EXPENSE MANAGEMENT
WHEN BUYERS DON’T ENGAGE WITH EXPENSE MANAGEMENT,
THERE’S A RISK THE CFO WILL MAKE THEIR OWN DECISION ABOUT THE EXPENSE TOOL
recognise receipts in English, German and French, with more languages due to be added to the system. “As more countries change their fiscal rules to allow businesses to use digital copies of receipts, the move to a paperless expense process is on the horizon,” predicts Charpin. “We will be introducing enhanced digitalisation capabilities which will push expenses further towards becoming completely paperless and make the process more efficient for both employees and corporations.” Elsewhere, Traveldoo has introduced a
chatbot function within its mobile expense app, which can perform a few basic tasks as part of a “test and learn” strategy designed to build more functionality based on users’ interaction and feedback. For SAP Concur, one of the biggest trends is the increasing adoption of expense management by small and medium-sized enterprises – currently the company’s fastest growing business segment. “We find a lot of these SMEs come to us and don’t have a T&E policy,” says van der Merwe. “They are mostly moving from a manual paper or spreadsheet process and we’re helping them to automate it for the first time.”
BUYER BEWARE With expense becoming a more crucial part of the travel management equation, what should buyers do to make sure they are involved in the conversation within their organisation? Severnside Consulting’s Pouney says: “When buyers don’t engage with expense management, there’s a risk the CFO will make their own decision about the expense tool, and the supplier will offer them a booking tool as well. “Taking a booking tool can potentially
drive the choice of TMC, as some expense companies partner more strongly with certain TMCs than others. Travel people need to put themselves at the table for this decision, otherwise decisions will be made without them and they could become a lot more irrelevant.” But Pouney also sees this as an
“opportunity” for buyers to “upskill themselves” and use better understanding of expense management “to elevate their role” within their organisations. There’s clearly work to be done in this
area – Traveldoo’s Fitzgerald says: “The travel manager is still a highly influential person in the process when you are looking at a T&E bid. But normally they are not going to make the final decision – that’s more likely to be made by procurement and the CFO.” Allowing expense management to take a critical leading role in travel management may seem like a case of the tail wagging the dog. But there are signs this is the direction we’re heading in and getting on top of expenses may soon become a paramount issue for travel buyers.
TACKLING FRAUD
One of the biggest selling points of expense management systems is in their supposed ability to reduce fraudulent claims. Research by payments
specialist Soldo shows UK firms lose around £1.9 billion per year on “unauthorised and inflated” purchases. The most common fraudulent claims involve “exaggerating” mileage, followed by putting through taxi receipts for personal travel or claiming for meals with friends and family. Expense management systems
are becoming better at flagging “out of the ordinary” transactions and spending patterns, as well as examining third-party vendors for types of expenses which are outside policy, such as bills from “gentleman’s clubs”.
DRAWING THE LINE Rachel van der Merwe, director, product marketing at SAP Concur, says: “The majority of fraud is unintentional with travellers not understanding the policies or where the lines are. “The solution to fraud is data –
capturing the right data creates the visibility to make sense of it. Then you can go about educating travellers and changing behaviour.” Mandating the use of corporate
cards for travel expenses also helps to reduce fraud, according to Nick Ludlow, general manager, EMEA, at Chrome River Technologies. “Using a company card reduces
the ability of travellers to perpetrate schemes such as reimbursement fraud. This is where a traveller buys a full-fare ticket and a regular ticket for the same flight on a personal card. They will travel on the regular ticket, but they submit the more expensive ticket for reimbursement. They also cancel that ticket for a full refund, and have the refund paid back on their card,” he explains.
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