Despite the widespread availability of expense management solutions designed for companies of all sizes, many firms continue to rely on manual expense tracking processes, which yield poor visibility into—and control over—T&E spending, according to Certify's 2019 Travel and Expense Management Trends Report. To produce the report, Certify in May and June 2019 canvassed 585 financial professionals, all outside the expense provider's customer base. Thirty-seven percent work for businesses with 100 or fewer employees, 47 percent for companies of 101 to 999 employees and 23 percent work for enterprises of 1,000 or more employees.
Overall, 43 percent of companies rely on manual processes—spreadsheets, pen and paper or homegrown systems—to manage and control T&E costs.
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Source: Certify 2019 Travel & Expense Management Trends Report
Forty-six percent do not track the cost to process expense reports. That technological immaturity has obscured data visibility, which 34 percent feel pressure to improve. Thirty-three percent feel pressure from the lack of control over T&E.
Nearly half, 46 percent, report less than 75 percent compliance with their T&E policies. Among companies that employ more than 1,000, just over a quarter do not know what percentage of submitted expenses comply with T&E policy. Only 27 percent of organizations overall have systems that flag out-of-policy expenses automatically.
Of those that have adopted automated expense management systems, 57 percent achieved a positive ROI in one year or less, and almost 70 percent did so within two years.