A majority of expense managers—largely citing cost savings, time savings and improved data quality as their motivation—have integrated or are integrating their corporate payment and expense tools for the first time in the five years Business Travel News has conducted its annual Expense Manager Survey.
A survey of 202 travel buyers showed that 43 percent already have integrated those tools, and an additional 9 percent said they planned to do so in the next 12 months. This demonstrates steady growth in payment/expense integration since BTN began conducting this survey in 2004.
This year, Visa added the integration to its best practice lists through a white paper it commissioned on commercial card best practices. The white paper, authored by Deloitte Consulting, was based on 90 in-depth interviews with a wide range of corporations and government entities.
"In 2002, we found that integration of card programs with expense reporting programs was an emerging trend," according to Laima Kardokas, senior business leader for Visa's Commercial Payment Solutions. "This year, we updated that best practices study, and we're finding that this integration is a best practice and a common practice."
The growth also reflects the continued adoption of automated expense tools. The paper estimates about 40 percent of large companies and 10 percent to 25 percent of small and midsize companies currently use automated expense reporting tools. When BTN began its survey, such nonautomated tools as spreadsheets were so dominant that buyers in 2004 were not even asked about the integration of payment and expense.
"If you think about the travel and expense market over the last 10 years, the idea of tying the corporate card to the expense solution was relatively novel," said Raj Singh, president and COO of expense tool supplier Concur. "We've worked with well over 100 banks and almost every charge card provider, so it became standard in integrating an expense solution."
Payment and expense integration now is one of the more common steps in the expense manager's quest for an end-to-end travel and expense tool. Through acquisitions to create a single end-to-end tool, which has been Concur's route, as well as partnerships between suppliers to allow managers to build a best-of-breed tool
(BTNonline, Aug. 11), that goal has dominated industry supplier efforts for the past several years.
The most popular reason for integrating payment and expense among buyers in BTN's survey was cost savings, including fraud monitoring. About 84 percent of respondents cited that as part of the return on investment in integrated systems.
Companies surveyed in Visa's white paper reported annual savings of between $900,000 and $4.5 million as a result of the integration. Largely, that savings came not only from lower employee and accounts payable processing costs, but also from the ability to drive better policy compliance.
"Once you have electronic data, you can tie all kinds of messaging and alerts in it that go to managers and supervisors," Visa's Kardokas said. "You can see the details of what's being purchased and who is not working with the preferred suppliers."
During an educational session at this year's National Business Travel Association conference in Los Angeles, senior vice president of strategic sourcing for Paramount Pictures Rick Smith said his firm moved 96 percent of its annual T&E spend onto a new corporate card, increased compliance and saw a first-year rebate of $300,000 after implementing the card and automated expense program in July 2007.
Another white paper this year, issued by JPMorgan, detailed ways companies have used an automated corporate card program to gain savings through control of card misuse and fraud. Many tag retail spending; travelers at Starbucks, for example, are asked to provide more data when spending is identified in a merchant category code the coffee giant considers high-risk
(BTNonline, July 21).Saving time was almost as popular of a reason for card and expense integration in BTN's survey, with 75 percent of respondents selecting it as an expected driver of return on investment.
"This integration was originally done because it makes life easier for the business travelers," Singh said, adding that approvers—who in most cases do not have to check card data against receipts—also saved time.
One company in Visa's white paper reported that integrating card and expense made approvals come an average of two to four days faster.
Almost 60 percent of respondents cited as a key integration driver improved data quality and accuracy, which also can create savings by giving travel buyers better leverage in negotiations. About 43 percent reported increased compliance as a benefit.
Less-cited reasons included reduced headcount and full-time equivalent staff. That can be realized through integration, though, as one company in Visa's study reported a 66 percent reduction in accounts payable FTEs after integration.