Certify Releases Its Fifth Annual Study on T&E Expense Technology, Trends and Best Practices

PORTLAND, ME--(Marketwired - February 09, 2017) - Certify, a leading automated travel and expense management software provider, today announced the results of its fifth annual expense management trends study for 2017. This year's analysis revealed important new insights into the top pressures, challenges and other company dynamics that shape T&E expense reporting practices today. Data was collected from more than 600 CFOs, controllers, accountants and other finance professionals from outside the Certify customer base, making the 2017 Expense Management Trends and Annual T&E Outlook among the most comprehensive studies available in the industry today.

First conducted in 2012, the Certify annual trends report is designed to help finance leaders identify new and emerging best practices for T&E expense management and benchmark current processes to those of their peer companies. Questions range from the top expense reporting pain points and goals for improvement, to the specific features companies are using to realize a return on investment with an automated system. Results of the study are now available as a white paper report and infographic.

"The more than 600 survey respondents this year represent a true cross-section of U.S. businesses, by size, industry and business sector," said Certify CEO Bob Neveu. "We make this report available free of charge, so accounting and finance professionals can easily learn from the experiences of their peers, and gain access to valuable information that can really help inform better decisions about their individual expense management goals and requirements."

Survey Highlights:

• Companies of all sizes were represented in the data: 27% Small Business (fewer than 100 employees); 43% Midsized Companies (101 - 999); 30% Enterprise (1,000+).

• Job titles of survey participants included: 46% director-level or above with expense reporting responsibility (CEO, CFO, etc.); 38% manager, controller or accountant; 16% other (accounting staff, consultant, administrative, etc.).

• Current trends in expense management systems: 46% of companies are using some form of a manual system (down 4% from the 2016 study); 37% of companies are currently on a web-based system, and 17% manage expenses using an ERP system.

• Among small business, 64% are using some form of a manual process compared to just 20% of enterprise companies.

• For T&E pain points, employees losing paper receipts increased to 52%, followed by employees failure to submit reports on time (51%), the time it takes to reconcile, review and approve reports (36%), reviewing for policy violations (28%), and errors on expense reports (26%).
• Participants were asked to identify their per-report processing costs: Under $7 per report (31%); $10-$20 per report (16%); $25 or more per report (9%); the survey also found nearly half of all companies do not track expense processing costs (44%).

• Benefits of switching to a web-based system extend into traditional accounting functions as companies use system data to enhance annual budgeting and planning (44%), auditing (40%), annual budget planning (35%), forecasting (26%), and financial/regulatory reporting (23%)

• For companies that switched to an automated expense management system, the majority of are able to realize a full return on investment in one year or less (70%), with 89% of all companies achieving full ROI in 2 years or less

• The ways companies were able to achieve ROI include: improved efficiency in the expense reporting process (57%), reduction in processing costs (48%), travel booking controls (22%) mobile accessibility (22%), elimination of payment for duplicate expenses (21%), and others.

Full survey data and infographic will be publically available February 9, 2017, on www.certify.com, and presented in a new webinar on the same date. For more information about Certify or the 2017 Expense Management Trends Report, call 1-888-925-0510 or go to www.certify.com.

About Certify

Certify is the leading online travel and entertainment 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.