Expense reports may have decreased for some companies during COVID. But in many cases, expense reimbursement requests are back on the rise.
Your A/P team should keep its eyes peeled and expect more mistakes as more employees submit expense reports.
Here’s why: Expense policy compliance is much lower right now across the board for companies. That’s according to a recent survey of business travelers and finance managers conducted by SAP Concur and Wakefield Research.
Recent expensing changes
Ninety percent of companies have allowed employees to expense new items during the pandemic, per additional research from the Corporate Spend Playbook from PYMNTS and Airbase – mostly for work-at-home expenses.
And nearly a third of Finance pros have seen employees take advantage of these changes.
Over the past year, invalid expenses have been showing up more often on employee expense reports.
In fact, 98% of finance managers said they’ve seen more expenses from employees that don’t comply with company policy.
Plus, 89% of business travelers surveyed admitted they may have submitted an expense for reimbursement in the past year that violated company policy.
Prevent expense reimbursement issues
If these noncompliant expenses fall through the cracks, it gets costly for your company in various ways, from the actual money lost to any time your people may spend trying to track down the employee and get a refund.
That’s why it’s important for A/P to review all expense reports you receive closely. This is the case even for reports from trusted road warriors who have traveled often in the past.
Have them double-check all the supporting documentation employees submit with their expense reports. Make sure it matches up with each expense and ask for clarification if necessary.
Also, since business trips and reimbursement requests haven’t been as common in the past two years, it may be a good idea to give employees a quick refresher on your T&E policy. This is especially important if you’ve changed what’s reimbursable during the pandemic.
Your A/P team should remind employees of the policy’s terms. A/P should also give them clear examples of the kinds of expenses that are allowed – and those your company won’t reimburse.
Being proactive about T&E policy reminders now can prevent hassles for everyone in the future. It cuts down on confusion and ensures employees know exactly what can be reimbursed. And that’ll boost compliance while keeping costs low.