How to Make Business Travel Easier with Expenses on the Go

Going on a business trip to Paris sounds glamorous and exciting. But as anyone who’s ever travelled for business knows, the reality is very different. With so many administration tasks that need to be completed accurately and within a certain time frame, it can be stressful. Mistakes can be made.

Firstly, there’s a lot of admin for the employee, including pulling together the dreaded expense claim and finding all the receipts.

It’s a worry for the business too. Compliance, duty of care and managing costs are an even bigger concern when an employee is away on business.

But with SAP Concur solutions, and our network of SAP Concur Partners in the App Centre, much of the hassle of business travel is taken care of for both employee and the business.

Let’s take a look at that Paris trip when SAP Concur is by your side.

Ready Steady: Book and Go

Arranging a business trip is much easier with SAP Concur.

Concur Travel allows the employee to search and book flight, hotel and hire car options on their desktop or their mobile. It also links to Concur Expense so the trip can be booked and an expense claim raised in one process.

Concur TripIt can be used to automatically compile an itinerary, which is one more job off the to do list. Plus, it gives reminders and alerts while the employee is on the trip to keep them on schedule. Travellers are instantly notified of things like check in opening, gate changes and cancellations. 

The booking process is improved for the business too.

Employee travel and expense policies can be built into Concur Travel and it will display corporate rates and branded fares too. This provides peace of mind around compliance and cost management.

With SAP Concur’s tax apps, the finance team have access to solutions that help them manage domestic and international tax and immigration requirements, ensure HMRC compliance and maximise VAT reclaim.

On the Road: Track Travel Expenses and Improve Duty of Care

Now let’s imagine the trip itself.

For the employee, Concur Drive captures mileage on the drive to the airport and automatically creates a mileage claim in Concur Expense. There’s no more trying to work out the distance travelled (or employees overestimating the distance!)

On arrival in Paris, the Uber app lets the employee book, ride and pay for a taxi without a language barrier. It also automatically creates an e-receipt linked to Concur Expense, so there’s no need to get or keep a receipt.

In fact, there’s no need to worry about keeping any receipts while travelling because they can be captured using the SAP Concur mobile app, which automatically compiles the expense claim too.

For the business, there’s much more visibility into expense spend.

There is increased confidence that mileage claims are accurate as transport spend can be tracked much more easily. Receipts are analysed and itemised to provide confidence in compliance by Concur Audit. Automatic matching of corporate card data to receipts makes reconciliation much easier.

For duty of care, there’s Concur Locate with Active Monitoring. Businesses can advise and support employees at any time, while real time data means employees can be located at any time, minimising risk.

Back Home: Transform Business Travel Expense Claim Management

When the business trip is over there will be a pre-populated claim based on the employee travel activity ready to go in Concur Expense. All they have to do is check it and submit it ready for review and approval.

If a flight was delayed or cancelled, AirRefund makes it easy to claim the maximum refund.

For the business, Concur Travel and Expense enables travel and expense costs to be managed in one place and provides a wealth of information. For example, it offers full visibility of outstanding spend to help with accruals. It also provides accurate information for improved supplier negotiations. Finance teams can check compliance issues and manage data for various regulatory reports. In other words, it minimises the admin and puts the business back in control.

SAP Concur Makes Travelling for Business Easier

If you’d like to see the trip in action and learn exactly how SAP Concur helps, chat to a member of our team like Jess and contact us today.