Tuesday 17th November, 2015

According to a new study, by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Foundation and HRS Global Hotel Solutions, each year companies around the globe, spend on average, approximately half a million dollars and nearly 3,000 hours correcting errors in expense reports.

The average cost to process an expense report for a single night hotel stay is $58 (£38), however 19 percent of expense reports contain errors or missing information costing an additional $58 and 18 minutes to correct each expense report.

The global expense reporting study found, while the costs for processing expense reports present the greatest challenge to company time and money, travel buyers identified the beginning steps of preparing an expense report as the most troublesome including setting up the expense report (24 percent), entering the data (33 percent) and attaching receipts (37 percent).

70 percent travel buyers currently process expense reports internally using third-party software, while 19 percent process expense reports internally without the help of third-party software and four percent outsource this process entirely. Half of travel buyers at companies internally processing expense reports without third-party software find setting up expense reports (49 percent), entering the data (54 percent) and attaching receipts (55 percent) as a major pain point.

Joseph Bates, GBTA Foundation Vice President of Research. "With the rapid introduction of new financial products in the business travel industry, companies should continually evaluate their existing practices and business needs to ensure they are working as efficiently and cost-consciously as possible."

"Corporates are often focused solely on the direct costs, for example the price for flights, accommodation or ground transportation. However optimising the expense reporting process offers a huge potential for savings. Key is an automated and digital process, which eliminates the need for manual data entries or the attachment of paper receipts," explains Tobias Ragge, CEO of HRS.