EXPENSE MANAGEMENT


IMAGINE THERE’S NO EXPENSE REPORT


Three travel managers explain how they would like corporate travel payment and expense to evolve, and experts comment on their ideas


PAUL SPELMAN, UK MANAGING DIRECTOR, AIRPLUS INTERNATIONAL Last 100


The financial crash of 2008 was a wake-up call for financial institutions that triggered new regulations and controls to avoid similar events. Secondly, the EU interchange fee cap in June 2015 reduced the profitability of individually settled cards, leading to numerous issuers withdrawing their offering. Next 200 Cash will be phased out and physical cards replaced with virtual accounts tied to an individual via mobile, wearable or digital implant devices. A cap on interchange fees for corporate cards, as has already been introduced for consumer cards, is inevitable. Top tip for modernisation Before modernising make sure you have the three fundamentals in place: a user- friendly booking tool; a well-controlled, universally accepted lodge/corporate card programme; and mobile-enabled expense software.


RICHARD WARREN, SENIOR PARTNER, FIRSTPARTNER/ THE HUMAN CHAIN Last 100


Regulatory changes coupled with high levels of FinTech funding bringing innovative disruptors into the payments market. Next 200


A wider choice of payment options accessed via open APIs will facili- tate and raise supplier demand for instant settlement with corporate customers. Top tip for modernisation


Take a look at the new generation of API-led payment platforms that allow you to integrate payments into your own back-office systems. And take advantage of the increasing payment options that will emerge off the back of initiatives such as Open Banking.


102 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019


BENJAMIN PARK, SENIOR DIRECTOR PROCUREMENT & TRAVEL, PAREXEL INTERNATIONAL Corporate payments should be in- visible to the traveller. All they need to do is book their trip. Payment can be created on the spot on their phone and centrally billed. Virtual credit cards make this possible. When it comes to expensing, the


expense report writes itself. The traveller simply becomes a reviewer, with the tool providing insights to enhance behaviour. The expense system will be voice-controlled, asking questions if it needs input from the employee. Payments will evolve as the EU


hopefully harmonises commercial payments with no variation by country, and all tax laws on travel allowances are logically aligned regionally, and are not subject to national decisions. What the experts say “I think Benjamin has been looking at our roadmap,” reckons Darrin Grafton of Serko. “When you can capture the booking of the entire journey from A to Z, there is no need for expense to exist as a process in travel – it just becomes a reconcilia- tion process.”


GEERT BRUYNINCKX, GLOBAL LEAD BUYER, MEANS OF PAYMENT & TRAVEL AGENCIES, CAPGEMINI I would like to see truly integrated and touchless payment and expense systems, which don’t exist today. Every step of handling cardholders should be paperless from induction when they join to offboarding when they leave the company. I would also like to see policy control built into the payment process so that non-compliant transactions are flagged up at time of purchase, encouraging the trav- eller to think again. Fraud detection systems need to become much more powerful, too. For our travellers, the dream is a payment solution, with limited or


no personal liability, that is accepted everywhere so only one payment method is needed. I expect virtual cards on mobile phones to become the main way we pay. Plastic cards will only last another five years or so. Expenses will also become easier.


Today, card transaction details are automatically uploaded to expense reports, so why aren’t receipts auto- matically forwarded? There should be no need to photograph a receipt. Payment will also be invisibly inte- grated into all booking apps. What the experts say “A drive to integrate policy control at point of sale as part of the payment process will come to fruition,” ventures Visa’s Clive Cornelius. However, Richard Warren of First- Partner/The Human Chain cautions that while “much of this is techni- cally possible, enabled by open APIs and much more sophisticated risk management systems, the challenge will be how quickly intermediaries and suppliers can update legacy infrastructure”.


MARTIN STEVENS, SENIOR MANAGER, GLOBAL PROCUREMENT, RELX I would insist that all merchants had to provide Level 3 card data for all transactions in a consistent manner. Then there would be no need for paper receipts as everything would be itemised. What the experts say According to Roberto Da Re, founder of Travel Ledger Alliance, the quest for fully itemised transaction information, known as Level 3 or folio data, is held back by outdated point-of-sale technology generating limited or inconsistent data. However, there is cause for opti- mism. “In Europe, one opportunity is the mandatory electronic filing of e-invoices for government pro- curement, now extending to all B2B transactions as a tax evasion preven- tion mechanism or sales tax filing. There is an opportunity to introduce Level 3 data hand-off capabilities on the back of those changes.”


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