But you don’t have to drive to the Office? What Working From Home has done to company budgets.

No commute, no office coffee, my bills are coming down! Let’s look at the company budget.

It is true that employees are definitely saving money and time on the daily office commute. We are seeing more and more businesses starting to adopt the Work From Home model as a permanent mode of work, but planning for these can be more difficult than business owners originally thought:

Where does the company save?

The obvious benefit of having a workforce that operates from home is that your company budget can save immediately on rent expenses. Some businesses have completely moved to an online model, with only meeting for special company functions at venues that can be rented for a day, rather than the year.

A company also benefits in day-to-day office expenses, such as the internet, coffee and tea, cleaning, electricity, etc. All of these are now moved to the employee’s personal expenses. But where does that leave your workforce?

The hidden costs of Working From Home.

To a certain extent, the workforce has been covering a lot of these expenses for personal use anyway, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t now spending the majority of their time on the internet doing work for you. Some businesses have agreed to cover 50% for certain items such as the internet for work, but these are topics to bring up with your accounting team.

The other major cost that is not brought up often, is the cyber-security of your workforce and their personal networks. Company budgets will need to adjust to ensure that they are implementing the necessary policies and procedures to secure company data while working remotely. They will also need to factor in the ability to handle communication, especially telephonic communication, effectively.

Talk to your IT team and service providers and find out how they can assist you in planning and budgeting for your Work From Home strategy. Proper planning will help you keep on top of vulnerabilities and costs in the future and assist you in preventing any surprise expenditures.

If you require any assistance with regards to your IT and company budget, please contact us.

Have any advice on budgeting for Working From Home? Leave a comment below, you may help someone out!