THE

FOUR THINGS YOU CAN DO

RIGHT NOW TO

FIX YOUR TRAVEL & EXPENSE

MANAGEMENT

Tip #1 – Ditch the spreadsheets

It’s number one on our list for a reason. ‘Free’ spreadsheets might seem like the Holy Grail (or the only option) for expenses, but the truth is, they cost you more than they save you. Let’s look at the evidence:

• Filling in spreadsheets takes time. And that’s before you even take into account the lost time spent searching for receipts and matching them to trip itineraries, or correcting the inevitable mistakes that come with manually entering the information. Add those hours up, and you are suddenly paying people to be frustrated and distracted from their real jobs.

• 10% of operating expenses are T&E related—so you really need to know where the money is going. Spreadsheets don’t give you any real-time visibility into employee spend, robbing you of the ability to manage cash flow.

• Spreadsheets are a pain. Manual entry, manager approvals and time spent processing once signed off for reimbursement make them slow, inefficient, exhausting and, ultimately, expensive.

And after all that stress, you have to go through the whole process again next month. No wonder your employees and admin staff hate doing expenses. Get rid of those pesky spreadsheets, and it could be the single most powerful change you ever make to expense management.

Researchers at Warwick University have found that happy workers are around 12% more productive.

51% of organizations who manage T&E say their top challenge is poor visibility.

Concur, Forrester Report: The Power of Real-Time Insight, May 2014

12%

51%

Tip #2 – Use the cloud

It’s probably the biggest business game-changer since the internet itself. Cloud-based software leads the way when it comes to automating trivial or repetitive business tasks. And it’s always on and always connected, so your employees can be productive anywhere, at any time through partner apps and services.

With a cloud-based travel and expense solution, credit card charges, e-receipts, invoices and itineraries are automatically captured via mobile apps, which means less time manually entering information and following complex workflows. It’s also scalable, so no matter how big your company grows, you can process more expenses without adding extra admin staff.

When it comes to preventing costs, automation is the secret weapon. It’s the definition of cost-avoidance and future-proofing: spending now, to save (more) later. Here are just a few of the ways automation helps you work smarter.

• You get the big picture An automated solution lets you see exactly who’s claiming what, when, making it easier to monitor spend levels and trends across the business. You can also schedule reports without having to wade through spreadsheets, which means you get to make smarter, faster decisions.

• You get more done, quicker The automation of expense management can enable organizations to reduce their expense processing costs by 50-60% and cut processing times from 15 to 3 days. Data lives in the cloud, so it’s stored securely and is easily accessible. The result: lower costs —and faster processing times.

• You keep employees and finance teams happy Employees get their precious time back, while finance teams avoid dealing with constant manual errors. So everyone is happier and more productive.

• …Not to mention the IRS The tax man loves processes, guidelines and receipts. An automated process gives him confidence that you’re keeping track of employees’ expenses and complying with regulations.

Tip #3 – Automate

36% of CFO’s said they were using or planning to use travel expense management on a cloud infrastructure with a SaaS model, according to a 2013 Gartner study.

Automating T&E expense management can help organizations reduce their expense processing costs by 50-60%.

Aberdeen Group, A Travel and Expense Management Guide for UK businesses, November 2012

36%

Tip #4 – Make it easy for your teams

How many of your employees understand your expense policy? Do they even know where to find it or what it includes? Smarter back-end processes are one thing, but if your employees have no guidance on what they can spend and where, then you’re still going to end up with problems. In order to help guide your employees towards smart spending decisions, your policy should provide both expense and travel specific guidance.

Remember, it’s only a good expense policy if people are using it, so remember these golden rules:

• Ditch the jargon—use language that people can understand

• Make the policy and its rules fair

• Invite employees to take part in creating it

• Make it easy to find in your system/communicate the policy internally

10% of the claims approved by managers are out-of-policy.

Concur Employee Expenses Benchmark Summary Report 2012.

Conclusion

Moving away from manual, error prone spreadsheets and investing in an automated travel and expense solution doesn’t just save you money, it can improve your business in more ways than you might imagine:

• Productivity goes up: employees spend less time on expenses and more time working

• Morale gets better: because employees can do expense reports on their mobile devices as naturally as they do their other work

• You save time and money: because you’re automating routine tasks

• You can invest in growth: by putting the money and time you save back into the business

• You have more control: with a tighter rein on spending and more consistency in your processes

• You have more visibility: so you know where money is going and can make more informed decisions about the future

At Concur, we’re not simply focused on automating business processes, we’re focused on completely re-thinking them to transform how businesses capture and manage cash flow. An expense report that almost writes itself —just one of the many ways Concur helps manage your company’s spend so you can see the big picture.

“We are here, not because we are curing cancer, but because maybe you are. And if you are, you shouldn’t be filing expense reports.”

Elena Donio, Concur President

Want to take Concur for a 30-day test drive?

Want to learn how Oribe saved 30% on employee expenses?

Get started now Find out how