20th December Is World’s Busiest Day for Expense Claims

Hong Kong - December 16, 2011 - Concur (Nasdaq: CNQR), a travel and expense company, has identified December 20^th as the world’s busiest day for submitting expense claims. Based on an analysis of its clients’ expense transaction volume, the number of claims made globally on this day is 138 per cent above the daily average, as staff rush to recoup costs ahead of the Christmas holidays.

With over 10,000 clients globally, Concur has unprecedented insight into corporate T&E spend. Similar to the results Concur saw last year, global expense reporting volume tends to spike as companies near the end of the year. A key factor that may contribute to the dramatic increase in claims during the Christmas period is a surge in client and staff entertainment. Another cause could be a backlog of receipts and expenses incurred by employees in previous months that need to be reconciled by the end of the calendar year. Personal finances also tend to be stretched at this time of year, so people are looking to

“As wallets feel the strain of the festive period, claiming expenses suddenly springs to the forefront of minds,” comments Michael Eberhard, EVP & General Manager, Asia Pacific at Concur Technologies. “Due to the volume, accountant teams often have a very tough job getting everything processed before the Christmas break. So spare a thought for your colleagues and try to submit expenses little and often, not all on one day at the last minute.”  

Advancements in travel and expense management technology mean organisations can now gain complete visibility and control over the entire expense claims process. Companies like, Concur, make it easy for businesses to submit and track expenses online or from their mobile and convert paper receipts into digital records. Employees can even take photos of receipts with a smartphone, automatically attach the receipt image to an expense claim, and get them signed off much faster than filing expenses by hand.

“There are three spikes for expense submissions in our business – one around the time of our trade fairs, one at year end and one just prior to the festive season. At this time of year, staff want reimbursement in time for the Christmas break,” Gary Bateman, Head of Financial Operations, at BBC Worldwide commented. “I remember life before Concur when we used to have piles of expense reports travelling around internal departments and receipts would become detached or lost. Today, we have an automated, scalable solution. Our staff submit expenses while travelling using Concur mobile on their smartphones and regularly do their expenses on the move making it less onerous for everyone involved. It’s also helpful being able to reference expenses from a year ago and track the audit trail.”

“Automated expense systems make it much easier to submit expenses. They eliminate frustrating and time consuming practices like stapling all of the right receipts together and filling out reams of paperwork. Credit card charges are automatically imported and using a smartphone, you can take a photo of the receipt from any cash transaction. As a result, expense claims are much easier for finance teams to track and approve, making the likelihood of getting hard earned cash back before the festive period much higher.” added Michael.