Systematic reporting of expenses in an enterprise requires employees to save travel receipts, manually submit information and sometimes invest time and energy to explain to the approving authority the context and history of the submitted bills.
Enterprise finance teams then work through the cumbersome process of monthly reconciliation, and employees wait patiently for reimbursement. It is a normal practice for the finance teams to wait till the end of the month to process the expense claims. It is indeed a long and arduous process for every stakeholder.
Citing a GBTA Foundation and HRS survey in 2015, Forbes reported that in a traditional Travel and Expense (T&E) program, processing a single expense report takes an average of 20 minutes and costs a company $58 in resources. The survey found that 19% of expense reports contain errors and each takes an additional 18 minutes and $52 to correct.
With the COVID-19 pandemic on the decline, corporate travel is slowly picking up and efficient management of the entire travel and expense process has become important for enterprises. A digital application eliminates all the undue stress and headache that comes with the business’s T&E process as it can automate and streamline the reimbursement process while ensuring visibility and transparency throughout.
Today, most travel and expense management applications are device-agnostic, and hence employees who are traveling can access the software using any device while keeping track of their expenses. This helps free up bandwidth for both the finance teams and employees, thereby, helping them focus on business priorities.
A robust, automated T&E software can help track all expenses and it allows users to view in detail the status of expense reports in the reimbursement cycle. Finance teams can view spending trends and patterns based on real-time insights using the dashboard feature and can make informed decisions with ease.
SAP Concur is a SaaS solution provider that offers travel and expense management solutions. Concur can also integrate seamlessly with SAP on-premise solutions via an ABAP add-on installed in the on-premise SAP ERP system and exceptions can be monitored using SAP Solution Manager. Let us go through the features in the section below.
- SAP Concur uses the support of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technology to provide a proactive expense management system. It also creates more value through real-time data capture from virtually any purchase. The application allows any business to automate frequently conducted tasks, such as submitting a request for travel or expense, making bookings and more. Most importantly, the user experience for employees is enhanced.
- Innovative aspect of SAP Concur unifies all relevant data assisting business enterprises to manage and book corporate tours in a faster manner.
- It offers a seamless and modern experience to business travelers with detailed planning, built-in compliance, and expense policies. SAP Concur Request is a critical tool that enables businesses to enforce internal policies and external regulations. It also initiates the process of approving or rejecting travel requests automatically.
- Real-time reports and analytics are other major advantages. Businesses can obtain insights and reports of travel expenses and key performance indicators in real-time. It helps to track expenses and compare the same with previous years.
- SAP Concur allows connecting the travel, expense, and invoice management systems with cloud-based deployments.
- An enterprise gains from SAP Concur Expense tool as it helps simplify the process of expense management. As an integrated expense reporting solution, it allows real-time approval or rejection of expense requests. This helps to increase productivity, ensure compliance and permit spending control.
- The SAP Concur Invoice records purchase requests and payments and therefore the clerks don’t need to enter manually as the entire workflow is streamlined. Now this saves a lot of time in processing costs and also reduces data entry errors. Cloud-based SAP Concur Invoice offers the additional benefit of ERP integration in the accounting system. This helps businesses electronically capture invoices that need to be approved even from mobile devices.
Travel expenses are a major contributor to the indirect costs of a business. In the post-pandemic scenario with business travel picking up the world over, enterprises need to implement a tool that optimizes travel and expense management. We at Gemini Consulting & Services can assist enterprises in implementing SAP Concur, one of the best systems for travel and expense management. Contact us to optimize your travel budget and reduce risk.
- Effective Budget Control: SAP Concur Expense extends full visibility into total organizational spending right down to individual transaction levels. This can help businesses manage budgets more effectively and forecast more accurately while being compliant with regulations and policies.
- Business Cost Optimization: Plan and prepare budgets with actionable insights. The application helps capture and consolidate relevant data to gain an all-around view of travel expenses across the organization using intelligent dashboards. These dashboards render insights that can be easily understood and acted upon to allocate resources optimally.
- Reduce Risks: The system can prevent false and fraudulent transactions. Improper spending can significantly impact the ever-shrinking expense budgets of a business. SAP Concur uses AI to audit all expense reports. Hence identifying errors and flagging off potential problems become easier.
- Improve Efficiency: SAP Concur provides the ability to understand and connect travel choices and manage expenses by integrating travel content from various sources. It can connect expenses incurred by the staff wherever and whenever during travel. This helps create a single, scalable way to manage and track staff travel.
