Expense reporting at small companies remains a largely
manual, time-consuming process, according to a survey conducted by technology
firm Concur of 500 U.S. small business employees.
The survey, which polled employees at companies with 100 or
fewer employees, showed that one in five had no sort of expense reporting
process in place at all. Of those that have a process, 42 percent said they use
spreadsheets or other manual systems for expense management.
As such, 36 percent of respondents said their companies take
too long to process expense reports, and 59 percent said they've made at least
one error on an expense report in the past year. Other common problems included
losing receipts or forgetting the purpose of certain expenses.
"It's clear from the survey results that the expense
reporting process represents an efficiency hurdle for busy small businesses for
a variety of reasons," Concur executive vice president and general manager
for small and midmarket clients Elena Donio said in a statement.