Where Are the Opportunities to Improve Financial Controls and Compliance in Your Organisation?

Naomi Hamlin |

Non-compliant business spend threatens the bottom line and increases regulatory risk. But how do you improve compliance without creating additional work or alienating employees with elaborate processes? Your organisation’s policies are the first step, but you need to make sure they are enforced rigorously and consistently if you are going to maximise their value.

As we explain in our How Does Your Business Measure Up? ebook, SAP Concur solutions give you the tools you need.

See how SAP Concur solutions can help you optimise business spend for controls and compliance

 

 

In the first instance, because they automate your employee spend processes, you are better equipped to reduce non-compliance due to keying errors, duplications, and mis-categorisations.

But that’s just the start. Let’s look at four areas where non-compliance has the biggest risks. Ask yourself how your organisation measures up – and see how SAP Concur solutions could help you.

Reducing Non-Compliant Business Spend

The vast majority of employees want to follow company spending policies and non-compliant spend is a result of not knowing or not understanding the rules.

SAP Concur solutions build compliance into the process, making it easier to stick to the rules. IDC research shows that Concur Invoice has positive impacts on employee policy compliance because a greater number of employees follow up-to-date compliance policies. This results in cost savings and minimises the time employees spend trying to determine the correct level of policy compliance. The figure is quantified as 18% more employees following company policy after deployment of Concur Invoice and took average compliance levels from 82% to 97%.

Driving Corporate Card Usage Over Cash Spend

Increased rates of remote working have shifted where and how business spend happens. When employees use cash or their personal card for business spend, visibility gets lost and traditional controls go out the window.

With SAP Concur solutions in place, you have intelligent tools to drive corporate card usage and gain control on spend. You can lower the receipt threshold for cash spend – and ensure it’s enforced. You can allow quicker reimbursement processes for corporate card spend to discourage personal card spending. You also have access to data to spot where to target further actions.

Optimising VAT Reclaim Opportunities

UK businesses miss out on 54% of the VAT they can reclaim on travel and expense costs, which represents a substantial chunk of revenue – worldwide, it’s estimated at $20 billion.

But reclaiming VAT is easier said than done. Manual reclaim processes are prone to error and unsuited to the increasingly complex web of government and country-specific VAT regulations.

Digitisation helps because you can harness the power of AI and machine learning. Concur Tax Assurance by VATBox harnesses the power of AI and machine learning to automatically detect VAT-eligible expenses, validate receipts, and optimise reclaim potential.

Improving Duty of Care by Enhancing Safety and Compliance

Even pre-Covid, over 90% of HR executives and Chief People Officers said traveller safety reports were extremely or very important to them. So as your employees return to business travel, it will be more important than ever to make sure you have the systems in place to deliver your duty of care obligations.

The SAP Concur system can combine booking, expense, credit card, and mobile data in near real-time for an accurate view of where employees are – and where they’re going, even when they’re booking independently.

How SAP Concur Solutions Can Help

Best-in-class technology can give you the visibility and agility you need to enforce policies, reduce the risk of non-compliance, maximise VAT reclaim, and enhance your duty of care. In doing so, it equips you to optimise business spend and remain resilient over time.

To learn more, download our How Does Your Business Measure Up? ebook.

See how SAP Concur solutions can help you optimise business spend for controls and compliance