Mooncard barometer: questions about expense accounts

Business travellers, and executives in general, are all too familiar with this corporate mantra. And so it is, 80% of executives make regular expense claims - and 20% at least once a month - according to the barometer published on Tuesday by Mooncard. While this is a common practice, its implications are no less problematic. Advance payments can take on unfortunate proportions in a context of inflation. Based on the observation that more than one manager in two (52%) spends more than 100 euros a month on business expense advances - 3 points higher than in 2022 - Mooncard draws attention to the precariousness that such a practice can engender. According to the 2023 barometer, 17% of executives have already overdrawn their bank account because of an expense account. This figure is also up on the previous barometer (+3 points).

"The results of our survey should be a wake-up call to both finance and human resources departments."says Sylvain Montoro, Mooncard's Chief Financial Officer. "Faced with the rapid rise in catering, travel and accommodation costs, executives are having to change their behaviour to anticipate their monthly outgoings. Every company needs to get to grips with this issue and carry out its own internal audit: how many employees are having problems with their expense accounts? Do they still have the means to cover their business expenses to achieve their objectives? It's a strategic issue"underlines Sylvain Montoro.

The issue is all the more strategic in that the barometer published by Mooncard points to a collateral effect of these difficulties: the temptation of the fraud. According to this 2023 barometer, a quarter of those surveyed (23%) confessed to having already passed on personal expenses as expense claims. This proportion is all the more worrying given that the figure is still rising. sharp increase compared with 2022 (+10 points).