Following years of heightened cost-consciousness from managers, business travelers have felt the grip of T&E policies tightening, according to a survey American Express released today.
Out of more than 500 business traveler respondents, nearly half said their companies have adopted stricter corporate travel policies, specifically those related to expense reporting. Of those polled, 45 percent said policies for expense reimbursement have become "somewhat" or "a lot" more stringent within the past three years.
About one-quarter of the respondents said that compared to the comparatively freewheeling days of the past, they have in varying degrees grown more conscious of T&E policy adherence.
The perception among travelers follows stricter policies and enforcement among management, the survey said, with 37 percent of the travelers claiming employers have become more careful in reviewing expense reports.
Mark Webb, Amex senior vice president of the global client group, which oversees American Express' top customers, also cited both Sarbanes-Oxley and the continued proliferation of more advanced expense reporting tools as reasons for the evolution in traveler policy perception. "Increasingly, corporations are stepping up efforts to track and halt out-of-policy spending and tighten their grip on T&E," Webb said in a statement.
Despite the growing crackdown of expenses and awareness among travelers, more than one-third of respondents said it was "somewhat" or "quite" common for expense filers to submit reports containing "one or more completely false or bogus charges."
Managers concur. When BTN surveyed 236 corporate expense management professionals, 28 percent said they caught an employee fraudulently filing expenses in the past two years
(BTN, Dec. 6, 2004).
A report released in July by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners shows the cost of fraud has grown among U.S.-based businesses
(BTN, Aug. 2, 2004). The report showed the average cost of expense fraud has increased to $92,000 and now comprises about 14 percent of occupational fraud since ACFE released a prior report in 2002 when the average cost of T&E schemes totaled $60,000 and comprised 12 percent of all corporate fraud cases
(BTN, Aug. 11, 2003).