Although 63 percent of 434 finance professionals and CFOs responding to a Certify survey released this week used a web-based or ERP expense management system, 27 percent of them still manually review each expense and match it to corporate policy.
Of those companies using web-based systems, 19 percent reported manually reviewing only those expenses with a high value. However, more than half, 63 percent, of companies with web-based expense systems indicated their T&E system automatically flags out-of-policy expenses for managers to review, according to the survey.
The survey also showed that 31 percent of respondents estimated their company's T&E policy compliance was between 81 and 90 percent, 21 percent of respondents estimated policy compliance between 71 percent and 80 percent, and 10 percent of respondents estimated 100 percent compliance.
When selecting a cloud-based expense management system, 51 percent indicated expense management automation is the first feature they seek, followed by "functionality to enforce corporate travel policy" (44 percent), integration with human resources and finance systems (33 percent) and mobile applications and accessibility for business travelers (33 percent), according to the survey.
In terms of improving current expense management processes, 20 percent of respondents desired auto-generated expense reports built on a set date, followed by mobile receipt capture (17 percent) and automatic T&E policy enforcement (16 percent).
The number-one pain point related to expense management, according to the respondents, was employees' failure to submit reports on time (39 percent), closely followed by the amount of time it takes managers to reconcile, review and approve reports (38 percent).
Certify fielded the survey of North American professionals between Dec. 15, 2014 and Jan. 5, 2015. Companies identified as large enterprises represented 35 percent of the survey base while 37 percent represented midsize businesses. Small businesses represented 28 percent of those surveyed.