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It’s not just the newcomers on the payment side tightening their travel connections. Citi, for example, in recent weeks announced a partnership with Navan for a jointly branded travel and expense offering. U.S. Bank, meanwhile, acquired TravelBank in 2021 and more recently announced a combined travel, payment and expense offering.
Easing the burden of expense reporting was one reason TravelBank was started in the first place, with automated approval flows and accounting tool integration. Coming together with U.S. Bank, however, provided “an amazing innovation opportunity,” Chung said.
“Banks are traditionally protective of all transaction data, and having access to card data isn’t something that has been available for many years,” he said. “With the work we’re doing with U.S. Bank, this all starts to come together.”
If You Build It…
Stepping back, the move to a world of limited to no expense reports seems like a big step, especially considering the lag in adoption even of widely available integration opportunities. A survey of more than 300 accounting and finance professionals by Center early this year showed that about a third were still using some combination of manual processes, such as spreadsheets and paper, to manage their expenses. While significant, it did mark a “sizeable” drop from a similar survey by Center in 2021, when that percentage was at 48 percent.
Manual processes happen mostly among small and midsize travel programs, though some large companies will cling to them as well, Concur’s Longstreth said, stemming from “inertia, hesitancy to mandate employee behavior, cost, accessibility, and lack of awareness of the benefits and potential savings that can come from automating travel and expense processes.”
Even such “worst practices” as asking employees to use personal cards for expenses can be hard to let go of for some companies, as employees might be accustomed to racking up massive rewards for personal use from big-ticket business travel expenses.
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