João Carvalho, Head of SAP Concur Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa, explains that legacy Travel and Expense management systems hinder modern business growth, draining resources, risking compliance, and limiting visibility. Automated solutions streamline operations, enhance safety, reduce inefficiencies, and ensure smarter financial decisions for sustainable progress.
The phrase “that’s just how we’ve always done it” can be a crutch in business. While it might keep the status quo, it also acts as a blocker to growth. As business continues to evolve, agility in financial operations is key. Outdated travel and expense (T&E) management slows decision-making and exposes businesses to compliance risks such as VAT regulations and cross-border financial governance.
Managing T&E manually may have worked in the past, but as your workforce, technology, and market evolve, so should your processes. Here are four signs your business has outgrown its DIY approach:
1. You struggle to keep track of travel expenses: As companies expand, they often onboard more business travellers and engage with international clients. This means more employees fill expenses across multiple locations, currencies, and regulatory frameworks.
Costs can escalate rapidly, ranging from spending on petty cash to airfare, rental cars, and accommodation. As your team grows, tracking costs, documenting transactions, and ensuring compliance becomes increasingly complex.
According to SAP Concur data, 61% of finance leaders see inaccurate forecasting as their biggest challenge when controlling costs. Without real-time oversight, employees may unknowingly exceed travel budgets or fall out of compliance with corporate policies and regulations.
Professional T&E management solutions provide full visibility into employee spending. Automated booking policies enforce spending rules, flag non-compliance, and streamline approvals, reducing inefficiencies and financial risk.
2. Your employees are spending time they don’t have: Your budget is just one resource drained by inefficient T&E management. Time is another. Every hour an employee spends searching for the best travel deals or completing paper-based expense reports is time taken away from strategic, high-value work.
This inefficiency is costly. Whether preparing for investor meetings, client pitches, or regional expansion strategies, employees should focus on business growth—not manual T&E tasks.
Today’s professional T&E solutions offer unified, enterprise-grade booking platforms that trim the administrative burden. Users can book directly with suppliers, auto-capture expense details for reporting, and find policy-compliant travel options—including environmentally responsible routes—without wasting hours searching online.
3. You lack the resources to protect your employees on the road: Employee safety is paramount. In an era of geopolitical tension, extreme weather events, and health-related travel risks, companies must ensure that their travellers are protected.
If you lack oversight into travel timings, accommodation locations, and critical health and safety details, your current T&E system may be putting employees at risk.
Modern T&E solutions offer advanced safety features, such as real-time notifications about disruptions, neighbourhood safety scores (factoring in security risks, local regulations, and infrastructure reliability), and direct communication tools for emergencies. Having an automated T&E system ensures that travellers receive timely updates and support, no matter where they are.
4. You are unable to measure your travel programme: Business travel should deliver a strong return on investment—but without accurate data, how can you measure success?
Without a modern T&E management system, it’s nearly impossible to track expenses effectively. Many businesses struggle to see if travel budgets are well spent, which suppliers offer the best value, or whether sustainability targets—such as reduced CO2 emissions—are being met.
Modern solutions provide real-time insights into your travel policies. Tools can automatically record expense data to assess what was budgeted against true spending. Managers can see which hotels are worth negotiating special rates, who the top spenders are and if they’re following policies, as well as report on sustainability measures like CO2 emissions with ease.
The right technology will deliver actionable insights and an accurate view of how your corporate travel programme is used – helping you spot opportunities to improve employee quality of life and business value.
In 2025, visibility in employee services is more critical than ever.
As businesses embrace digital transformation and smarter financial operations, they need solutions that enhance efficiency, compliance, and employee well-being. If your organisation is still relying on outdated T&E processes, it’s time for a smarter approach—one that streamlines operations, ensures compliance, and supports smarter business travel decisions.
