7 Bits of Shocking Data on Travel and Entertainment Claims

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Editor Coda
Jul 23, 2013

Maybe you're not shocked by this but I am. Concur run an annual report on expense claims and how they are within or outside policy. They shared the results on a sharedserviceslink.com webinar today.

The data this year showed some eye brow-raising results.

The result found that:

1/ 10% of approved claims were outside the organisation's policy

2/ Companies only obtained receipts for 74% of busines mileage claims where VAT is reclaimable (HMRC require 100%)

3/ Managers fail to investigate questionable claims, with only 1.2% of claims rejected

The key message during the webinar was that 'managers are the weakest link'. If they studied claims and actually cross-referenced claims against the policy, their reject-rate would be much higher and the company's travel and entertainment expenditure would decrease.

Their survey data was layered on top of a YouGov survey that had asked 2000 individuals a series of questions on expense claims. The results of this survey are even more startling:

4/ 55% of those surveyed weren't even sure if an expense policy existed in their company

5/ 25% of employees admitted to having exaggerated their claims

6/ 89% said their claims were never queried

7/ 30% said their boss probably exaggerated their claims


David Vine, Senior Director EMEA at Concur shared a number of horror stories with the audience. He highlighted that mileage is one area where employees round up. If HMRC see over 20% of mileage claims end in a '0' or a '5' then they will likely investigate.

The solution? Train the managers on the policy and ensure they enforce it with their teams. Automation absolutely helps, but training the managers to support the overall travel and entertainment strategy is key.

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