Concur Adds Audit Service

Expense management provider Concur Technologies has added an auditing service to help clients manage and substantiate travel and entertainment receipts, the company announced today.

By dedicating resources and personnel to receipt verification, Concur said it could help clients cut hours and costs associated with audits while increasing control over T&E spend. The audit service is customizable, so Concur can conduct random audits at any level and complete audits that target specific users or groups.

The service leverages Concur's paperless receipt-imaging service as well. This allows Concur to classify expenses and identify those that should be treated as taxable income for employees, according to the company.

Expense management companies offering auditing services is not new—Gelco Expense Management, for example, already has an auditing service in place—but adding the service is certainly a way for them to increase their value in the market, said Bob Langsfeld, a consultant with the Incline Village, Nev.-based Corporate Solutions Group. Most companies have the resources within accounts payable to do their own auditing, but a service with the expense management provider is a good option for those looking to outsource the job, he said. "It might be a good opportunity for off-loading or reducing headcount," Langsfeld said. "It's one of those things you can provide the service to and ramp up as required."

Concur recently integrated its expense solution with its Cliqbook booking tool, and the auditing service is another step in designing a seamless, end-to-end solution for T&E expense management, according to Rajeev Singh, Concur's president and COO.