Travel expense management in the cloud

It is true that virtual meetings have become an elementary part of business, especially in view of the increasingly international markets. But especially at the beginning of the collaboration with new customers and in work-intensive phases, personal, direct exchange is indispensable for business success.

Manual processes in the digital age

When it comes to travel expense reporting, the majority of companies still primarily use Excel or Word. The result: mountains of receipts and papers that have to be collected, sorted, pasted, scanned, checked and accounted for.

This effort costs time and money. According to studies, an accountant needs an average of 20 minutes of working time for the manual accounting of a business trip with an overnight stay and thus incurs process costs of around 53 euros.

Not to mention the effort the traveler has to put into preparing his or her statement. This makes travel expense reports one of the most time-consuming accounting tasks.

Due to missing receipts, transposed figures or incorrect information, around one in five travel expense reports also contains errors and has to be reworked. At 18 minutes on average, this takes almost as long as the actual settlement.

This results in process costs of around 47 euros per transaction. But that's not all: If original receipts for overnight stays, fuel or meals are missing, employees have to issue their own receipts. This happens above all to employees who travel a lot.

This situation costs companies dearly. After all, self-bills are not proper invoices - an input tax deduction may not be claimed.

Solution:

Integrated travel expense management via the cloud. Cloud solutions are recommended for companies that want to professionalize their travel expense management and make it more efficient. They can get a reliable grip on direct and indirect costs and improve the overall result.

The SAP Concur Travel and Concur Expense tools are suitable for booking and invoicing business trips. With Concur Travel, the organization of trips can be handled quickly and easily via a central travel card.

On the other hand, the software enables smooth posting of travel expenses and allocation of cost centers. With Concur Expense, there is the additional option of running settlements and assigning costs to work orders.

Advantages

What are the benefits of using systems like Concur Travel and Concur Expense? They create an overview of all information and processes: from the request to the planning and approval to the billing of the business trip - using modern cloud tools.

Integration is simple: the cloud solutions can be easily linked to existing ERP, HR and accounting systems with little effort.

Another advantage is the time saved in finance and accounting thanks to automated processes without manual checking of receipts and invoices. By accessing travel requests or billing forms via the Internet or mobile apps: receipts can be submitted, approved and processed in real time.

Workflows and check routines ensure that all process steps are carried out cleanly and in a timely manner. A holistic overview of credit card statements, accommodation costs and creditor data is made possible and clear dashboards, reporting and analysis tools ensure better travel cost control. Cloud solutions are quick and easy to implement and application capabilities can be scaled as needed.