Certify Releases Survey on Travel and Expense Trends for 2013

PORTLAND, ME--(Marketwired - May 16, 2013) -  Cloud-based travel and expense management software provider Certify announces the results of a new survey on corporate travel and entertainment expenses. The survey, based on input from more than 165 companies, indicates that many companies still use manual processes, such as spreadsheets and paper, for expense reporting and management.  The majority of those companies surveyed are looking to reduce costs and increase compliance through moving expense management to the cloud. Survey findings, available here, detail small, midsize and large company expense management challenges and what companies are seeking in a new system.

Highlights of the survey include:

• Top pain points for expense management include employees not submitting reports on time (47%), employees losing or forgetting receipts (42%) and excessive time spent improving and reconciling reports (39%);
• More than 50% of organizations still have manual processes for expense management;
• After simplifying processes (50%), the second top critical area for expense management improvement is mobile access (40%);
• 64% and 57% of small and midsize businesses, respectively, plan to switch to cloud-based expense management systems.
• Nearly half of enterprise companies (1000 employees or larger) still employ manual expense processes yet 72% of those respondents will switch to cloud-based systems.
• The top reasons for switching to the cloud include simplifying overall expense reporting processes, providing anywhere access to expense systems and delivering better analytics and reporting.
• Users of automated expense management systems report much faster reimbursement times: 52% report less than seven days, compared with 8-14 days for 50% of companies with manual processes.
• More than half of SMBs integrate their expense management system with corporate credit cards, 46% integrate with General Ledger and 39% with Accounts Payable.

The primary drivers behind improving expense management processes however, differ based on company size. For small businesses, the majority (40%) indicated a need to reduce costs. Nearly half of enterprise companies, however, cited the need to improve visibility into spending and increase compliance.

"The typical company will spend at least 10% of its total annual budget on expenses related to business travel in 2013," says Robert Neveu, CEO of Certify. "Our survey tells us that companies are struggling with inefficient processes, such as employees submitting incomplete reports, delaying approval and reimbursement. When companies adopt cloud and mobile expense management systems, those pain points disappear, giving finance directors better control over this large budget item."

About Certify

Certify is the leading online travel and expense management solution for companies of all sizes. Organizations worldwide book travel and complete expense reports quickly, easily and cost effectively using Certify cloud and mobile applications. For more information about Certify please call 207.773.6100 or visit http://www.certify.com.