A SAP Concur blog post discusses challenges U.S. state and local governments face in expense management, including outdated systems, manual processes, and compliance risks. Citing Wakefield Research data, it notes 29% of industry leaders use outdated T&E solutions and 30% use outdated accounts payable solutions. It recommends automated systems to improve transparency, security, and efficiency.
SAP Concur published an article noting that U.S. state and local governments face pressures including tight budgets, workforce shortages, and increased scrutiny of public spending, yet many government organizations still rely on manual or outdated expense processes. Paper receipts, spreadsheets, disconnected systems, and lengthy approval chains slow operations and reduce spending visibility. The article identifies three areas where expense automation delivers immediate value: spend visibility and budget oversight, stronger compliance and audit readiness, and better employee experience. Modern expense management solutions can help agencies strengthen accuracy, transparency, and accountabilit…
SAP Concur and the National Association of Counties (NACo) hosted a webinar on finance transformation for county government organizations. The article notes that counties face tight budgets, changing regulations, and rising demands for transparency and accountability. Finance transformation can improve efficiency and accuracy, address workforce changes, and strengthen compliance and accountability. Steps include evaluating the current state, defining objectives, developing a road map, and engaging stakeholders.
The pandemic has caused state and local governments to face unexpected expenses and new spending categories, with 68% of decision makers citing this as a major challenge. CARES Act funding comes with compliance requirements; automating expense and invoice management provides real-time visibility, ensures compliance, and adapts to change.
SAP Concur offers Concur Invoice to help state and local governments automate accounts payable processes, reduce manual work, stabilize operations, and provide spend visibility during uncertain times. The solution uses SAP Leonardo machine learning for a touchless process, supports remote vendor invoice capture, mobile approval, and near real-time visibility, and provides audit trails and secure cloud storage.
SAP Concur announced the launch of its U.S. Public Sector Resell program, enabling government and education organizations to access its solutions through a trusted partner network. Two resellers have joined: Meridian Partners and LSI. The program aims to help the public sector automate travel and spend management, improving efficiency and reducing waste.
A SAP Concur blog post notes that state and local governments face tighter budgets and remote work challenges. A Wakefield study found 88% of agency respondents felt many back-end operations cannot be managed remotely. Lumen Technologies, a SAP Concur reseller partner, offers spend management solutions including Concur Travel, Concur Expense, and Concur Invoice to automate and connect the entire spend process, helping government agencies gain visibility, maintain compliance, and support remote work.
The American Rescue Plan Act provides funding for state and local government IT modernization, with a deadline of December 31, 2024. Critical infrastructure projects like cloud services qualify. Travel, expense, and invoice processes are ideal for cloud migration. Automated spend management reduces costs, prevents improper payments, identifies fraud, and improves compliance.
The article emphasizes the need for government agencies to adopt modern AP software to address remote work and efficiency challenges. Automation captures, validates, and approves invoices, shortens processing times, avoids late fees, and integrates with travel and expense management for better visibility and fraud prevention.
A SAP Concur blog post discusses the benefits of automating government invoice payments. It cites AIIM data: the cost to process one invoice is on average between $13 and $25, and processing a single paper check adds another $7.15. SAP Concur partnered with StateScoop to quantify the costs of manual AP systems. The article lists five benefits of automating invoice payments: increase productivity and employee satisfaction, get more visibility into spending, manage invoice payments from anywhere, be more efficient and generate revenue, and reduce audit and compliance costs. The report concluded that automating invoice payments can pay for itself in less than one year.
A SAP Concur blog post highlights that each fraud instance in the U.S. federal government costs an average of $194K. It notes that agencies have additional travel policies beyond the Federal Travel Regulations, which are difficult to communicate to field offices, leading to errors on travel vouchers. SAP Concur offers enhanced services where experts audit travel documents before final payment approval, helping to avoid embarrassing news coverage and congressional audits.
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'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%.