Hybrid work blurs the line between commuting and business travel, creating reimbursement challenges. The article explores three common gray areas: travel between home and office, home-office and connectivity expenses, and travel from home to other business locations. It advises companies to document work arrangements, define business purpose, establish clear policies, and leverage technology for consistency.
SAP Concur published a blog urging finance leaders to periodically review their travel and expense (T&E) programs, offering eight key questions: whether T&E is defined consistently, whether spend can be managed in hybrid and remote settings, spend agility, fraud reduction, whether compliance protects both company and employees, whether the T&E system needs change, whether employees will actually follow the expense policy, and whether the right tools measure success. It notes employees use more payment methods and categories, and that without visibility and controls, spend data scatters, compliance slips and costs rise, citing that companies lose an average of 5% of annual revenue to fraud.
SAP Concur released its seventh annual Global Business Travel Survey, covering 3,750 business travelers across 24 markets, 700 travel managers across seven markets, and 600 CFOs across six markets. The findings show 89% of travelers, 93% of travel managers, and 90% of CFOs expect travel budgets to increase or stay the same this year, yet 69% of travel managers say budgets do not reflect business travel's importance and 81% of CFOs agree budget limits prevent employees from traveling as needed. Meanwhile, 87% of travelers report their company cut back on previously allowed items over the past 12 months, including overnight stays, business class, and non-client travel.
SAP Concur's blog discusses new challenges in corporate tax compliance management, including diverse employee benefits, tax complexity under hybrid work models, and changing VAT regulations. The article notes many organizations still manage tax compliance manually while tax authorities have digitally transformed, requiring automation tools and cross-department collaboration to reduce risk.
SAP Concur launched Concur User Assistant by WalkMe, which provides on-screen prompts, visual cues, and a chatbot to guide employees while using the platform. The article says 42% of businesses changed to remote/hybrid work policies to retain or attract talent, and cites a Forrester study reporting a 100% increase in training and onboarding efficiency, a 50% decrease in IT support and helpdesk tickets, and a 35% increase in user confidence.
A SAP Concur blog notes that under hybrid work, employee purchases such as desks, monitors, and internet service are legitimate business expenses but may also be taxable employee benefits. 30% of business leaders told IDC that managing hybrid work is an organizational challenge, and 61% of business and IT decision-makers think VAT will significantly affect their tax management within two years. Remote and hybrid work and VAT span multiple locations and tax authorities, with rules changing regularly, creating compliance risks and lost funds. SAP Concur's Concur Tax Assurance and Concur Benefits Assurance services help identify eligible transactions and taxable benefits.
A SAP Concur blog post argues that hybrid and flexible work, combined with increasingly sophisticated enterprise applications, has made digital adoption platforms (DAPs) a key tool. A DAP is a codeless software addition that simplifies processes within an enterprise application via in-interface guidance and tool tips. The post cites IDC research showing 87% of surveyed line-of-business respondents are automating their own work, and an IDC prediction that by 2025 CIOs investing in DAPs and automated learning technologies will see a 40% productivity increase. It also notes that more than 170 countries operate VAT systems, with regimes such as the UK's Making Tax Digital and the EU's SAF-T evo…
A SAP Concur blog post introduces three articles published in partnership with the Financial Times examining travel and expense trends. It says the pandemic, geopolitical unrest, and economic uncertainty have made change the new normal; hybrid work has largely worked well, with SAP Concur COO Cathryn Reiner saying it provided an opportunity to think about new ways of managing spend. Travel has returned but is different, with budgets approaching pre-pandemic levels and companies possibly sending fewer people or taking longer trips; sustainability is increasingly important; and productivity and efficiency are paramount, especially for small and medium-sized businesses squeezed by costs and a…
SAP Concur experts note that although business travel has largely returned, budget cuts have reduced face-to-face meetings, requiring companies to maintain client relationships virtually in a hybrid work world. They recommend turning on cameras, reading body language and social cues, and adapting the pace of interaction to each client's state.
A SAP Concur blog post discusses the value of employee experience amid the Great Resignation. It cites U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data that upwards of 3 million people have been quitting their jobs every month since April 2021, with the highest quit rates among mid-career employees and in the health care and tech industries according to Harvard Business Review. It cites a 2019 Gartner employee survey showing employees happy with their experience at work are 69% more likely to be high performers. It also notes a Work Trend Index survey finding 70% of employees want to continue working remotely, 65% want more in-person time with co-workers, and 66% of decision-makers plan to support hybr…
SAP Concur podcast with EY discusses remote work challenges. EY surveyed 16,000 employees in 16 countries: 65% believe hybrid work will increase productivity, 65% say it supports creativity, 54% say it positively impacts problem-solving. 9 in 10 want flexibility in where/when they work; 54% likely to quit if not offered flexibility. Nearly two-thirds want to continue business travel.
SAP Concur blog post discusses the challenges of expense management in a hybrid work environment and provides a checklist to help businesses assess whether their expense management processes meet remote work demands. It recommends automating expense management from data capture to reporting and analytics, and paying attention to new spending categories, approval times, and employee feedback.
A SAP Concur blog offers four ways to simplify invoice management in the hybrid work era: automate invoice processing and connect with expense report and p-card processes; integrate with back-end ERP, finance, and accounting systems for accurate data and a single source of truth; flag errors and missing information before invoices reach AP to reduce exceptions; and automate payments through integrated, controlled processes via banking and financial service partners.
A SAP Concur blog post discusses how finance and IT leaders can support business transformation in a hybrid work model. It recommends digitalizing first, especially spend management, by using cloud-based spend management technology to digitize receipts, invoices, reports, and approvals, saving time and consolidating spend data. Advanced analytics can help spot trends, identify waste, and negotiate better vendor contracts. The article also emphasizes adjusting office policies, investing in training and equipment, and considering consolidating office space for cost savings. System integration is crucial to ensure finance teams don't manually consolidate data.
A SAP Concur blog post notes that employee expectations about jobs and workplace experiences have dramatically changed. A survey by Oxford Economics and SAP Concur found that 60% of U.S. employees say the pandemic caused them to reevaluate what they value in a workplace; an Accenture survey found 78% of employees believe employers are responsible for their job satisfaction and well-being. The article offers four tips to improve employee experience: improve onboarding and training, empower employees to work from anywhere, streamline and simplify the technology stack, and improve software application experiences. Gallup data shows only 12% of employees feel their organization does a great job…
An SAP Concur podcast conversation with EY discusses the complexities of 'work from anywhere.' EY research surveying 16,000 employees in 16 countries found that nine in 10 employees want flexibility in where or when they work; employees expect to work two or three days remotely; and more than half (54%) are likely to quit if they aren't offered the flexibility they want, with Millennials almost twice as likely to quit as Baby Boomers. The post notes that varying definitions of hybrid work confuse companies developing policies, and that employees living in other states or countries could affect reporting and withholding obligations, while reimbursing remote employees for business expenses su…
SAP SE and Qualtrics announced the availability of Concur Experience Optimizer, combining Qualtrics EmployeeXM's employee experience management with operational intelligence data from Concur Travel and Concur Expense to help companies design travel programs for the hybrid workplace, improve spend management, and increase retention. Research shows 70% of employees expect to return to pre-pandemic travel levels, and 84% are willing to travel within the next year. The solution captures employee sentiment via feedback templates and dashboards linked to operational data to improve compliance, budget predictability, and sustainability.
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%.
SAP Concur podcast conversation with Anshuman Singh, Director of Digital Product Management and Experience at American Airlines, discusses building a customer-centric, frictionless business travel booking experience. Singh says American Airlines keeps the customer at the core, embedding available features at every touch point of the booking process to simplify the employee travel experience and increase efficiency across departments. The article also notes post-pandemic hybrid work trends mean employees may start trips from cities other than headquarters, and biometrics could further streamline travel.