Recent Aberdeen Group research revealed that the four greatest pressures businesses face when it comes to managing travel and expenses are poor visibility, the need to reduce costs, a lack of control over spending, and manual or paper-based processes

The research, sponsored by Concur, found that 57 per cent of companies cited poor visibility into travel and expense spending and compliance as their top business pressure.

Poor visibility is an understandable concern for businesses. The paper chase of spreadsheets and receipts means it can take weeks, or even months, for expenses to show up on balance sheets.

The Aberdeen Group research also showed that 38 percent of companies felt they need to reduce their processing costs, 36 percent said they had a lack of control over their travel and expense spending, and one in five thought they needed to eliminate paper-based processes.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

There are a number of key strategies and capabilities that companies can employ to make expenses effortless.

The key is to capture information at the source, then integrate that data with the organisation’s travel and expense management system and back-end platforms.

After the original information capture happens at the source, the business traveller need never look at it again. As soon as it is in the system, expense data can become a line item on an expense claim, through integration with the platforms underpinning expenses management processes.

Paper-based receipts are, in many cases, the biggest challenge in collecting the necessary information to make the travel and expense process easier. To strengthen this weak link, businesses should look at mobile applications to capture information.

A mobile device can capture a snapshot of a paper receipt and convert it to a line item on the expense claim, along with information from a corporate travel card or travel booking system. With this functionality, mobile source data capture can go a long way towards helping companies establish a paperless, automated travel and expenses process, thereby easing the top business pressures uncovered in the research.

However, while source data capture is an essential step in developing expense claims that write themselves, it is by no means the only consideration. The next step is integrating the source data into an expense management application, so that manual intervention is not required.

The greater the level of integration with source capture input, the better travel and expense visibility and transparency for the company.

Integrating travel and expense data with other enterprise applications completes the expense process, right through to the approval and settlement phase the report, which provides visibility and transparency throughout the entire report cycle.

By integrating multiple platforms, organisations can gain a system that lets expenses write themselves, immediately easing those top four pressures often faced by companies when it comes to travel and expense management.

ABOUT MATT GOSS//

Matt Goss is ANZ managing director of Concur