Connect The Dots On Your Business Spend Strategy
Are you confident that your business spend management strategy fits together? We put this question, plus many more, to finance leaders from 500 businesses in our recent whitepaper.
86% of them agreed that their travel, expense, and invoice systems could be better connected for a single view of spend. And 75% of them said they go over their travel, expense, and invoice budgets.
When you’re putting together a business spend management solution, it has to deliver on every level to equip you for the road ahead. At its heart, you need a solution that captures all spend accurately – and intuitively understands the complicated reality that’s often involved in its management. You also need a solution that’s easy-to-use, so you can boost employee productivity and get the level of insight and control you need without any hassle.
Connecting the dots between expense, travel, and invoice is the key to gaining unrivalled visibility into business spend. Read on to learn how SAP Concur solutions can make sure the pieces fall into place.
Embracing automation
Automation is not a new concept in business spend management; today, over half of business spend management processes are automated. However, we found that this hasn’t always led to the efficiency improvements that finance leaders wanted:
- 70% said their travel spend process was not efficient
- 63% said their employee expense process was not efficient
- 57% said their accounts payable invoice process was not efficient
Automation is an important aspect of business spend management but clearly not the answer on its own. SAP Concur solutions gives you the visibility to identify the challenges in each area of business spend management – and connect them, giving you a complete spend management solution. It means all the data connects seamlessly, so you get all the visibility and efficiency you need to build a complete picture faster, across your entire business spend management process.
“It’s all about visibility – understanding how we’re spending our money and then how we can control it better. SAP Concur was the most robust tool I saw.” Kellie Whitaker, European Travel Manager, Kellogg’s
Travel
As planes, trains, and the road start moving and your business adapts to a new normal, your employees need reassurance. They want to know that your business can support an evolving way of working with flexible, mobile and easy-to-use tools that help get them where they need to go safely – while giving you valuable business insight.
The earlier you have visibility of travel costs, the better. However, 71% of businesses told us they see costs only after travel has been booked. There are lots of options open to employees when it comes to booking travel: corporate booking tools, booking directly with suppliers, or using internal travel managers. This makes it challenging to capture all booking information and real-time spend data.
With travel, there’s the added need to keep employees safe. We found that 77% of businesses are not completely confident that their organisation can quickly and accurately locate business travellers in an emergency. SAP Concur solutions connect travel data to give you a complete view. With better visibility, you can keep travelling employees safe and be in control of spend.
Expenses
When it comes to expenses, issues with compliance, auditing, and VAT reclaim are costing businesses time and money. We found that 68% of finance leaders aren’t completely confident that employees comply with company T&E policies. And 78% aren’t confident that managers thoroughly check every claim submitted by employees.
This means you could be missing out on VAT reclaims that you’re entitled to. On average, UK Businesses are missing out on 54% of the VAT they’re entitled to reclaim on T&E costs. SAP Concur solutions help by clearly marking out-of-policy options, flagging issues to the approver, and preventing non-compliance before it happens.
When travel and expense are connected, it’s easier to identify VAT that’s eligible for reclaim. And when you bring invoice into the picture too, you have a truly holistic spend management system.
Invoices
Perhaps surprisingly, 83% of finance leaders say they pay supplier invoices late at least some of the time. On top of that, only 52% of invoices are checked for duplication, errors, and fraud. It leaves businesses at risk of expensive mistakes.
There’s never been a better time to address invoice inefficiencies, simplify processes, and stop late payments. Duty to Report legislation is going to bring a heightened focus on payment practices – and 46% of finance leaders are not aware and prepared.
Whatever size your business, stay ahead of the curve with SAP Concur solutions. Differentiate and lead with a secure and automated business spend management platform.
Conclusion
When business spend management is disconnected, you only ever see a snapshot of what your business spends. Don’t wait for the pieces to fall into place. Embrace connected business spend management with SAP Concur solutions and save your business time and money.
Want to know more? Watch our webinar ‘The Power of a Connected Spend Management Platform and Partner Ecosystem’ to find out how connecting expense, travel, and invoice spend on a single platform helps you mitigate risk, stay ahead of the curve, and get the complete visibility you need. Learn how your business can leverage an open partner ecosystem and dynamically connect your business spend and partner data to reveal insights that empower you to run your business better.
