Expense management
have the flexibility to handle these or do you end up changing your business processes to account for the solution’s shortcomings?” asks General Manager EMEA for Chrome River, Nick Ludlow. “Is the user interface available in the native language of all of users and can the system handle the tax regulations in every market where you do business?” Further, does your chosen system work well on mobile devices, particularly where BYOD policies bring numerous platforms into the mix?
Spend analysis
American Express is seeing growing call for spend analysis tools to enable customers to better monitor and manage policy compliance, but data alone is not enough. “Companies are looking to their corporate card providers for consultancy, so they can best leverage the data to drive compliance and control,” says General Manager Global Client Group International, Fabienne Cauli. “The fact that we are seeing increasing card acceptance in areas such as taxis means that more and more aspects of travel can be booked, and monitored, as part of an expense management programme.” However, errant behaviour can derail compliance. “Fragmentation of spend across multiple providers is getting more acute as business travellers opt for suppliers in the sharing economy,” says Director of Barclaycard Commercial Payments, Maria Parpou. Recent research from Barclaycard highlighted further frustrations for travel managers, which include travellers using their personal
When automating expenses processes, organisations often miss the opportunity to implement best practice” cards for business travel expenses and booking trips via mobile apps, resulting in their employers getting data only when they submit expenses.
Difficult first steps
Change management is another problem for organisations when they introduce an online expense management system. “There is a distinct lack of readiness for the change required to automate the process and that will affect finance leaders as well as employees, who have to learn how to use a different tool,” says Senior Director Account Management for Concur, Natalie Gwilt. “That is often the hardest part because people who are used to stapling receipts to a piece of paper don’t want to change. It is easier for them but does not meet the needs of the business. And when automating processes, organisations often
miss the opportunity to implement best practice but instead try to shoehorn existing processes into the tool.”
Keeping it simple
Despite these problems, expense management systems do simplify the process. Concur recently launched Concur Travel and TripLink to the SME sector. Even without a TMC or self-booking tool, they can track spend through signing into TripLink and from there all costs automatically populate an expense report in Concur. Xpenditure started life as an expense management app and, last year, alongside booking tool iAlbatros, was acquired by Sodexo. The two have been combined to provide an integrated service, allowing users to generate an expense report and export it to formats ranging from PDF to accounting software such as Sage. American Express’s payment product, Business Travel Account, enables customers to manage travel expenses through a centralised account, putting everything in one place, while a reporting tool provides secure access to corporate card data. Barclaycard clients also have access to an online platform where they can interpret data from their card programme, all in one place. “There are widespread efforts to integrate payment data into expense management tools so it flows from card accounts into the platform and pre-populates expense reports,” says Maria Parpou. “Requests for this have skyrocketed in recent years.”
Virtually there
Walking plastic remains popular but virtual cards continue to grow in popularity. “I believe that combining virtual cards
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.com
Expense Management Feature_v2.indd 45
45
5/31/18 09:38 AM