Is your company’s Travel and Expense process fully automated?  If not, your company is missing out on potential savings by driving travel and expense compliance and reining in rogue T&E spend.  If your company isn’t automating, the good news is that it’s not in the minority yet; however, Travel and Expense Management (TEM) solutions are on the rise. Survey results reveal that over one-third (36 percent) of survey respondents report that their T&E process is fully automated and is a single/integrated system, up 4 percent from 2012.

In an effort to gain insights and current trends in TEM solutions, PayStream conducted an in-depth survey in Q1 2013, of over 200 accounts payable and finance professionals at U.S. based enterprises.  Key survey findings include:

• Companies continue to increase the amount of money they spend on T&E.  Fifty-eight percent of survey respondents report their T&E spend increased over the last three years.
• The inability to enforce corporate travel policies (43 percent) ranks as the number one challenge that organizations face in the expense management process.
• Automated solutions ranks as the number one expense report submission method (53 percent).  Nearly one-third (32 percent) of survey respondents are still utilizing inter-office mail.
• Fewer paper receipts are mailed to the AP department for expense receipt submission (45 percent, down 3 percent from 2012).
• Direct deposit to employee bank accounts ranks as the number one expense reimbursement method – 55 percent.
• Over half of survey respondents (52 percent) are required to submit a receipt for all expenses.
• Over one-third (36 percent) of survey respondents report their companies are fully automated and use a single/integrated TEM system.
• The belief that current TEM processes work (27 percent) is the number on reason organizations have not automated the T&E process.
• Forty-four percent of survey respondents are currently using a best-of-breed T&E provider and another 12 percent are planning to in the next 6 months.
• Reporting and analysis capabilities are the most widely used feature of TEM solutions – 74 percent.
• The biggest benefit achieved through automating the T&E process is improved visibility over spend – 56 percent.

Every business trip starts with planning and booking, and ends once all business travel expenses are reimbursed.  The intricate details that occur between planning and reimbursement present an opportunity for companies to enforce compliance of travel and expense policies in order to maximize savings.  Travel is one of the highest single expenditures for companies, which is why it’s one of the largest opportunities for savings.  Travel and Expense Management (TEM) solutions work to streamline the entire process, providing an end-to-end solution from pre-trip approval and online booking to travel receipt capture and expense reimbursements, while ensuring corporate travel compliance is strictly adhered to.

The 2013 Travel and Expense Management Benchmark report was underwritten in part by Chrome River, Concur, Coupa and SAP. Read an abstract of the report HERE or LOGIN and download the entire report for free.

 

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