Automated credit card reconciliation: You Don’t Need to be Big to Get Big Returns

I love reviewing my monthly credit card statements and comparing line items to my crumpled receipts – said no one ever. Unless you’re an accountant perhaps. But even then, don’t you have more important things to do?

We think so, and that’s why we’re big fans of automated expense management, especially when it comes to reconciling credit card transactions. So, let’s get right to what everyone leading a smaller business needs to know.

The hidden costs of manual credit card reconciliation

Aside from papercuts and dried up highlighters, what do you think about when we mention credit card reconciliation? You may think of the hours spent staring at statements each month just to catch a $7 Uber charge from an employee’s night out with friends. In other words, time wasted that should have been spent on more important things. But don’t let those kinds of low cost “oops” lull you into a sense of complacency.

Out-of-policy spending and even outright fraud can easily fly under the radar when using a manual reconciliation process. If your company has multiple employees sharing a single corporate credit card or if you allow business expenses to be paid with personal credit cards, those risks can quickly multiply, too.

The result? Hidden costs that significantly impact your cash flow, business agility, and growth. Your business could also be hit with tax penalties and get a bad reputation for corporate fraud — a double whammy no business needs.

And here’s a statistic not to be ignored:

The average time span fraud lasts before detection is 14 months, and 76% of cases are committed at the employee or manager-level.

That might mean your risk exposure is being prodded higher by the star pitcher on your company softball team who needed a new softball glove or by loyal employee #3 who thinks they’ve earned the right to claim an increasing number of personal expenses each month.

Of course, we wouldn’t be mentioning all this without a solution to offer. So, here’s how you can make credit card reconciliation a breeze while avoiding difficult conversations with the employees you rely on most.

SAP Concur solutions make credit card reconciliation fun

Okay, perhaps not fun, but like most things in life there’s always room for improvement of your back-office financial processes. Imagine for a moment being able to:

• Spot expense claim errors, discrepancies, and duplicates immediately
• Identify unusual transactions and possible fraud
• Easily access up-to-date financial data
• Make more-informed decisions and plan more effectively

With solutions like Concur Expense and Concur Invoice, you can do all that and more. Your business will be able to automate and speed up the credit card reconciliation process, increase visibility into spending, and make life easier for everyone.

Here are some top benefits SAP Concur users have reported after automating their expense process:

• 32% less time to approve expenses
• 13 hours saved per finance/accounting employee per week
• $18 saved per expense report
• 8 months to positive ROI

As you can imagine, this results in lot of fan email from customers and partners. And ya, we’re big fans of them, too.

Ready to ditch the paper statements and highlighters? Take a closer look at how other smaller businesses have already automated spend management.