Travel and expense is a notoriously difficult operating cost to effectively manage that can severely hinder employee productivity and spend visibility. Join Mark Brousseau to learn how analytics and insights from trends can directly improve your overall T&E process for everyone’s benefit.
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5. Learning Objectives
1. Apply specific tactics to leverage spend data and achieve smarter growth.
2. Give examples of ways to increase the visibility—and value—from your
travel and expense (T&E) spending.
3. Recognise the current state of the T&E industry and emerging trends that
could impact your organisation.
6. About Certify
• Integrated, automated solutions for travel, expense,
accounts payable invoice, and purchasing
• 64 languages, 140+ currencies, clients in 80 countries
• Rated #1 by G2 for user experience in expense
management software (2014-2019) and Momentum
Grid leader (2018)
• PC Magazine Editors’ Choice for best expense tracking
software (2015-2019)
• Recognised as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape for
Worldwide Travel and Expense Management Software
• Processing expenses valued at over $5.1 billion annually
7. Our Agenda
1. The dynamism of travel and expense—and why it matters
2. Key findings from Certify’s 2019 Travel and Expense Management Trends Report
3. T&E management and controlling spend
4. The art of leveraging industry benchmarks
5. Recommendations for improving T&E management
8. Before COVID-19, in-person meetings were the gold standard:
• Customer relationships
• Supplier relationships
• Professional development for employees
T&E Spending is Changing
9. The Scale of T&E
77%
of all E.U. business travel ($253 billion)
was spent in Germany, the U.K., France,
Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands
$1.41 trillion
spent globally on business travel
activity in 2018
$330.3 billion
spent on business travel in
Western Europe in 2018
Source: GBTA BTI™ Outlook – Annual Global Report & Forecast 2019
10. Now, organisations must adapt quickly and move critical
functions online so that business can continue without
requiring employees to be in the office.
T&E Spending is Changing
11. Companies maintain business continuity by investing in:
• Home office equipment, supplies, and monthly expenses
• Software for hosting virtual conferences
• Tools to replace in-person collaboration and meetings
• Solutions to digitise paper-based processes
T&E Spending is Changing
12. Empowering employees to spend wisely provides a sense of
stability that allows them to continue achieving their goals—
even as everything changes.
Stability Matters
13. As employees shift to working from home, how can
we improve control, efficiency, and visibility into
company-related spending?
14. Invest in T&E Done Right
An effective T&E reporting process:
• Lowers expense report processing costs companywide
• Increases the productivity of every employee
• Maximises the productivity of managers, accountants, and finance staff
• Improves visibility into spending and working capital management
• Adds stability and continuity while transitioning to work from home
• Impacts top- and bottom-line revenue continuously
15. The Hidden Costs of Expense Management
Common costly frustrations:
• Hours to create, review, and approve reports
• Hard costs for paper, printing, and postage
• Time required for reconciliation and reimbursement
• Storage fees to archive expense reports
• Lost productivity and lost opportunity
• Lack of visibility into T&E spending
16. a) Under £8
b) £9 – £16
c) £17 – £24
d) £25 or more
e) We do not track these costs
Polling Question 1
How much does it cost to process a single
expense report at your organisation?
17. Effective T&E management empowers
employees to spend wisely while increasing
visibility and control for finance teams.
18. 2019 T&E Management Trends Report
• Survey of hundreds of finance professionals outside
of Certify’s customer base
• The resulting report—now in its seventh year—offers
insights, concerns, and areas of focus for travel and
expense management
• Used by industry publications to identify trends
and benchmarks
• Reveals how companies use technology to improve
T&E management
2019 Travel & Expense Management Trends Report, Certify, Inc.
19. About the Research
37%
44%
19%
Manager, controller, or accountant
Other (accounting staff, consultant,
administrative, etc.)
Director-level or above with expense
reporting responsibility (CEO, CFO, etc.)
Company Size
Enterprise: More than 1,000 employees
Mid-Market: 101-999 employees
Small Business: Less than 100 employees
23%
40%
37%
585 Finance professionals surveyed from
outside the Certify customer base
2019 Travel & Expense Management Trends Report, Certify, Inc.
20. Areas of T&E Management: Most Critical to Improve
Expense
management
process efficiency
Transparency /
visibility / reporting
related to spend
Corporate travel
policy compliance
Audit and reporting Travel booking
25%
14%
12% 11% 11%
2019 Travel & Expense Management Trends Report, Certify, Inc.
21. Top Three Areas for Improvement
Policy
Compliance
Visibility of
T&E Spend
Efficiency for
T&E Management
2019 Travel & Expense Management Trends Report, Certify, Inc.
22. Controlling T&E Spend: A Formal T&E Policy
Do you have a T&E policy in place?
72%
21%
7%
Yes
No
I don’t know
2019 Travel & Expense Management Trends Report, Certify, Inc.
23. Controlling T&E Spend: T&E Policy IQ
72% of organisations have a formal T&E policy in place.
But 58% of respondents report that
their travelers’ understanding of their
T&E policy is, at best, “decent—but in
need of improvement”.
2019 Travel & Expense Management Trends Report, Certify, Inc.
29. T&E Policy: The Foundation of Control
An effective corporate travel policy:
• Is clear and simple to follow for all employees
• Is up-to-date with rules, partners, and discounts
• Manages the average traveler within the organisation
• Allows for reasonable accommodations
• Contains clear explanations for limits and restrictions
• Considers travel vendors with discounts and
preferred pricing
• Enforces legal compliance with VAT standards and
other regulations
30. a) 0 – 24%
b) 25% – 49%
c) 50% – 74%
d) 75% – 100%
e) I am not sure
Polling Question 2
What percentage of submitted expenses adhere to policy?
31. Controlling T&E Spend: T&E Policy Compliance
How does your company enforce its travel and expense policy?
29%
27%
19%
17%
5%
3%
Manually check each
expense
Our T&E system
automatically flags out
of policy expenses
Responsibility of
employees
Manually, only reviewing
expenses with a high
value
Our T&E policy is not
enforced
I don't know
2019 Travel & Expense Management Trends Report, Certify, Inc.
32. Controlling T&E Spend: Policy Compliance
What percentage of submitted expenses are within policy?
22%
54%
16%
3%
5%
0 – 24%
25% – 49%
50% – 74%
75% – 100%
I am not sure
2019 Travel & Expense Management Trends Report, Certify, Inc.
33. 46% of organisations report less than a 75% rate
of compliance with their T&E policy.
26% of enterprise-sized organisations do not
know what percentage of submitted expenses
are T&E policy compliant.
35. The Art of Leveraging Benchmarks
Focus on What Matters
Continually Verify What Matters
Compare “Apples to Apples”
Compare Data Over Time
Compare Data Across Industries
The Magnitude of Trends
The Direction of Trends
The Driver of Trends
37. About SpendSmart™
The SpendSmart Year-in-Review Report tracks T&E spending
benchmarks drawn from more than $5.1B in expense transactions
processed by Certify in 2019.
38. T&E Category Benchmarks
T&E Category
Benchmark Averages
in 2019
Percentage of total annual
T&E transactions by expense
category based on more than
$5.1B in transactions processed
by the Certify system in 2019.
Certify SpendSmart™ Year-in-Review Report, 2019
39. Expense Category Averages
How the T&E budget was spent according to our 2019 SpendSmart Year-in-Review Report
Certify SpendSmart™ Year-in-Review Report, 2019
40. a) Amazon
b) British Airways
c) Costa Coffee
d) Marriott
e) Uber
Polling Question 3
What was the most expensed brand of 2019?
42. Scooters Zip Into Expense Reports
50% 42% 4%
$6.88
Average Cost
Per Rental
$10.28
Average Cost
Per Rental
$8.83
Average Cost
Per Rental
Certify SpendSmart™ Year-in-Review Report, 2019
43. T&E Benchmark Calculator
https://www.certify.com/benchmarkquiz.aspx
Certify SpendSmart™ Benchmark Calculator
SEE HOW YOUR T&E SPENDING COMPARES TO INDUSTRY AVERAGES
Enter your average cost per transaction for the travel and expense categories below. We'll compare
it with Certify's SpendSmart 2019 benchmark data and send you a customised overview of how
your spending stacks up to the averages.
44. Gain even more value from your
T&E spending with analytics.
45. Recommendations for Improving Spend
Put Your Data
to Good Use
Invest in Process
Improvement
Stay on Top
of Industry Trends
46. Cashflow management and forecasting
• How quickly can finance access—and act
on—expense data?
• Do they have the level of visibility they need
to inform strategy?
Expense trends and vendor negotiations
• Where do you spend the most?
• Are you buying the same product from
multiple sources? Is a spend category growing?
Budget allocation and usage
• Are any departments under- or over-
spending?
• Are travelers spending within an appropriate
range for their role in the company?
Improving policy compliance
• How many expenses are within policy?
• Do you have a high occurrence of exceptions
—and what is the root cause?
Recommendations for Improving Spend
Utilise T&E data for:
47. Unleash Your Data
Set aside time to review your expense metrics and analytics
against industry benchmarks.
• How can we make expense management efficient and effective?
• Do our expense benchmarks align with industry averages?
• Has our spending behaviour changed?
• Should we update our travel policy?
48. How can we make expense management efficient and effective?
• Identify the average cost to process a single expense report from end-to-end
• Discover how many reports have errors or exceptions—and the cost to fix them
• Learn which travelers and departments are spending within policy
Unleash Your Data
50. Has our spending behaviour changed, and should we
update our travel policy?
• Identify top expense categories, average costs, and vendors
• Improve traveler’s usage of preferred vendors and discount programs
• Optimise T&E budgets by company, location, department, or traveler
Unleash Your Data
51. Invest in Improving Processes Using Data
Discuss additional challenges or
bottlenecks in finance and potential
improvements like:
• Integrating data from additional business systems
to get a wider view of company spending
• Moving to a dedicated travel, invoice, or AP platform
to control costs, increase spend visibility, and improve
productivity and satisfaction
• Lowering reimbursement times and transfer or FOREX
fees with an alternative payment provider
52. a) Non-existent
b) Minimal at best
c) Okay, but we have major blind spots
d) Good, but we could do better
e) Ideal, we have near real-time visibility
Polling Question 4
How would you describe the level of visibility your company
has relative to T&E spend?
54. Closing Thoughts
• Visibility into T&E processes and spend is critical for T&E management
• Leveraging benchmarks is a valuable tool in managing and improving
T&E management
• An effective T&E policy is a key pillar of T&E done right—and should adapt
with the industry and business climate
• The right technology, combined with employee education, reduce risk while
driving T&E policy compliance
55. Additional Resources
2019 SpendSmart™ Year-in-Review Report & Infographic:
http://www.certify.com/CertifySpendSmartReport.aspx
SpendSmart Benchmark Calculator:
https://www.certify.com/benchmarkquiz.aspx
2019 Expense Management Trends Report:
https://www.certify.com/2019-Travel-Expense-Management-Trends-Report.aspx
Five Years of The Craziest Expenses:
https://www.certify.com/the-craziest-expenses-survey-the-best-of-2013-2018.aspx
Mark’s Bio: Mark Brousseau is a noted analyst, speaker, writer, and marketer with more than 26 years of experience in advising leading providers of financial operations solutions and services. Brousseau is president of Brousseau & Associates, a full-service strategic marketing and business development consultancy with the largest client base of any firm of its kind.
He lives in Center City, Philadelphia with his family.
Please join me in welcoming Mark Brousseau.
Before COVID-19, most of this spending required employees to be in-person.
But as more restrictions are placed to ensure our safety, T&E spending is shifting online.
In extraordinary times, it’s important to maintain business continuity.
High-level overview of Trends Report and credibility
Speak to demographics briefly
Certify’s parent company, Emburse, recently released results from their annual Craziest Expenses Survey. Here are a few highlights.
I wonder if anyone on our call today has a policy that allows for scooter rentals. The industry changes so quickly, it’s essential to review your policy and adjust for the changing times. This is especially true with something like scooter rentals and how it relates to duty of care.
If you’re looking for a quick way to compare your company’s spending, check out Certify’s SpendSmart Benchmark Calculator.
Are you noticing a lot of spend with Vendors like Amazon, or any other vendor where you spend frequently or with large volumes? You could have an opportunity for savings by switching to an AP solution to cut costs and open up visibility to take advantage of DPOs and other discount programs for early payment.