About The Expense/Payment Manager Survey

In an attempt to establish benchmarks and identify best practices for T&E expense reporting, Business Travel News this year compiled its second Annual Expense/Payment Managers Survey. BTN sent e-mails to 5,000 expense managers in September and October inviting them to fill out a questionnaire hosted by Equation Research, which tabulated answers from 204 respondents. The research was sponsored by AirPlus International, the Alexandria, Va.-based payment system provider.

A wide range of companies, representing a variety of industries, responded to the survey. Small companies comprised the majority, as about 83 percent recorded less than $2 million in U.S. booked air volume last year. As such, about 70 percent of respondents had less than 25 frequent travelers. Nearly 9 percent noted U.S. booked air volumes between $2 million and $12 million, while 8 percent had U.S. booked air volumes in excess of $12 million.

Respondents that manage the expense reporting process report to a wide range of departments within their respective companies. About 29 percent said they report directly to a senior executive, 22.5 report to administration, 21 percent report to the finance department. Other departments to which expense managers report, such as HR, operations and purchasing or strategic sourcing, comprised 2 percent, 3 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.