The article emphasizes the importance of collaboration between finance and travel teams, using integrated tools to improve spend visibility, ensure compliance, fulfill duty of care, and enhance employee experience. Automation reduces manual work and improves data accuracy.
A SAP Concur blog post cites a Vanson Bourne survey of 500 UK finance leaders on growth strategies amid Brexit. 96% of surveyed businesses plan to grow, and uncertainty is not seen as a barrier. The top five barriers for the business overall are IT/finance infrastructure (43%), staff productivity (41%), growing customer base (40%), profits for investment (39%), and cash flow (38%). Lack of efficiency in finance systems causes problems for 92% of finance leaders. 53% of travel booking processes, 45% of expense processes, and 38% of invoice processes are not automated. 67% of finance leaders are not confident their systems will scale. 98% say automation would benefit their organization, and 9…
A SAP Concur blog post by former Chief Revenue Officer Christal Bemont discusses how small business owners can balance work and life by automating financial processes. The post notes that automation eliminates tedious tasks, provides real-time spend visibility, and helps forecast the future. SAP Concur is sharing resources through National Small Business Week.
SAP Concur describes Concur Expense: integrating travel and expense in a single solution, employees can go from trip to expense report with one click. Smart matching combines credit card transactions, booked travel, and e-receipts; built-in audit rules instantly highlight exceptions; finance leaders get a unified view of travel and expense spend. Hotel e-receipts are automatically itemized, and the system notifies employees of incomplete entries. Employees can view, add, and submit expense reports via mobile, and managers can approve on the go. Concur Expense analytics dashboards provide spend views and travel KPIs. Tungsten Automation used reporting tools to reduce travel spend by 15% over…
The article emphasizes that partnering with TMCs is key to rebuilding corporate travel. TMCs offer insight into what's happening at airports, car rentals, and hotels, guidance on aligning internal teams, ramped-up automation, and help with unused tickets. TMCs also provide an insider's view into how remote work impacts travel, helping companies adjust policies.
A SAP Concur blog post suggests finance teams plan expense management improvements before year-end. It recommends reviewing expense management processes, categorizing changes into long-term and short-term goals, and prioritizing quick wins. It also advises saying goodbye to manual processes and choosing suitable automation tools like Concur Expense, noting that employees can complete expense reports 60% faster with online tools.
SAP Concur and The Wall Street Journal have collaborated on a podcast exploring how machine learning and AI automate the expense report process, including filling, approving, and compliance checks. The article mentions a company that deployed SAP Concur across 23 countries, reducing expense report review time from 10 hours a day to five minutes.
The article discusses how SMBs often rely on non-finance employees for credit card reconciliation, which becomes messy when multiple employees use multiple cards. Concur Expense and Concur Invoice can automate the entire credit card reconciliation process, importing transaction data from almost any source and automatically comparing it against card statements, receipts, and other internal data. This speeds up reconciliation, eliminates manual matching, and immediately spots errors, discrepancies, and unusual transactions.
A SAP Concur blog post outlines the hidden costs of a sluggish, manual expense process. Relying on paper and spreadsheets leads to back-and-forth communication among finance, employees, and managers, with every claim requiring manual validation and approval. Paper receipts get lost and manual data entry invites errors. Employees delay submissions due to tedium, hurting cash flow, and reimbursement averages nine days from approval. The post also notes that without automation, companies miss spend-analysis opportunities, while automated systems can reduce expense submission complications and errors by 36%.
A SAP Concur blog post emphasizes the importance of financial visibility, noting that without comprehensive reporting tools, there are gaps in spend visibility, especially in employee spend and accounts payable. It cites a 2017 Forrester survey of 378 global finance and IT leaders, showing only 38% of companies are very satisfied with their T&E reporting and analytical capabilities. Manual processes like spreadsheets are slow and error-prone. The article recommends automated cloud-based solutions to improve data accessibility, reduce data entry time, and cut reporting time from weeks to minutes. The same survey shows 38% of IT and finance decision makers cite increasing automation as a top…
A SAP Concur blog post discusses accounts payable challenges facing higher education institutions during the pandemic: declining enrollments, student refunds, campus closures, and paper invoice backlogs from remote work. It cites an IDC white paper reporting that organizations using Concur Invoice saw average annual benefits of $662,700 ($3,258 per 1,000 invoices) and a three-year ROI of 634%.
A SAP Concur blog post notes that SMB growth brings more employee spending and expense reports, while manual processes are inefficient and risky. Studies show automated travel and expense users save an average of US$30,000 annually, or about $600 per year per employee using the application, and $20 per expense report. The post recommends choosing cloud expense management solutions with automation, spend visibility, data consolidation, and scalability.
A SAP Concur blog post cites Gallup data that only 15% of full-time employees are highly engaged, while 85% are not engaged or actively disengaged. AMI-Partners research shows 93% of SMBs have employees who travel for work regularly, but only 21% use a dedicated travel and expense solution, and more than half lack well-defined travel and expense policies. The article says SAP Concur customers save on average US$23 per expense report.
A SAP Concur blog post argues that if corporate spend processes and policies have not adapted to remote-work realities, spend visibility will decline further. It recommends using corporate card data as the core of compliance management and adopting automated receipt capture, audit rules and flexible expense categories to address blind spots from personal-card payments, cash reimbursement and remote-work-related spend.
This SAP Concur blog post emphasizes the importance of automating accounts payable and expense processes to control stress. It notes that nearly half of all accountants work more than 13 extra days per year, and automation provides real-time spend visibility, improves operational efficiency, and promotes work-life balance. Through examples, it shows how automated solutions reduce errors, save time, and boost employee satisfaction.
A SAP Concur blog post notes that as manual financial tasks become automated, cloud-based expense management solutions are proliferating, and small businesses need to choose the right tools based on their situation. It suggests answering three questions to determine automation needs: whether employee fraud needs addressing, whether spend is managed reactively or proactively, and whether there is sufficient visibility into cash flow and expenses. Automated expense management systems capture and process expenses, improve audit efficiency, and spot discrepancies; mobile-enabled solutions allow employees to submit expenses on the road, providing near real-time spending data. The article also re…
A global survey of 1,500 finance executives by Oxford Economics reveals that over 90% of finance leaders consider big data, cloud, and security platforms essential for meeting their goals. The report emphasizes collaboration and automation for improving financial performance.
AMI Partners surveyed more than 400 financial decision makers at small and medium-sized businesses across five industries, identifying four common spend management pain points: 69% found manual expense, travel, and invoice processes inefficient and laborious; 60% struggled to track spending trends; 56% faced missing documentation; and more than half reported protracted approval and reimbursement cycles. The research found that businesses adopting automated expense, travel, and invoice management had the highest employee satisfaction, saved key roles hundreds of hours, and reduced costs by thousands of dollars per year.
A SAP Concur blog post discusses challenges facing city managers: they are stuck with paper receipts and Excel sheets, and manual spend processes lead to inefficiency and lack of visibility. It cites data: it takes an average of 26 minutes to manually complete one expense report; 31% of public sector managers say they still lack adequate visibility into expenses; a 2018 Kelton report found 73% of government financial decision-makers reported their organization struggled to remain compliant; a 2017 Mile IQ report found 34.5% of employees admitted to inflating mileage, with 76% saying they could do so because their organizations handled expenses manually; on average, 19% of expense reports an…
SAP Concur published a podcast conversation with Siegfried Krause, co-founder of neylux, a 2020 Partner Innovation Award winner, sharing how they helped a customer automate approval workflows. neylux implemented a passive approval model where employees enter data, Concur Audit performs compliance checks, and managers receive a summary page and PDF via email without active approval. The solution reduced the reimbursement cycle from two to three weeks to one week.
SAP Concur cites August 2018 Robert Walters research: six in ten UK CFOs expect skills shortages, and eight in ten expect increased workloads. Most in-demand finance skills are analysis (38%), business partnering (36%), and financial reporting (29%). 53% of employers consider ACA/ICAS the most important technical qualification. Demand for interim CFOs increased 69% in H1 2018. The article suggests interim solutions, automation, and improved perks.
An SAP Concur blog post states that in an uncertain business environment, automated spend management is crucial for companies to stay flexible and profitable. Citing an AMI Research survey, 59% of SMB financial decision-makers say automation improves spend visibility. The article recommends using mobile apps and automated workflows to approve invoices and manage expenses anytime, anywhere, and leveraging AI and machine learning for data accuracy, thereby enhancing compliance, controlling costs, and optimizing cash flow.
This SAP Concur blog post highlights that manual processes create blind spots in financial data, with 81% of finance leaders lacking complete visibility over T&E and invoice spend. Automation improves visibility, controls the second largest expenditure, speeds supplier payments, and ensures policy compliance. It cites SAP Concur processing nearly 124.6 million expense claims and 58.7 million travel bookings in 2017.
Gallup research shows organizations with exceptional employee experience see 17% higher productivity, 21% higher profitability, and 24% lower turnover. Deloitte reports 84% of leaders prioritize employee experience, but only 9% feel ready. Automating travel, expense, and invoice processes boosts engagement, productivity, and savings. Forrester recommends reframing expense management as an investment in employee experience and aligning finance, IT, and HR.
A SAP Concur blog post notes that if companies cannot fully capture employee expenses and invoice data, they risk making purchasing, budgeting, and forecasting decisions based on incomplete information. The article mentions that employees not in offices find it harder to follow spending protocols, and new spending categories like PPE, home office furniture, and internet connections add management complexity. It recommends automated solutions for spend visibility and offers six key spending questions for self-assessment.
The article recommends adopting online accounting, automated finance processes, digital distribution, supply chain optimization, cybersecurity, and IoT to improve productivity and resilience. These measures help navigate uncertain times.
SAP Concur blog notes 96% of businesses plan to grow, but manual AP processes can be a bottleneck. Finance teams spend 60% of time on day-to-day processes. 41% of finance leaders are concerned about staff productivity; 32% about turnover and low morale. Automation saves a five-person finance team 40 hours per week and $34,000 annually on average. More than two-thirds of finance leaders aren't completely confident their business is protected against fraud.
A SAP Concur blog post notes that many accounts payable processes appear automated but still rely on faxes, scanned images, and manual steps. It describes four common scenarios: centralized vs. decentralized capture, semi-automated approval workflows, ERP module limitations, and insufficient payment optimization. True AP automation should be entirely paperless, with all invoices received electronically and all communication around approvals or matching issues in a single system. The article recommends assessing automation levels and considering specialized solutions.
Taxback International, the first technology partner to integrate with SAP Concur to automate the entire VAT reclaim process, continues to innovate for efficiency, visibility, and regulatory compliance. The article highlights the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act limits on meals and entertainment deductions, post-Brexit uncertainty for UK VAT reclaim, and the EU's 2021 e-commerce VAT rules. Taxback International's cloud software adapts to changing rules, helping companies manage compliance risk and optimize reclaim.
SAP Concur lists five things AP teams didn't sign up for: tedious manual invoice processing, being overwhelmed by paper invoices, lacking authority to fix broken processes while being scapegoated, feeling ignored, and working weekends to approve invoices. The post states most SMBs have two to four AP professionals processing hundreds or thousands of paper invoices monthly. Manual processes cause difficulty tracking spending, incomplete documentation, duplicate data, poor cash flow visibility, and slow approvals. SAP Concur recommends invoice automation to cut processing time, free teams for spend analysis and cost-saving, and claims automation saves companies tens of thousands of dollars an…
A SAP Concur blog post notes that expense approval is both an administrative burden and a vital task. 5% of a typical organization's annual revenue is lost to fraud, and 10% of travelers have at least one duplicate expense averaging over $50. The article offers four tips: use automation to spot inconsistencies, train approvers, review the approval chain, and consider Concur Audit as a safety net. Placing automation at the heart of the approval process can reduce approver time and increase compliance confidence.
A SAP Concur blog post discusses the cost control and compliance pressures facing finance teams, as well as employee turnover risk. It notes that digital solutions such as automation, machine learning, AI, and ERP integration can improve employee experience and efficiency. Using SAP Concur solutions can reduce time to fill out an expense report by 43%, time to reimburse expenses by 50%, and increase employees following T&E policies by 32%. The post also poses five key questions to help finance leaders reimagine travel, invoice, and expense management.
SAP Concur article emphasizes the importance of automation and integration. Automation saves costs, but without integration with finance systems, efficiency is limited. SAP Concur offers pre-built connectors supporting various ERPs, automatically syncing data to reduce manual entry and errors.
SAP Concur states that according to the most recent global study on occupational fraud and abuse, the typical organization loses 5% of annual revenue to white-collar crimes. From 2018 to 2019, this included 2,504 fraud cases, 125 countries, $1.5 million average loss per case, and $3.6 billion total losses. ACFE President James D. Ratley says fraud rises during economic uncertainty. ACFE survey shows 55.4% of respondents said fraud levels increased in the past 12 months; nearly 60% of in-house CFEs reported layoffs, 35% of those companies eliminated some controls, and only 3.2% increased controls. SAP Concur recommends automated internal controls to supplement human oversight.
SAP Concur was ranked the #1 Leader in four of G2's Summer 2020 Grid Reports: Travel Management, Expense Management, Invoice Management, and Travel & Expense Management. More than 5,000 users provided reviews, with users especially appreciating compliance and expense automation features. G2 Director of Market Research Kara Kennedy said high market presence and strong user satisfaction ratings drove the top rankings.
SAP Concur published a blog post explaining how integrating accounts payable (AP) processes with enterprise ERP systems addresses three primary issues: siloed information, disparate systems, and error-prone manual processes. Citing an IDC report, the article notes that technologies like cloud, machine learning, and advanced analytics are transforming AP management, and positions SAP as a leader in worldwide cloud and SaaS ERP AR and AP applications. The integration enables near real-time data synchronization between SAP Concur and SAP systems with no manual interaction, improving visibility, reducing risk, and enhancing compliance.
A SAP Concur blog post states that business recovery requires accurate, real-time spending and budget data. A study found that 93% of global finance, IT, and operations executives agreed that maintaining organizational agility is the only way to navigate uncertainty, and 90% said a scalable, automated T&E management solution is key to controlling policy and protocol. The article emphasizes that digital and automated spend management can improve accuracy, control, and cost savings.
SAP Concur published an article recommending that businesses automate accounts payable invoice management to avoid cash-flow problems and achieve business growth. It cites a white paper by AMI-Partners in partnership with Concur, stating that automation tools enable businesses to save $1,100 for every 100 invoices and reduce invoice processing time by 16% a week. The article also uses baseball and toothpaste analogies to emphasize the importance of precisely understanding cash flow and controlling costs.
This SAP Concur blog post explores hidden costs in invoice processing. According to AIIM research, the average cost to process a single invoice is $12.90. A typical SMB processes 450 invoices per month with a duplication rate of 1.29%, and labor costs make up 62% of total AP costs. The article recommends reviewing AP systems, centralizing invoice submission, and adopting automation to reduce errors.
SAP Concur published a blog post discussing the financial risks and compliance issues of self-reported mileage reimbursement. The article notes that self-reported mileage relies on an honor system, making it prone to errors or exaggeration, which increases company costs and potential fraud. Without receipts, it is difficult to verify accuracy or ensure compliance with tax and regulatory requirements. The article recommends automated mileage tracking tools like Concur Drive to accurately capture distance and routes, reducing overstatement, improving audit readiness, and establishing a culture of compliance.