Public authorities have a responsibility to use taxpayers’ contributions wisely. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, individuals now have the right to information on how this money is being spent, even down to the money that an organisation is spending on travel and expenses.
Therefore, it is in the interest of public bodies to know and report on travel and expenses quickly to respond to requests, and stay within the Freedom of Information Act.
Many public bodies have already found that the general public is interested in the business travel and expenses incurred by public servants. Therefore, these institutions need to be able to show that they are in control of their travel and expense reporting.
And when the travel and expense data reported has the potential to damage the organisation; having an automated integrated travel and expense solution like Concur, where the type of travel and the type (and limit) of expense can be controlled by pre-defined business rules, is an must.
By using Concur you gain:
Travel and expense policies are easy to incorporate into Concur, meaning that you have complete control over the travel and expense decisions that employees can make. It is easy for employees to see what is in and out of policy, and any out-of-policy spend can be flagged for further investigation.
It is easy to access all the data held on the system, as using Concur gives you a complete view of employee business travel and expenses spend in one consolidated database. This data provides you with a global view of the whole organisation’s spend.
When using Concur, it is easy to report on employee spend with its consolidated data, and easy reporting functionality within Concur’s Business Intelligence service.
Public bodies need to be able to respond quickly to FOI requests (within 20 days) and using Concur means that you can create accurate reports quickly. With easy access to system data, public authorities can act proactively and publish travel and expense data in anticipation of requests and avoid the costs associated with this kind of administrative task.