Research from TravelPerk show 26% use their personal credit cards for significant expenses
A large majority of business travelers (83%) struggle to reconcile trip expenses, according to a survey of over 4,000 business travelers by TravelPerk, a travel and expense management platform.
Over a quarter of business travelers (26%) use their personal credit cards for large purchases, according to the survey. But with 28% facing delayed reimbursements, those who choose to use their personal credit cards risk late payment fees and surcharges furthering the personal financial burden.
Roy Hefer, CFO, said, “Travel expenses dominate company P&Ls, yet most businesses still subject employees to manual, disconnected processes that our research shows creates real financial hardship.”
When 83% of employees struggle with expenses and over a quarter use personal credit cards, said Hefer, this becomes more than an efficiency problem. “By embedding policy at the point of booking and through the expense claim process,” said Hefer, “automating things like receipt matching with AI, and optimizing 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 really matters.”
TravelPerk offered approaches to making the expense management process smoother, including:
- Gain clarity on travel and expense policies at the point of booking: Nearly 1 in 5 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.
- Automate for efficiency: 1 in 4 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.
Use an integrated end-to-end platform to book and manage travel and expenses: 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
