Business travel expenses ‘biggest time waster’

Each expense report for a business trip with accommodation takes an average of 20 minutes and creates processing costs of £37, according to a study conducted by Hotels Solutions Provider HRS.

Accounting for business travel expenses is one of the biggest cost factors and time wasters in companies, as revealed in the latest white paper released by the GBTA Foundation and HRS, which surveyed more than 500 travel managers from companies around the world.

The process is also error-prone: around one in five claims are incorrect and each correction takes a further 18 minutes and costs £33.

“When looking for potential savings, most companies only look at direct costs, such as the price of train tickets, flights or hotel rooms. But there are much greater potential savings in improving the processing of travel expense reports. The key to this is an automated and digitalised process that removes the need for manual entry and attaching receipts,” said Tobias Ragge, chief executive of HRS.