2. Learning Objectives
⢠Factors contributing to high expense report processing costs
⢠Top expense management pressures, pain points and areas of opportunity
⢠Annual budget and benchmark spending by category for T&E expenses
⢠Finance professionalsâ must-have expense reporting features for 2017
⢠How automation helps to eliminate inefficiency and control costs
Attending this event will help you understand:
3. Webinar notes
⢠Todayâs event will be recorded and all attendees will be kept in listen-
only mode to eliminate excessive background noise.
⢠Links to todayâs presentation and the recording of this webinar will be
sent out to all attendees within 24 hours of the event.
⢠Please ask questions on todayâs topic via the âQuestionsâ box in your
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best to get to your questions during the Q&A/panel discussion at the
end of the event. If we do not get to your question, we will follow up
with you directly.
4. 360 Thought Leadership Consulting helps companies define
and unlock the strategic value of their thought leadership
programs. Formerly, Ernie served as Vice President,
Educational Programs for Proformative, as the Director of
Treasury Services and as a Director of the Corporate
Treasurers Council for the Association for Financial
Professionals.
Ernie Humphrey
Chief Executive Officer
Featured Speaker
5. ⢠Industry-leading, first fully automated travel and expense
management system
⢠64 languages, 140+ currencies, clients in 80 countries
⢠#1 highest rated expense management software for user
satisfaction on G2 Crowd
⢠PC Magazine Editorsâ Choice for best expense management
software of 2016
⢠Processing nearly 40 million expenses and receipts valued
at $10+ billion in 2016
About Certify
6. Certify Annual Trends Study 2017
600+ accounting professionals from outside
the Certify customer base:
7. T&E Spending by U.S. Companies
1. Global Business Travel Association 2016
$293.1b
2017 travel and entertainment
spending by U.S. companies
+ 3.8%
from the
previous year
8. Business Investment in T&E
6-12%
total annual budget
for T&E expenses
(Aberdeen Group 2014)
PayStream Advisors 2016
Company Revenue Annual Spend
Under $100MM $700,000
$100MM to $500MM $1,500,000
$501MM to $2b $7,400,000
$2b and above $58,000,000
9. T&E spending ranks as the 2nd
most difficult operating expense
category to control
Forrester Research 2014
10. Polling Question 1
a) Meals
b) Mileage
c) Airfare
d) Not sure
As a percent of total spending, what was your
companyâs largest expense category in 2016?
15. www.gsa.gov, accessed 1/30/17
2017 U.S. GSA Per Diem Rates
GSA Lodging, Meals & Incidentals for San Francisco, CA
Lodging (per night) Breakfast Lunch Dinner
$267 $17 $18 $31
Incidental -- $5 $5 $5
16. Certify Annual Travel & Expense Management Survey 2016
Budgeting & Category Spending Caps
We do not have expense
category limits
26%
Based on internal
historical spending
23%
Follow U.S. GSA per
rate guidelines
23%
Determined by
annual budgeting
process
21%
Other
7%
18. Expense Reporting Inefficiencies
Expense Reporting Around the World: Practices, Pain Points, and Productivity, GBTA, 2015
up to
minutes to complete
one expense report
minutes to correct
expense reports
errors
average number
of reports with
errors
23 15-22
22%
19. Print spreadsheets,
tape or staple receipts
and make copies
Enter expenses in Excel with
category, vendor, dates, etc.
And then ⌠waitGather receipts,
itineraries and write down
non-receipt items
Sign report/date
report and present
or mail to manager
Employees
Manual Expense Reporting Process
AccountantsManagers
20. Check expenses for
receipts, review for out-
of-policy items, etc.
Receive reports for all
employees at different times
during the month/quarter
If errors, return report to
employee to start over;
wait for resubmission Sign/approve reports
and route to the next
manager or to AP
Employees AccountantsManagers
Manual Expense Reporting Process
21. Manually enter data
from accounting
software to payroll for
reimbursementManually enter
expense data into
accounting software
Check for receipts,
manager approvals,
out-of-policy items, etc.
Receive reports for all
employees at different
times of the month/quarter
Match receipts with line-
items, verify all charges,
dates and vendors
Employees AccountantsManagers
Manual Expense Reporting Process
22. Leading frustrations for T&E program administrators:
Top Expense Management Pain Points
2015 2016 2017
Employees losing paper receipts/submitting without receipts 33% 50% 52%
Employees failure to submit reports on time 39% 45% 51%
Time it takes to reconcile, review and approve reports 38% 38% 36%
Reviewing for policy violations 20% 30% 28%
Errors on expense reports (incorrect codes, amounts, etc.) 23% 28% 26%
Certify Annual Expense Management Trends Report 2017
23. Top T&E Pressures to Improve in 2017
36% Need to reduce expense processing costs
31% Lack of control over T&E spending
31% Poor visibility into travel/expense data
21% Frequent non-complaint travel/expenses
20% Lengthy reimbursement times
Certify Annual Expense Management Trends Report 2017
24. Polling Question 2
a) Reducing process and workflow inefficiencies
b) Tighter controls for employee T&E spending
c) Lowering expense report processing costs
d) Increasing travel policy compliance
What is your organizationâs top area for
T&E improvement in the year ahead?
25. Cost to Process a Single Expense Report
$6.85
fully automated
$17.31
semi-automated
$26.63
manual process
PayStream Advisors 2016
31%
16%
9%
44%
Under $7 per report $10â$20 per report
$25 or more per report We do not track these costs
Certify Annual Expense Management Trends Report 2017
26. T&E Policy Compliance
79%of all companies report
having a written
T&E policy in place
75%manually review each
expense report report
for policy violations
Certify Annual Expense Management Trends Report 2017
27. An estimated 20% of a total T&E
spend is considered out of policy
for the average company
Aberdeen Group 2012
28. 7%
39%
41%
15%
26%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
T&E policy is not
enforced
Employee is responsible Manager manually
review each expense
Manager manually
review, checking only
high value expenses
T&E system
automatically flags out-
of-policy violations
Policy Enforcement Practices (all companies)
Certify Annual Expense Management Trends Report 2017
32. Polling Question 3
a) Paper-based/spreadsheets
b) ERP system (Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, etc.)
c) Web-based expense software (Certify, Concur, etc.)
d) Not applicable
How does your organization currently
manage T&E expense reporting?
33. The #1 reason companies turn to
automation: simplifying expense
reporting process for employees
and managers (59%)
Certify Annual Expense Management Trends Report 2017
34. 27%
27%
30%
40%
59%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Reimburse employees faster
Improve employee compliance rates to corporate
policy
Gain reporting and analytics around T&E spend
Provide system accessibly from anywhere
(online, mobile)
Simplify process for employees and managers
Driving Force Behind T&E Automation
Certify Annual Travel & Expense Management Survey 2017
35. Whoâs Turning to T&E Automation?
27%of all companies
planning to make the
switch will do so in the
next 12 months
Certify Annual Travel & Expense Management Survey 2017
Organizations planning to
switch systems or currently
in the process of evaluating vendors
for a new automated system:
36. How does T&E automation
eliminate inefficiencies and
help control spending?
37. Must-Have Expense Reporting Features
Automation: Expense report creation, workflow process and
approvals, direct credit card feeds
Mobile Applications: Smartphone-enabled receipt image
capture, mobile report creation/approval, and policy tools
Compliance: Duplicate receipts/expenses, category spending
limits, automatic notification of violations
Integration: Accounting software, general ledger, HRIS, CRM,
ERP, ACH direct deposit
Reporting: Greater visibility into process and spending by
category, department, employee, etc.
Certify Annual Travel & Expense Management Survey 2017
38. Mobile Makes T&E Easy for Employees
⢠Optical character recognition/auto-fill: snap photos
of receipts, automatically parse data into reports
⢠Mobile report creation: build expense reports from
the road as receipts are captured and saved
⢠Remote approvals: managers can review and
approve reports from any location to reduce delays
Top features for mobile T&E reporting:
Aberdeen Group 2014
90% best-in-class companies have remote expense
management capabilities via mobile app
2016
39. 97% of business travelers carry at
least one mobile device; 80% used
their smartphone to plan or book
corporate travel in 2014
Expedia/Egencia Mobile Index 2014
40. Control Spending Before Itâs Expensed
Pre-Trip Approval:
Requires manager authorization prior
to booking; configurable by employee,
policy specifics, etc.
Lowest Logical Fare:
Automatically identifies best available
rates for proposed itinerary (and only
best available rates)
$
41. Companies that track and apply
unused tickets can save 5-8% of
total annual travel budget
2015 GBTA Ancillary Fee Handbook
42. Automate Policy Enforcement
⢠Set hard/soft policy controls: spending caps, report
requirements (i.e. meal attendees), vendor preference
⢠Eliminate duplicate receipts/expenses: automatically
identify duplicate receipts, flag out-of-policy expenses
⢠Manage expense reporting on time: automatic report
build reports, employees/manager notifications
Instant policy check via the mobile
expense reporting app
43. Building company travel policy into
T&E expense reporting software has
been shown to improve compliance
rates as much as 44%
Aberdeen Group 2013
44. Integrate Systems, Maximize Efficiency
⢠Accounting systems: automate key accounting
functions and streamline workflow
⢠Corporate credit cards: direct control over
employee spending, faster reconciliation
⢠Corporate systems: reduce data entry and errors
across multiple redundant systems
⢠ACH reimbursement: direct deposit for more
efficient reimbursement, simplified accounting
45. Companies with an integrated T&E
solution experience 64% fewer
instances of reimbursement errors
Aberdeen Group 2014
46. Reporting Visibility Delivers Control
Workflow: monitor people and process, approval
paths, identify delays and other roadblocks
Compliance: review processed and in-progress reports,
policy violations, fraudulent behavior
Spending: analyze by expense category,
mileage, department, employee, and more
47. Improving visibility into spend is a
driving force behind the switch to
automation for 30% of companies
Certify Annual Expense Management Trends Report 2017
48. Closing Thoughts
⢠Setting the Foundation for Effective T&E Expense Management
⢠Review your companyâs T&E policies; if you do not have them, create them
⢠Improve the travel IQ of employees and take measures to enforce policies
⢠Arm travelers with better technologies to simplify expense reporting
⢠Automate key components of the expense management process
⢠Benchmark company T&E spending regularly
⢠Leverage analytics to improve intelligence and data
Setting the Foundation for Effective T&E Expense Management
These are the inefficiencies. Now letâs look at some the root causes, and later in the presentation will discuss how to mitigate and/or eliminate T&E expense management pain points
The right technology can be a vital in mitigating the T&E pain points that are amplified and in some caused by manual processes and procedures. Letâs take a look at the technology companies are currently using to manage T&E and trends in the systems being used by companies of all sizes.
Comment about ERP and Home Grown systems and the inherent inefficiencies each bring. Companies deserve a best in breed solution designed specifically to address the uniqe challenges of managing T&E expenses.
Now letâs take a deeper dive into why companies are turning to T7E automation and what features in T&E expense management solution drive the ROI for investing in T&E expense management technology.
