What’s worse: a delayed flight or a stack of overdue expense reports?
According to a new survey released this week, expense reporting can be so odious and complex that business travelers would take extreme measures to avoid the process altogether.
The TriNet Expense study, released by TriNet and conducted by Wakefield Research, surveyed 1,000 business travelers last spring and found that:
- More than half (53 percent) admit to not submitting a business expense for reimbursement to avoid completing an expense report.
- More than half (53 percent) would rather complete their taxes than work on their expense reports.
- Three out of five (60 percent) have had problems paying a personal bill because they were waiting for an expense reimbursement from their employer
With U.S. business travel spending expected to top $310 billion in 2015, archaic expense reporting isn’t just annoying business travelers—TriNet says it can hurt their personal finances and morale.
How do you feel about the way your company handles your expense reports? Ever feel like your company’s bank? Please leave your comments below.
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MadMac89 says
July 12, 2015 at 5:05 pmWow, is that the classic case of the grass is always greener… Traveling sucks. And when you do it a lot – enough for the points to really matter, the last thing you want to do is get on another airplane and eat more credit card food.
What I would do for a home cooked meal two nights a week… perspective everyone…
MadMac89 says
July 12, 2015 at 4:59 pmSo…. I’ve been filing expenses weekly since… oh my – 1985. It’s always been painful, it remains only marginally better today. Several comments:
1) we all hate concur – until we go back to something worse, and then we realized how much we love it compared to the rest.
—— Tip: use the mobile app to file each expense –> as it happens NEVER <– come home with less money than you left home with… things on you – pay for out of pocket on the spot. Point is, the expense rules are so tight now, that everyone has to fudge something, somewhere. You have to be honest – because all those people that were not – are the reason for all the rules… It's the "front page of the newspaper rule".
4) Most of this accounting crap is not business's fault. This is your taxation system at work, demanding written documentation and justification for every single expense. So – if you don't vote, and you don't complain to your representative in that government – you can't complain about having to do expenses…
Jim says
July 10, 2015 at 9:22 pmWho are you contracting for? Perhaps I need to get a job THERE! =)
Uh, Clem says
July 10, 2015 at 6:06 pmYes, I realize that I’m the exception, and I am grateful for it. I do file very detailed reports, but I’m also allowed a reasonable amount per day for undocumented tipping, snacks and small out-of-pocket expenses. I front all my expenses but reimbursement is so quick that I rarely carry a credit card balance to the next month. My reports are carefully reviewed, but even I forget to list an expense (but include a receipt) they fix it, increase the reimbursement and send me a quick email. The quick-pay policy extends to invoices for my fees, too. If my post-assignment paperwork (brief report, invoice) is in, the payment usually hits my account in a day or two. The firm values the work of its consultants and never makes us wait for fees and expenses. I know this is quite unusual.
kingofbytes says
July 10, 2015 at 5:48 pmGets old very quickly NBG….trust me…..I’d be happy to switch with you…in a heartbeat.
kingofbytes says
July 10, 2015 at 5:47 pmYou are the exception my friend. In the last 20 years of my career in consulting it’s been one bad system after another. The newest has us itemizing expenses like a $2 coffee. WTF doesn’t begin to describe the pain…….
Uh, Clem says
July 10, 2015 at 5:35 pmI file 35 to 40 expense reports per. I scan receipts to PDF, use an embedded spreadsheet in a Word template to list and total everything, and usually spend no more than 30 minutes, start to finish. The consulting firm that I contract for pays quickly; if I file a report on Monday and there are no questions, the money is in my account on Tuesday.
COSPILOT says
July 10, 2015 at 9:48 amI’m guilty of getting behind on expense reports, which drives my wife nuts. I’m typically 2-3 months behind, get caught up and think I will always stay on top of it moving forward. Before I know it, I’m behind again… Each month averages 5K in expenses, so this adds up quick.
Ford says
July 10, 2015 at 9:09 amMy company just switched a few months ago from excel spreadsheet hell to AmEx’s “Concur” expense report solution. Has a mobile app for receipts and a web interface for finer tuning if you have a complicated expense. It’s not perfect but eliminating paper receipts, spending seriously hours a month taping them to sheets of paper so they can be faxed to accounting(holy retarded process BAtman) is such a huge advantage.
Brian says
July 10, 2015 at 8:54 amIf 53% are not submitting an expense then companies must be thrilled.
If there is a delay in expense reports and employees act as free loans for employers it benefits the company.
As someone who spends 75+ nights a year on road and fills out dozens of expense reports with a dizzying array of arcane fields to type in, I just assumed the expense software is designed to make employees not want to do them.
NonBusinessGuy says
July 10, 2015 at 8:34 amAs a person not working in the business sector, I wished my employer would send me for trips and reimburse me from them. It’s free spending, and you get to keep all the miles, points, cashback and perks. And seriously, if you can’t float $2k for a month or two, you got some serious personal finance management problems. I don’t believe business people are paid that badly that you can’t float $2k for a month!!!
Chris McGinnis says
July 10, 2015 at 8:33 amLOL! Thanks, Dan. –chris
Dan Leifker says
July 10, 2015 at 8:12 amWhen I started my working career in the late 1980s, we all had secretaries. When I traveled for business, I simply accumulated all my receipts in an envelope, and when I returned home I gave the envelope to my secretary. A week later I got a check. The secretaries cheerfully did anything they were asked to do, even fetch coffee and run personal errands.
In the 1990s the secretaries became “admins” who tended to focus on answering phones, scheduling their bosses for various things, and guarding their bosses from unwelcome visitors. That’s when I started doing my own travel expense reports, and I hated it. The worst was when I had tacked on an extra day of vacation and then had to figure out how to prorate the rental car expense.
Now, in 2015, all the admins are gone and have been replaced by voicemail, email, and online calendars. And I’ve come full circle: when I have travel expenses that client is paying for, I simply scan all the receipts and forward the PDF to my client with a grand total added by pencil at the bottom.
But business travel invites a lot of mischief. I once had a friend who flew from Washington DC to attend a conference in Las Vegas. On one day of the conference he decided to play hooky and drive to the Grand Canyon. He arrived, got out of his car, and walked to the observation area… and bumped into his boss, who was supposed to be at the same conference and had also skipped out for the day. I’m sure that was a very awkward conversation.