How Much Do Expense Reports Really Cost a Company?

Recently the GBTA Foundation released a study, in partnership with HRS, to better understand the expense reporting process at companies across the globe, to learn about the pain points in the process and to identify areas of opportunity to improve existing practices.

One of the key takeaways discovered in the study is the true costs of an expense report for companies.

The average cost to process an expense report for a single night hotel stay is $58 and takes 20 minutes to complete. However, one in five (19 percent) expense reports contain errors or missing information costing an additional $52 and 18 minutes to correct each expense report.

These hidden costs can put a drain on company resources. Companies process an average of 51,000 expense reports each year meaning companies around the globe spend, on average, approximately half a million dollars and nearly 3,000 hours correcting errors in expense reports annually.

The numbers do vary by company size and spend. Companies that have large annual spends or more employees actually spend less time processing a single expense report compared to smaller companies with lower annual spends.

Stay tuned for more info on current expense reporting practices across the globe and pain points in the process.