Meeting the Business Travel & Spend Management Challenges of 2023

Three years ago, the pandemic forced organizations to quickly pivot strategies to keep their operations on track. Today, the global community faces continued and new pressures following the fundamental shift in how, where, and when business happens. I have spent significant time reflecting on the ripples from this shift, as the impact on the travel and expense (T&E) landscape has been substantial.  

So, what does the world of T&E and accounts payable (AP) look like right now? Travel and spending are rebounding and quickly approaching pre-pandemic levels. In 2022, SAP Concur processed 192 million expense reports, a 42% increase over 2021. We also had nearly 43 million travel transactions, a 110% jump compared to the year before.  

Although returning to familiar levels, the reality is that this spending is far from familiar. Business spend used to be fairly consistent, with similar transaction types that could be managed through repeatable processes and protocols. However, health and safety considerations and the rise of remote and hybrid work have resulted in more complexity in processing spend.  

For instance, according to expense reports processed in SAP Concur, the use of public transportation as an expense category dropped from as much as 30% pre-pandemic down to 10% today as more travelers opt for rental cars and spend on mileage, parking, tolls, and more. The “other” expense category soared from 4% in 2019 to as high as 25% in 2021, and it now remains in the top three expense categories for organizations.  

The move away from the familiar requires new policies, processes, and levels of oversight to effectively manage company and employee spend in this current landscape. Employees have demanded more control of how they work in recent years. As employees continue to navigate new ways of working, they’re questioning the specifics around corporate travel programs: “Why do I have to travel in this way?” “Why should I follow this policy and use this tool?” Business travelers need solutions that enhance their experience and provide a comfortable, intuitive way to manage their travel and spending.  

Simultaneously, economic uncertainty and dynamic labor trends have contributed to a remarkable change in organizations. Paired with a new generation entering the workforce, we see many new faces running travel, expense, and AP programs. While these folks bring new perspectives and innovative thinking, turnover can make navigating complicated infrastructure and nuanced processes even more challenging. Sustainability, duty of care, and tax and regulatory pressures layer on the complexity.  

Despite these demands, I am optimistic about what SAP Concur and our industry partners are doing.  

At SAP, we’re focused on reducing complexity through innovation and helping our customers use the latest technology and data to make tackling these challenges easier. We are investing in a new travel experience that will better address the needs of our travelers, customers, and travel partners. Users can expect a more approachable interface, desktop-mobile content parity, greater sustainable travel options, improved policy compliance capabilities, intelligent integrations across SAP products, and more. 

On the expense side, we migrated 36,000 customers to our next-gen expense user interface (UI) for a better experience managing travel and spending in ways that work for them and their business. The new UI was built to improve functionality, visibility, accessibility, and reporting capabilities across the mobile and desktop experience. 

We are also working to provide virtual card payment options in Concur Invoice for U.S. and Canadian currencies and greater flexibility and control, with features that allow users to schedule payments and give executives the option for final approval.  

I’m excited to begin delivering many of these updates to customers this year, as we navigate the ever-changing business travel and corporate spend landscape together.