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www.airplus.com How AirPlus helps Commerzbank.
Compliance: Concur – total trip costs Now that AirPlus is feeding both pre-trip and on-trip data into Concur, it is even easier for Commerzbank to ensure expenditure is compliant with policy.
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Monthly management reports Hellier uses AirPlus data to provide monthly reports for the senior Commerzbank management team in London, itemising employees who have spent out of policy and detailing, in Hellier’s words, “who is spend- ing what where.”
Client data
Hellier also uses AirPlus data to give the client bank- ing team reports on how much they are spending on T&E for individual clients, thus ensuring expenditure remains at an appropriate level.
Delinquency reports Commerzbank is also a user of the new AirPlus Busi- ness Travel Portal, which is the complete toolkit for managing financial risks associated with corporate cards. Hellier uses the portal to run regular delin- quency reports of corporate cardholders who have not paid on time, or are close to spending limits.
Procurement efficiencies: Spend analysis Using the AirPlus lodge and corporate card products to- gether allows Commerzbank to measure total trip spend.
Why AirPlus?
Airline negotiations The AirPlus lodge card is based on the airline-owned UATP platform, giving it unique access to airline data unobtainable through other card issuers. Hellier obtains this information through the AirPlus Informa- tion Manager online reporting tool. She has found this extra layer of detail crucial for negotiations with car- riers. “AirPlus goes down to segment and fare class data, and that makes a big difference,” she says. “If an airline offers us what looks like a very attractive deal in one fare class, but I can see from my data that we are typically booking flights in a different fare class, then I can understand that deal will not work for us. We have changed a few airline proposals be- cause of the extra insight from AirPlus.”
Unflown tickets The unique additional AirPlus Information Manager data also gives Commerzbank a report on unflown tickets. “It helps us check our TMC is up to date on obtaining refunds,” says Hellier.
AirPlus. Corporate Payment Solutions. Commerzbank tackles total trip costs with AirPlus.
of additional data. Commerzbank uses one of the fields to insert a reason code for flights. Recently, it added “Conferences” as a new reason code to close a gap in the bank’s data because the travel team spotted conferences were being approved without taking flight costs into account – a common problem at many organisations.
Process efficiencies: Automation As a result of its highly automated and seamless pay- ment and expense management, the number of staff processing expenses at Commerzbank has reduced from five to two.
Adjusting cardholders spending limits Hellier enters the AirPlus Business Travel Portal to make real-time online adjustments to the credit limits and cash allowances of cardholders – a feature unique to AirPlus. “If an employee is going on a long trip, I can go straight into the portal and increase their spending limit,” she says.
The Commerzbank’s UK travel manager is gaining full visibility of travel expenditure thanks to the unique ability of AirPlus to feed both lodge card and plastic card data into Concur.
Commerzbank UK has used AirPlus International’s corporate payment tools for nearly a decade - for everything from generating spend data for airline ne- gotiations to monitoring compliance with travel policy.
Now head of travel-related services Kate Hellier is enthusing about another new benefit for her company – pre-populating her travellers’ Concur expense re- ports with both AirPlus lodge card and corporate card transaction data. No other card issuer is able to feed Concur in this way, maximising total trip cost visibility for Hellier while minimising time spent on expenses for Commerzbank travellers.
“No-plastic” accommodation payment Commerzbank uses the AirPlus A.I.D.A. virtual card product to pay for accommodation without employ- ees having to use plastic corporate cards. A.I.D.A. generates a one-off MasterCard card number which is activated for a single payment only. It allows Com- merzbank to pay for hotels for trainees and other junior staff who do not have corporate cards, and also for secondees from other countries who come to the UK for an extended stay. “The agent accepts the A.I.D.A. payment, which means we can pay the vendor and debit the London office, then use the invoice to charge the office where the employee is based,” says Hellier. “It’s almost like a suspense ac- count. It helps hugely with foreign charge-ons.”
so good, but plastic cards are ideal mainly for han- dling expenses incurred during a trip. What they often don’t cover are expenses incurred before a trip - especially air bookings through a travel management company. Many organisations, including Commerz- bank, prefer to pay for TMC transactions with a lodge card. Only one card issuer can pre-populate Concur with its lodge data: AirPlus.
Full data capture Hellier is delighted with the results. “I need to report on our full travel expenditure and my goal has always been to capture all our data in one place,” she says. “Now that AirPlus is pre-populating our Concur re- ports with lodge card data, we can do that without the need for a separate data warehouse.
“The way it works is that our TMC issues the ticket locator number as a reference number. Travellers use the number for an expense report covering their entire trip. Lines on their Concur expense reports which have been paid for by lodge card are labelled ‘Company Paid’ so the traveller cannot claim the expense as well.”
Combined lodge and plastic card data – why it matters Hellier hails this development as a major break- through for her company’s travel and expense management programme. Like many companies, Commerzbank uses Concur as an automated expense management tool, allowing travellers to file their ex- penses online and then upload the reports into their SAP accounting system.
Better insight into conference costs The AirPlus lodge card allows clients up to nine fields
One benefit of using Concur is that it can take an automated feed from most plastic corporate cards to pre-populate its expense reports automatically. So far
For more information on AirPlus’ products and services, please contact us directly at:
AirPlus International Ltd T +44 (0) 20 8994 4725 F +44 (0) 20 8987 6113
london@airplus.com www.airplus.com
Minimal work for travellers As well as providing excellent visibility for Hellier, travellers benefit from having minimal work to com- plete their expense reports. Concur automatically lists the vendor, amount and (if relevant) exchange rate for each pre-populated lodge and plastic card transaction fed in by AirPlus. The traveller has to do little more than add any out-of-pocket cash expenses before the claim is sent off for approval and reim- bursement, and the report is loaded into Commerz- bank’s SAP financial system.
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