and start setting up your BYO program, reach out to us today! If not, if you’d like to learn more about our BYO solution, check out our BYO resources today.  

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