New data released by business travel and expense management platform, TravelPerk, has revealed the hidden financial toll of outdated expense processes on employees and finance teams.
Of the 4,000 business travellers surveyed, 83% of employees struggle to reconcile trip expenses.
More than a quarter of the cohort (26%) admitting to using their personal credit cards for large purchases. But with 28% facing delayed reimbursements, those who choose to use their own credit cards risk late payment fees and surcharges furthering the personal financial burden.
“Travel expenses dominate company P&Ls, yet most businesses still subject employees to manual, disconnected processes that our research shows creates real financial hardship,” said Roy Hefer, CFO at TravelPerk.
“When 83% of employees struggle with expenses and over a quarter use personal credit card, this becomes more than an efficiency problem.
“By embedding policy at the point of booking and through the expense claim process, automating things like receipt matching with AI, and optimising the whole process, you’re not only freeing up your employees’ day from unnecessary paperwork, but also giving them back their time to focus on what matters.”
Further, nearly one in five employees (19%) say they don’t know what’s reimbursable, and 1 in 4 (25%) worry about going over budget. By embedding policy guidelines directly into the booking and checkout process, companies can eliminate uncertainty and drive better compliance from the start.
One in four employees (24%) say their expense process is too complicated, and the same number say they simply don’t have the time to submit claims. When asked how AI could improve the work travel experience, nearly a quarter (24%) of employees named automated expense processing as their priority.
The survey also showed that more than a third (36%) of employees still book business travel through consumer travel platforms, while 25% admit to losing receipts during their travel.
This leaves finance teams scrambling to reconcile expenses, wasting hours chasing down approvals, and makes visibility challenging.
“It used to take maybe 10–15 minutes to enter an expense report. Now it’s 10 seconds flat – a timesaving factor of 60,” said Philipp Röthlisberger, Member of GVB’s Innovation Board.
