The Hidden Costs of a Bad Expense Process
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%.
Impact and considerations
For business travel and expense managers, manual processes slow reimbursement, burden finance teams, and reduce real-time visibility into travel spend. Automation can cut errors, speed reimbursement, and unlock spend-data value.
Key points
- Manual expense processes require back-and-forth communication among finance, employees, and managers, with every submission needing manual validation and approval.
- Paper receipts get lost and manual data entry invites errors, while manual checking consumes significant time.
- Employees delay submissions due to tedium, which can hurt company cash flow.
- The average time from approval to reimbursement is nine days, leaving employees out of pocket for extended periods.
- Without automation, companies miss opportunities to analyze spend patterns, spot anomalies, and identify savings.
- Automated systems can reduce expense submission complications and errors by 36%.
Sources and time
- Primary source
- SAP Concur
- Other sources
- 0
- First source publication
- 29 Jun 2022, 19:47
- Page published
- 14 Aug 2026, 08:36
- Last updated
- 29 Jun 2022, 19:47
- Original links
- SAP Concur Blog：What’s a Bad Expense Process Really Costing You? (opens in a new tab)Primary source · en · Published 29 Jun 2022, 19:47