This SAP Concur podcast discusses optimizing mileage programs post-pandemic. Experts note that mileage spend is a top expense category, and optimization can save 21 hours per employee per year. Considerations include regional gas prices, tax viability, vehicle allowances, and policy resets.
A SAP Concur blog post notes that the return of business travel is inevitable. According to the 2020 Global Business Traveler Report, 39% of business travelers feel worried and 32% feel excited. The post recommends that finance, travel, HR and IT, and procurement departments prepare respectively, including updating policies, establishing return-to-travel processes, ensuring employees can submit expenses via mobile tools, and focusing on supplier availability and safety provisions. SAP Concur solutions can help create more flexible, compliant, and safe travel programs.
SAP Concur published a blog recommending that businesses use expense category summary data to manage budgets. The article cites a Forrester report that 60% of IT decision makers are unsatisfied with T&E reporting and analytical capabilities, and notes that 75% of finance leaders say their business often exceeds expense, travel, and invoice budgets. SAP Concur recommends a single platform, employee education, and audit rules to improve spend visibility, and regularly running spend-by-expense-category reports.
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.
SAP Concur announced on April 17, 2019 the establishment of a China Development Center in Shanghai to develop and deliver end-to-end spend management solutions optimized for China's market. The center will strengthen capabilities in mobile, Fapiao, central billing and payments, with mobile innovations from China benefiting global customers. SAP Concur also enhanced its integration with Ctrip Corporate Travel to simplify pre-trip approval, booking and expense management. The company said it will expand its ecosystem with global and local partners to support Chinese companies operating locally and abroad.
SAP Concur experts released predictions for business travel, expense and invoice trends in 2018 and beyond. Predictions include: paper receipts becoming obsolete as e-receipts standardize and countries such as France, Spain, China and Japan deregulate paper receipt requirements; non-traditional payment technologies like blockchain and vCards changing transactions and reimbursements; cloud technology enabling small businesses to adopt enterprise tools faster; predictive analytics and personalization transforming business travel; duty of care remaining a C-level priority; and employee-initiated spend becoming the largest unmanaged spend category.
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 published an article outlining four steps for financial services firms to manage compliance and fraud in travel and expense programs. It cites data: nearly 20% of T&E expenses fall outside policy; companies with anti-fraud controls experience 52% lower fraud instances and detect fraud 58% faster; 41% of respondents spend 50+ hours per month auditing expense reports. The article also references a FINRA action against a former Merrill Lynch broker and notes FCPA violations can carry up to $100,000 in criminal fines and 5 years imprisonment.
SAP sponsored two global Aberdeen research surveys of more than 600 businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees, classifying the top 20% by performance metrics as 'best in class.' The research found 74% of best-in-class companies use an expense management solution to automatically capture receipts and manage reporting workflows; they are 87% more likely to use analytics, and 50% more likely to use spend data for auditing. Best-in-class companies save US$11.71 per expense report on average, spend nearly five fewer days on approvals, and report 26% productivity improvement, 24% profitability improvement, and 17% faster cash-to-cash cycle.
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.
A SAP Concur blog post cites data showing significant non-compliant corporate spend: 56% of organizations generally reimburse employees for out-of-policy spend, 52% of hotel and air bookings are made outside corporate channels, $19 billion of spend was labeled 'other' in 2019 by SAP Concur customers, and 20% of companies say they cannot recover VAT due to complex procedures. The post says employee spend is the second largest cost next to payroll, and notes that supplier-employee direct relationships, numerous booking channels, employees not waiting for formal processes, and COVID-19 and remote-work expenses falling outside policy make spend hard to track. It also cites ACFE data that during…
SAP Concur shares three pillars for a successful spend management solution rollout: strategy and planning, training, and communication and measuring success. Planning involves defining success, creating pilot groups, respecting the company calendar, and involving the implementation team early. Training should be tailored, with tipsheets, FAQs, user champions, and education on T&E policy. Continuous communication and feedback help improve user adoption and ROI.
SAP Concur published an article on how its partner ecosystem helps businesses manage travel and expense programs in the remote work era. The ecosystem includes more than 700 partners spanning platform partners, travel suppliers, distribution partners, financial services, resale and service partners, and travel management companies (TMCs). The article cites an IDC report noting that the pandemic-driven increase in remote work is accelerating digital transformation, with companies expected to spend more on cloud-based solutions.
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.
An SAP Concur blog post notes that employee-initiated spend has shifted from company control to employee control, causing havoc on managed travel and expense programs. It cites a Phocuswright study showing only 36% of surveyed travelers use their approved corporate booking tool to book hotels, airfare, and rental cars, resulting in significant 'invisible spend.' SAP Concur processed 238 million such transactions worth nearly $109 billion last year. The article advises CFOs to improve spend visibility to save costs, enhance compliance, mitigate fraud, and improve supplier negotiation positions.
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.
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.
The article says small and midsize companies are hit harder in uncertain times because they hold less cash, and controlling discretionary spending is a key driver of cash flow. An AMI-Partners survey found 66% of businesses want to better track and analyze expense trends to cut costs, 63% want integrated spend management for better cash flow visibility, and 72% want improved operational efficiency and productivity. Concur Invoice users report saving an average of US$42,000 annually and 148 hours per accounting team per week.
A SAP Concur blog post notes that K-12 school districts can use American Rescue Plan Act funding for IT modernization. Congress passed three COVID-19 relief bills, and the Department of Education established the ESSER Fund for eligible expenses like curriculum, IT, and building maintenance. ESSER I, II, and III funds must be spent by September 30, 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively. The article recommends improving travel, expense, and invoice management processes for transparent fiscal management.
A SAP Concur blog post outlines how channel partners can deliver long-term value to SMB customers in a cloud-first world. Concur launched its Solution Provider co-sell program in July of last year, and more than 300 partners have joined. The post offers three recommendations: build a portfolio of cloud services, invest in continuous training to improve knowledge retention, and help customers maximize their cloud technology investments. The central argument is that partners must shift from transactional models to a continuous-value approach spanning pre-sales, sales, and post-sales to build multi-year revenue streams and customer loyalty.
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 has released an online Business Agility Assessment tool to help companies evaluate their spend management capabilities. The assessment examines expense management processes, vendor invoice management, tool usability, system integration, spend control levels, and technology provider landscape. It notes that digitalization and integration are prerequisites for effective company spend management, and that gaps in spend visibility can open up unnecessary risks and costs. Upon completion, users gain access to a spend management toolkit with best-practice initiatives, continuity plan templates, and partner app information.
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.
The article notes that manual invoice processing often involves paper handling, convoluted workflows and unreliable storage, creating an 'invoice black hole.' Invoice automation captures invoice data, routes it to approvers via custom rules and workflows, and schedules payments, reducing manual touches, avoiding late fees, and flagging discrepancies before payment through two- and three-way matching. Cloud-based solutions require no expensive software installation and can scale with the company.
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.
A SAP Concur blog post cites a commissioned Forrester Consulting study finding that nearly two-thirds of surveyed SMB financial leaders picked managing expenses/cash flow as their top financial challenge. The study shows SMBs' key expense and travel challenges focus on user-induced errors and long time requirements. Smaller businesses (1-499 employees) called out time requirements for paperwork and approvals as their top challenge, while larger businesses (500-999 employees) gave a small edge to inaccuracies caused by human error. Surveyed businesses considered improved process efficiency the most important benefit of automated expense and travel solutions. More than three-quarters of SMBs…
A SAP Concur blog post cites an IDC white paper finding that eight interviewed businesses improved their AP processes with Concur Invoice: staff time on invoice processing fell 68%, employee compliance rose to nearly 100%, late payments to vendors dropped 67%, line-of-business productivity rose 11%, and IT staff time managing AP solutions fell 29%. The white paper also projects annual benefits of $775,401 per organization ($15,418 per 1,000 invoices) and a 505% ROI over five years.
A SAP Concur blog post discusses the limitations of using spreadsheets for expense tracking in small businesses. It states spreadsheets lack version control, leading to inconsistent and inaccurate data; make it hard to quickly draw conclusions; are prone to small errors in data entry or formulas that balloon into larger ones; can't provide historical views to spot trends; make data aggregation a nightmare; and lack flexibility and scalability. It recommends considering a purpose-built expense management system and offers best practices for finding suitable software.
A SAP Concur blog post lists five reasons businesses should move past outdated invoice systems: better visibility, reduced costs, less paperwork, increased productivity, and user mobility. It states many CFOs and financial decision makers don't feel they have big-picture visibility into invoicing and office expenses; manual paper-based processes drive up labor costs, with businesses unknowingly throwing away thousands to millions of dollars each year on manual AP steps that could be automated; physical documents are subject to loss, fire, flood, and theft; and mobile and cloud solutions allow invoice processing and approvals via tablets and smartphones, reducing late payments.
A SAP Concur blog post reviews its customer-success journey: founded in 1993, it focused early on on-premise expense-reporting automation, embraced the cloud and expanded offerings in its second decade, developed mobile solutions as devices proliferated, and in its third decade offered global solutions meeting local requirements while opening data via APIs and forging industry partnerships. It says Concur has 7,000 employees and embeds customer success across culture, innovation, data, and organization.
A SAP Concur blog post states that manual, paper-based expense report processes can take hours, with employees spending large portions of their days digging through receipts and manually inputting expenditures, while finance departments review and reconcile reports. It cites SMB Group data: 30% of SMBs support telecommuting for 20% or more of employees, 18% expect the percentage of telecommuting workers to increase next year, 57% say 20% or more of their workforce travels for work, and 14% expect this number to increase next year. It recommends SMBs choose a scalable mobile expense system like Concur Expense, where employees simply photograph receipts.
The article offers seven efficiency tips for SMBs: automate wherever possible, ensure reliable network uptime, support mobile productivity, enable collaboration, outsource non-core tasks, reduce email attachments, and keep technology simple. Automating travel, expense and invoice management is listed as the top efficiency booster.
A SAP Concur blog post details Concur Invoice features: automating the entire invoice management process from capture to pay, integrating with Concur Travel and Expense. Invoices can be submitted via email, fax, hard copy, or electronically. AI-powered OCR extracts data, validated and corrected by an auditor or invoice verifier. The system automatically matches invoices to POs and goods receipts, flags exceptions, and uses dynamic approval workflows. Concur Invoice Analytics provides real-time visibility into invoice status and spend. It cites Prison Fellowship, which saved minutes per invoice after using Concur Invoice.
The article offers six considerations for small business owners moving from spreadsheets to an expense management solution: policy compliance, reporting and visibility, cloud-based deployment, integration, migration support, and ease of use. The solution should automate policy checks, offer preconfigured report dashboards, update via subscription, integrate with existing applications, provide an implementation team for data migration, and support OCR receipt capture.
A SAP Concur blog post briefly introduces its solutions: Concur Travel, Concur Expense, and Concur Invoice work seamlessly with each other and integrate with existing ERP, HR, accounting, and other business systems to create a single connected process for managing company spend, helping save time and money, negotiate better rates with suppliers, and create happier travelers. It also provides links to an end-to-end solution demo and self-guided demos.