Companies have tried to reduce costs by looking at big-ticket expenses such as payroll and real-estate. After that, Travel & Expenses are the largest controllable expense. T&E has traditionally been viewed as a straightforward process not associated with risk, thus falling out of the ambit of controllable expenses. In recent times, this is changing due to the availability of tools that make it easier to gain visibility over company spend data.
Expense management has always been managed with an ERP solution, with workflows that bring expenses into the scrutiny of the finance team. Most of the solutions are a long way from being automated, with 35%* of companies still using paper and spreadsheets based workflows.
Other companies, however, have adopted the use of the right tools to bring in better efficiency and oversight to their process. This development, however, is not uniform across industries, however, as each vertical has adopted their own pace to catch up to the digital present. For Paystreams’ Travel and Expense Management in 2018 Report, they’ve collected over 300 responses from across organizations to throw some light on how different industries are utilizing expense management tools:
These T&E management solutions automate expense report management, along with providing travel booking support. The reasons that companies have adopted these tools in the first place is manifold, but there’s a cluster of common pain points that make them turn to expense automation tools. These numbers are uniform across industries, for the same survey size:
This extensive set of pain points need to be addressed in order to effect better cost savings and to build efficient processes. For example, the most common issue faced by companies is manually filling expense reports. This research shows that by eliminating manual expense reporting and travel itinerary booking, organizations are increasing efficiency, cost savings, employee productivity and their competitive edge within their markets.
How are companies hitting their goals?
Companies are leveraging expense analytics to make better decisions that reduce manual work so they can spend less time on expense management. The scope of how companies can save costs and time by hitting their T&E goals is a topic worthy of a deep report, and that’s what we have here.
To help companies achieve their T&E goals, Paystream has coupled Advisors’ survey data and market research and put this report together. It explores current trends for both expense management and travel booking, details features of leading TEM softwares and provides strategies for accomplishing TEM goals. It’s yours to read, and you can download it here.
*All data used in this article is from Paystream’s Travel and Expense Management in 2018 Report.
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