Behind the face value of a business trip often lie indirect costs, such as the countless hours spent each year by travellers filling in their expense claims. Countless? Not really... A growing number of studies attempt to put a figure on the time wasted, the unproductivity, and - therefore - the money wasted in companies. The latest is by KDS, which was already in the news recently after announcing its buyout by American Express GBT. The publisher of software solutions specialising in business travel and expense management surveyed 780 professionals in the French market. The aim: to understand how employees and their companies deal with this thorny expense issue, and at what cost.
According to the survey, 34% of French people still use spreadsheets to submit claims. Result: 59% of those questioned spend more than 30 minutes on it. This loss of time and efficiency is detrimental to both the employee and their company, given that a large majority of respondents (73%) fill in their claims forms during working hours. KDS even estimates this loss of productivity at between 20 minutes and 1 hour per month for 85% of respondents... Digital remains an exception in travel & expense, while 11% of employees use an online tool and scan their receipts as they go along. Expense processing is not the only time-consuming stage of business travel, far from it. In fact, 41% of those surveyed would spend between 20 minutes and over an hour researching and booking a business trip.
Outdated processes (...) limit travellers' choice or sacrifice usability
"The data collected as part of our study proves the extent to which outdated processes, as well as inadequate business travel and expense management systems, limit travellers' choice or sacrifice user-friendliness, forcing professionals to book directly and continuing to penalise French companies," says Sébastien Clouet, Marketing Director at KDS. "From a cost and productivity point of view, this should persuade companies of the importance of putting in place the right procedures and solutions to enable their staff to operate with maximum efficiency," he adds.
To conclude on a positive note, and contrary to certain preconceived ideas, we would point out that French employees generally play fair. The KDS survey even reports a " great honesty "He notes that the vast majority (76%) report their mileage accurately. The same applies to taxi journeys: "if the taxi driver hands out a blank receipt, 78% scrupulously record the exact cost of the journey "says the study.
