The article emphasizes the importance of recognizing accounts payable (AP) teams and offers various ways to show appreciation, such as providing automation tools, investing in career development, and offering leadership opportunities. Automating AP processes improves efficiency, reduces errors, and frees time for more valuable work.
SAP Concur blog states finance leaders can drive growth by providing real-time visibility, coaching on budgets, managing cash flow, and freeing finance staff. However, most finance departments still work manually, spending 60% to 70% of time gathering information. Without visibility and controls over discretionary spending like travel, expenses, and invoiced purchases, costs can spiral and fraud can occur. IT leaders can support intelligent finance by implementing automation that integrates travel, expense, and invoice management.
SAP Concur article notes that hybrid work accelerates digitalization needs, but manual processes and 'finance hacks' increase risk. 47% of finance and IT leaders agree remote work highlighted inefficient processes. Automated spend management reduces expense report time by 43%, increases policy compliance by 32%, reduces lost receipts by 43%, and reduces invoice processing time by 68%.
A SAP Concur blog post explores industry benchmarks for accounts payable efficiency, noting that delayed payments can lead to finance charges, poor vendor relations, credit rating downgrades, and supply chain disruptions, while paying too early impacts cash flow. It introduces the 'time-to-pay' metric and recommends keeping overall time-to-pay between two days to approve and three days to pay. It also lists best practices including configuring audit rules, integrating card feeds, automating receipt capture, and automating payment processes.
SAP Concur article outlines seven stages of business growth, from startup to international expansion, and references the Ansoff Matrix's four growth strategies. It emphasizes that manual processes become inefficient as businesses grow, and automated invoice management can help save money, improve efficiency, and support scaling.
SAP Concur blog highlights that increasing employee-initiated spend channels complicate compliance and fraud risks. ACFE data shows asset misappropriation occurs in over 86% of occupational fraud cases with a median loss of $100,000, while financial statement fraud accounts for 10% of cases but a median loss of $954,000. Travel and expense is a major fraud area, with schemes including mileage padding, fake expenses, and unused airline tickets. Proactive data monitoring can reduce fraud losses by 33%.
SAP Concur case study shows a U.S. state accounting office transformed its paper-based reimbursement process into an automated, integrated travel and spend management system using Concur Travel and Concur Expense. The state's 70,000 employees benefit from mobile receipt upload, automatic mileage reimbursement, and automatic per diem calculation. 86% of users found approving reports easy, with approval taking no more than three days. The state also gained greater visibility into hotel spend through enhanced reporting, supporting more informed negotiation decisions.
SAP Concur published an article noting that faculty and staff at colleges and universities are spending more of their institution's money across more spend categories and using more payment methods than ever before. For finance departments still struggling with manual processes, accurately tracking spending is challenging. The article recommends that institutions adopt modern spend management solutions to increase visibility, prevent duplicate payments, flag unusual transactions, and take advantage of discounted supplier rates. It also outlines critical steps such as automating all spending, embracing an open strategy, strategically managing spending, and reviewing spending.
A SAP Concur blog post discusses the importance of employee happiness amid the pandemic and Great Resignation, arguing that happiness breeds engagement, which in turn affects loyalty, productivity and profits. It says the issue is not money but frustrating, menial day-to-day tasks, especially travel and expense processes such as keeping paper receipts, filling out expense reports, and booking on a legacy travel program only to find the purchase falls outside a corporate rule they had never heard of. The post lists common employee complaints and suggests improving the experience with apps that automatically build expense reports, replace paper receipts with digital records, provide location-…
A SAP Concur blog post states that a typical organization loses about 5% of annual revenue to fraud each year, and employee expenses, especially travel, are both a large budget category and an opportunity for fraudulent claims. It recommends a corporate credit card program to tighten controls, with credit and transaction limits plus merchant and location controls, and data flowing directly to the company for monitoring suspicious spend. It also suggests integrating corporate cards with automated cloud-based expense solutions for visibility and reporting data.
A SAP Concur blog post highlights that AspireHR, an SAP Gold Partner, is helping State, Local, and Education (SLED) agencies in North America kickstart digital transformation with SAP Concur's automated, cloud-based expense management solutions. The article notes that with remote work as the new norm, SLED organizations face pressure to improve efficiency, eliminate manual processes, and make decisions based on complete and accurate data. SAP Concur can accelerate approvals and reimbursements, streamline workflows, enforce spending policies, eliminate manual processes and lost receipts, and enhance productivity and employee experience.
A SAP Concur blog post outlines six ways companies can save money by tapping into business expense data: avoiding emergency borrowing, negotiating better rates with commonly used suppliers, preventing rogue spending, preparing audits with ease and reclaiming VAT effectively, making cost-effective strategic decisions, and enjoying efficiency savings. The post emphasizes that accurate, actionable data from automated expense, travel, and invoice systems helps identify spend patterns, anomalies, and savings opportunities.
A SAP Concur blog post discusses the benefits of a cost-conscious spend management strategy for SMBs during growth. Citing an Oxford Economics survey of 500 decision makers at expanding companies, including 150 classified as 'cost-conscious' SMBs, it reports cost-conscious SMBs are more likely to spend time on cash flow and spending management (74% vs 45%), expense report processing (67% vs 55%), growth strategy alignment (70% vs 38%), FP&A (71% vs 55%), IT collaboration (70% vs 38%), and payroll (57% vs 41%). After expansion, cost-conscious SMBs report fewer administrative issues such as invoice reconciliation (10% vs 59%), onboarding and training (11% vs 48%), digital and cybersecurity ma…
SAP Concur blog cites a Forrester survey of nearly 400 decision makers: less than 45% were happy with travel and expense solution ease of use, and only 37% with invoicing. Automation, cloud, and mobile access improve efficiency; one company eliminated about 42% of human-engaged tasks and gained 46% efficiency.
A survey by SAP Concur and Kelton Global shows public sector organizations lose over 3,000 hours monthly processing expense reports and invoices manually, with higher education losing over 2,000 hours. The survey of 300 financial decision makers found about two-thirds still use at least partially manual systems. Manual systems add five hours per expense report and two hours per invoice. About one-third reported increased inaccurate submissions, and one-fourth had reported incorrect budget data due to errors. Automation improves efficiency and accuracy.
The article outlines strategies to improve business cash flow, including understanding money movement, cutting unnecessary costs, and streamlining payment processes. It recommends invoicing promptly, offering discounts for prompt payment, asking for deposits, controlling travel and expense spend, and using automation tools like Concur TripLink and Concur Expense to get expenses into the system faster, improving visibility and optimizing cash flow.
A SAP Concur blog post advises companies to establish a solid spend management process before incorporating artificial intelligence (AI). It offers four steps: understand the importance of spend management, get a 30,000-foot view of current processes, update processes with AI in mind, and get help from experts. SAP Concur CFO Jason Woods emphasizes that a spend management plan is critical to a company's financial health, regardless of industry or size.
The pandemic has brought new spending categories and compliance challenges to higher education. 42% of finance and admin leaders struggle with new spending categories, and 41% are unsure how to manage unexpected expenses. CARES Act funding comes with compliance requirements; automated expense and invoice management provides real-time visibility and ensures compliance.
SAP Concur's blog notes that state and local governments face declining tax revenues and remote-work pressures during the pandemic, with manual invoice processes exacerbating difficulties. An IDC white paper found that organizations using Concur Invoice achieved average annual benefits of $662,700 ($3,258 per 1,000 invoices) and a three-year ROI of 634%.
A SAP Concur blog post argues that automation alone does not capture the full value of spend management technology, and customers should focus on expense processing cycle efficiency from report submission and approval to payment. It cites IDC research finding accounts payable staff were 30% more efficient and audit staff 28% more efficient with an optimized SAP Concur solution. It also says optimization improves total spend visibility, increases corporate card rebates and reduces employee late fees.
This SAP Concur blog post emphasizes that even small businesses with fewer than 20 employees benefit significantly from having a formal employee expense policy. It cites that moving from manual to automated, cloud-based solutions can increase process efficiency by 42%. The policy should clearly outline rules, responsibilities, and expectations, and be reviewed regularly. Automation tools like Concur Expense streamline submissions and approvals, enhancing compliance and reducing risk.
A Vanson Bourne study shows 96% of finance leaders believe their team will become more important in driving growth strategy. Finance and IT leaders must collaborate, using integrated spend management solutions to automate manual tasks and control discretionary spending, freeing finance staff to focus on growth. AMI-Partners notes 64% of businesses consider reducing operating expenses a strategic goal.
This SAP Concur article offers three tech tips for school districts: prioritize resiliency, empower educators, and use anti-fraud technology. With nearly $300 billion in federal relief, districts must ensure transparent use of funds. Automating financial processes provides real-time cash flow views, and anti-fraud tech prevents misuse. SAP Concur expense and invoice tools help districts integrate data and assess budgets in real time.
A podcast series by SAP Concur in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal's Custom Studios explores how SMBs can gain a clear view of spend by automating travel, expense, and invoice management. Automation can help optimize cash flow, speed up expense approvals and reimbursements, and save costs through data insights. The five-part series aims to uncover how companies drive growth through spend management innovation.
Citing an AMI-Partners survey, SAP Concur says SMBs that keep managing travel, expenses, and vendor invoices with spreadsheets or pen and paper lose time and money to inefficient processes, a problem that becomes clearer beyond 50 employees. The survey found SMBs using T&E automation save over US$31,000 per year, with Concur Expense users saving an average of $40,000; firms adopting vendor invoice management saved nearly $34,000 annually, and Concur Invoice users saved over $42,000.
SAP Concur podcast features Edward Curtis and Jim Coufal from TCG Consulting discussing revamping expense reporting systems post-pandemic. Topics include challenges with miscellaneous expense classification, mixing business and personal travel, proactive vs reactive expense reporting, and the unsustainability of manual processes in the future work environment. Coufal suggests balancing the number of expense types with simplicity and emphasizes there is no right or wrong answer—policies should fit organizational culture, employees, and industry.
The SAP Concur blog highlights a study by Oxford Economics and SAP Concur that surveyed 500 finance and IT executives worldwide, 350 of whom came from companies with 1,000 or more employees. The study found that large global enterprises often struggle harder than smaller companies with expansion challenges, as scale and complexity make more data, invoices, and administration difficult to handle. It identifies visibility into spending and attention to cash flow as pillars of successful growth, and argues that investing early in digital finance transformation to automate spend management makes sense.
SAP Concur's blog notes that school districts using paper spreadsheets or hybrid systems to manage spending lack budget visibility, potentially leading to squandered resources, overworked personnel, and non-compliance. Automated systems can shorten reimbursement cycles, simplify compliance reporting, reduce fraud and waste, and help districts allocate resources more strategically.
The article notes that travel and expense management are often separate, leading to poor spend visibility. Integrating cloud platforms streamlines processes, reduces manual entry, increases accuracy, saves time and money, and embeds policy rules. Automation enables better cost control, duty of care compliance, and spend visibility.
A SAP Concur blog post notes that cloud technology brings intelligence and automation to small and midsize companies, and T&E automation saves time, cuts costs, and supports expansion. According to AMI Partners, 76% of firms that automated T&E tools use cloud solutions, and finance teams see an average 15% time savings. The article highlights integration, mobility, and intelligence as key adoption drivers, and notes six in ten employees have filed at least one incorrect expense report.
IDC Senior Research Analyst Kevin Permenter writes in a SAP Concur blog post that financial services firms are always looking to reduce costs and gain efficiencies, and that T&E software end users increasingly look to the software itself as a place to save time. Users want a more intuitive and conversational experience. The post lists elements of a stronger user experience: a simpler/cleaner interface, mobility, multidevice support, conversational UI, strong customer support, and automation/intelligence. It argues that streamlining the user experience reduces wasted time for travel departments and increases employee engagement with the application.
SAP Concur published a customer case study on how Electrolux increased VAT recovery using Concur Expense and Taxback International. Electrolux uses Concur Expense in 42 countries with roughly 9,000 business travelers. Through Taxback International analysis, Electrolux found it was only reclaiming about 8% of VAT paid, around €30,000. After activating the app, first-year VAT recovery tripled to nearly €100,000, and current annual recovery is approaching €400,000.
SAP Concur blog post highlights that state and local governments face inefficiencies, errors, and risks from manual AP processes during the pandemic. Surveys show 68% of decision makers say unexpected expenses and new spending categories are major challenges to remote work, and 67% have taken on three or more additional responsibilities. The article recommends automated invoice and expense processing to reduce fraud risk, errors, and late payments.
A study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SAP Concur found that 60% of companies face issues with manual processes and timeliness due to their current tools. Outdated legacy technology is a core cause of inefficient expense, travel, and invoice management. Additionally, there is a lack of alignment between IT and finance: 61% of firms say IT focuses more on usability and employee experience, while 64% say finance focuses more on reducing spending. A unified automation strategy improves satisfaction: 75% of companies with a unified strategy reported high satisfaction with travel and expense tools, compared to just 35% without.
A SAP Concur blog post cites a Wakefield Research survey of 350 higher education finance and administration staff, highlighting remote-work software gaps, budget tightening, and compliance pressure at colleges and universities during the pandemic. Only 16% of staff can continue working remotely without hurting department productivity; 60% are prepared to reduce pay or cut staff to offset budget shortfalls; and 71% are concerned about complying with regulations due to sustained remote work. 99% of decision-makers agreed certain investments must be made, and 84% want funding for technology that integrates systems, devices, and spend data.
A SAP Concur blog post introduces the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in travel, expense, and invoice management. It mentions that AI and ML can standardize policies, eliminate paper receipts, project travel budgets, and improve employee satisfaction. SAP Concur products like ExpenseIt use OCR and ML to extract receipt information, Concur Detect uses AI to audit expenses, and Concur Locate uses ML to locate employees for Duty of Care.
A SAP Concur blog post shared insights from a webinar featuring three U.S. small business finance professionals discussing their experiences implementing SAP Concur. The main takeaway was that implementation should prioritize people and team dynamics over the system itself. One panelist emphasized evaluating team strengths and adjusting roles before implementation. Another noted that Concur Invoice helped save on office space costs, improved employee satisfaction, and sped up supplier payments. A third advised treating SAP Concur as an investment rather than an expense and leveraging its customizability to streamline processes. SAP Concur research shows that after implementing expense and t…
SAP Concur article discusses AI and machine learning in expense management, partnering with The New York Times to explain automated expense reports. It notes AI can reduce manual entry errors by up to 66%, improving accuracy and compliance. For example, Cardinal Health saved up to 10,000 hours per month by automating expense reports. The article emphasizes complementary roles for humans and machines, with AI creating new efficiencies rather than unemployment.
This article explores how providing intuitive, mobile-first travel and expense management tools can improve employee compliance. It notes that when employees are given tools they like to use, they are more willing to follow corporate policies, while the company gains the spend data it needs.
This SAP Concur blog post guides businesses on justifying the investment in an automated expense management system. It poses questions about labor costs, data integrity, report generation time, visibility, opportunity costs, mobility, policy violation detection, cash flow, integration, and time savings. By evaluating these areas, companies can build a business case showing how automation improves efficiency, reduces errors, and yields long-term savings.