Expense management • By Mark Frary


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veryone loves bragging about grabbing a bargain, and this is no different in the world of expense management, where


corporates want to be sure they are not paying over the odds for their items of indirect spend. For many years, travel managers could look to Concur’s annual benchmark report to see how they were doing compared to other organisations. However, the company is now replacing the report with more news-led interpretations of the US$70 billion-worth of transactions it currently handles annually. Its latest benchmarking release focuses


on the cost of last-minute travel. The company found that January and August were the worst months of the year for leaving booking travel to the last minute, because of a higher premium compared to tickets booked in advance. It found that the best month for booking late is June, when the late-booking premium is about 8 per cent lower than the rest of the year on average. “It’s common knowledge that last- minute air travel will cost significantly


“Airlines are


compensating for relatively flat ticket prices by charging incremental fees for services such as seat upgrades, checked luggage and in-flight meals”


more, but booking those last-minute tickets eight days in advance is the sweet spot for keeping last-minute costs as manageable as possible,” says Concur senior vice- president of travel, Tim MacDonald. The company’s analysis of expense claims also reveals the stark rise in ancil- lary costs. It says: “Airline ancillary revenue jumped nearly 69 per cent from 2011 to 2014 and nearly 21 per cent from 2013 to 2014 alone. Airlines are compensat- ing for relatively flat ticket prices by charging incremental fees for services such as seat upgrades, checked luggage and in-flight meals.”


BENCHMARKING Many companies rely on aggregated benchmarking as opposed to bespoke consultancy. US-based expense manage- ment software provider Certify produces an annual benchmarking report based on a survey of chief financial officers and financial controllers at 500 companies in North America. In its 2016 Expense Management Trends


survey, Certify found that 63 per cent of companies reimburse travellers within seven days, while 35 per cent reimburse between 8 and 30 days. It also reveals that the companies are spending an average of 10-12 per cent of revenues on travel and entertainment (T&E).


Rather than benchmarking across industries, expenses automation special- ist Chrome River “focuses the client on themselves”, says senior vice-president Anne Becknell. The reason is that even within sectors, companies can be very dif- ferent. Some sectors, such as legal, bench- mark themselves although this is wider than just travel and expenses, looking at average partner business development spend per year compared to income, for


EXPENSE MANAGEMENT AT RÉMY COINTREAU CASE STUDY


THE INTERNATIONAL LUXURY SPIRITS MARKET IS INCREDIBLY COMPETITIVE,and the Rémy Cointreau group, which generated more than Ð965 million in revenues in its 2014-15 financial year, needs performance and efficiency. Addressing international markets, such as Asia and the US, demands increased employee mobility and, with a significant travel budget and a high volume of expense requests, Rémy Cointreau wanted to harmonise its expense management through an easy-to-use interface. “The objectives of this


project were to join together, in one end-to-end solution, all aspects of travel management


In association with


– from the request, to the validation of expense requests and accounting in our financial systems,” says Eric Bourdarias, the company’s IT department finance product manager. With internal constraints such as a strict travel policy and integration with SAP required, the chosen solution had to meet the specific objectives of the group. In 2013, Rémy Cointreau chose a combination of Traveldoo Enterprise and Traveldoo Expense. These two solutions helped avoid manual data entry, saving time and providing more rigorous cost control. Implementation of expense forms was also a first for the group. The Enterprise and


Expense platforms make it possible to pinpoint avoidable expenses while helping with decision-making on travel validation and refunds. From the initial phase, the dedicated Traveldoo project manager was an important support for the Rémy Cointreau team. “The Traveldoo team reacted quickly to requests and were a vital resource on the project, ” says Bérengère Papini-Montagne, head of indirect purchases at Rémy Cointreau.


After communication


campaigns, training and a pilot test, the change management programme was successfully implemented across sites. The system change was carried


out without interrupting travel bookings or expense requests and payments. Traveldoo solutions are now an integral part of the group operations, and travel policies are correctly applied. “This solution enabled us to create rules and apply all the necessary validation steps,” says Papini-Montagne. The group has also benefited


from capabilities such as expense requests being signed off by superiors when they are on the move, and ease of invoice consolidation. Quarterly evaluations now take place and make it possible to analyse incidents and give a progress report on recurring requests in order to make action plans for the following quarter.


BBT CORPORATE CARDS SUPPLEMENT 2016 33


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