Gelco Launches New Receipt Mgmt. FeatureGelco Expense Management late last month launched a revamped imaging product for the digital storage and retrieval of paper receipts. Gelco for several years has offered customers a receipt management and auditing service, which has included functionality to image receipts, but now the company is enabling customers to do the imaging when filing expense reports—shaving additional time off of the process, said Jeff Cronin, Gelco vice president of marketing solutions. The new system follows a similar process as those launched in recent years by competitors Concur Technologies, Geac and Necho Systems: When employees file expense reports, they fax receipts to a designated number, where the reports are digitally stored for approval and warehousing. Yet, Cronin said Gelco's imaging product extends its receipt management service, enabling customers to outsource the management of receipts to the expense firm.
According to Internal Revenue Service auditing procedures, records of travel expenses, expense reports and charge card statements must be archived for a minimum of three years after the tax return filing date. Some states mandate that companies keep these records for up to six years following the filing. In response to marketplace confusion as to what was acceptable, IRS three years ago updated its receipt management guidelines and clarified that companies can use electronic or imaged receipts in place of paper. Meanwhile, Gelco last week announced the launch of an updated workflow engine, which allows customers to route the expense report approvals to appropriate managers, based on client-defined business rules.
Visa: Biz Spend To Rise To $14 Trillion In '05Commercial spending by U.S.-based businesses and the government will increase by an estimated 3.6 percent in 2005, according to Visa U.S.A.'s Commercial Consumption Expenditure Index released last month. Visa projected business spending would reach $14.5 trillion by year-end 2004—a 4.4 percent increase from 2003. Visa and other commercial payment providers see the growth as a ripe opportunity since less than 2 percent of business spending is processed through payment cards, according to the report. Visa U.S.A. senior vice president of commercial solutions Mike Dreyer said the numbers "reinforce the significant opportunity to help businesses and government agencies transition from checks to other much more efficient forms of payment." Visa added that the projected increase indicates a larger economic recovery and "the continued momentum of commercial business.
AirPlus, Rewards Network Launch In CanadaAirPlus International last month launched in Canada and Mexico its central billing and spend data aggregation tool AirPlus Company Account. The tool "combines all agency service fees and air transactions on a single, detailed invoice for reconciliation, and it is fully compatible with online reservation tools," AirPlus said in a statement. AirPlus, which is an issuer of the Universal Air Travel Plan payment product, aggressively has been expanding in North America in an attempt to match its success in Europe—especially Germany, where the Lufthansa-owned issuer is based and holds significant corporate marketshare. The company last year opened a U.S. division and brought on former UATP CEO Richard Crum as president.
Meanwhile, Rewards Network is bringing its dining rewards program to Canada through a partnership with RBC Royal Bank. The program, formerly called IDine, has been used by such corporations as Pfizer Inc. to gain discounts of up to 15 percent on dining bills at preferred restaurants
(BTN, Aug. 11, 2003). Rewards Network said it already has a network of discount-offering restaurants based in Canada, but will expand such arrangements and partner with non-dining vendors.