“Management loves the ability to audit expense reports and the ease of use.”
- Company:
Wolters Kluwer - Implementation:
Concur Expense - Industry:
Global Information Services and Publishing - Company size:
8,761 US employees
The problem
- Manual expense reporting process
- Minimal to nonexistent audit process
- Costly to process an expense report
- Lack of policy awareness
The solution
- Standardized expense solution for all US employees
- Automated audit rules instantly alert users of spending limits and policies
- Visibility into valuable T&E data
- Intuitive, user-friendly online interface
The benefits
- Savings of nearly 80 percent per filed expense report
- Seamless expense reporting solution across all organizations
- Increase in policy awareness and compliance
- Ability to audit T&E throughout the entire company
- 100 percent employee adoption rate
- High employee and management satisfaction
Wolters Kluwer has been in the global information and publishing market since the 1800’s, providing products and services for professionals in the health, tax, accounting, corporate, financial services, legal and regulatory sectors.
As the parent company of a number of United States based organizations, Wolters Kluwer had 12 different methods of filing expense reports throughout each of their US organizations, ranging from spreadsheets to a non-existent process. The manual and irregular process to manage expense reporting across all Wolters Kluwer organizations made it nearly impossible to efficiently audit T&E expenses and other areas of employee spend. With Sarbanes-Oxley and internal audit issues arising, Wolters Kluwer needed a consistent and efficient method to audit employee expenses. The company looked to Concur® Expense to bring an automated expense reporting solution to all Wolters Kluwer organizations.
“Concur is a key player in the market,” said Ralph Roe, Director, Financial Shared Services at Wolters Kluwer. “After receiving an RFP, I realized Concur was the superior product to its competitors. And, not to mention, it’s user friendly, which is really important to me. When I roll something out, I want it to be easy for my employees to use. If it’s not user friendly and easy to use, I won’t get buy-off.”
After a four month pilot, Concur Expense was rolled-out to all Wolters Kluwer US employees. For the first time in the company’s history, Wolters Kluwer has the ability to audit travel and entertainment expenses for the entire company through Concur’s on-demand service.
With Concur Expense, Wolters Kluwer’s defined business rules are configured into the solution, specific to each organization, designed to ensure that every employee expense is within policy and without fraud. With Concur’s highly configurable service, Wolters Kluwer is able to easily set thresholds and apply their own specific business rules as appropriate.
“Out-of-policy expenses are quickly caught,” Roe said. “Most people aren’t trying to break a rule, they just don’t know about it. And typically, they don’t break the same policy again. With Concur, our employees are more aware of company policies.”
“Once submitted, company expense reports higher than a pre-defined dollar amount are routed to an out-sourced dedicated audit resource that verifies and substantiates expense receipts and ensures proper classification of expenses. By leveraging external audit resources dedicated to strictly auditing expense reports, the company can ensure control and compliance without burdening back office staff. When exceptions are found, the external audit team resolves the issue, and these exceptions are made visible to management through Concur Expense real-time and are also highlighted in monthly detailed reports.
Expenses that are out of policy, as defined by business rules, are tagged andalerts are sent to Wolters Kluwer management in the United States. Concur’s 360-degree view into all employee expense data helps Wolters Kluwer globally enforce policies and monitor compliance, all while delivering unprecedented control and valuable insight into their employee spend patterns.
According to Roe, an example of increased visibility into employee spend that was revealed after implementing Concur involves employees misreporting their mileage.
”Employees were reporting that they drove for 400 miles, but in actuality, their trip was only 200 miles. Before implementing Concur, we were paying people for 400 miles. Now, with Concur’s powerful audit capabilities working hand-in-hand with dedicated external audit resources, these inaccurately reported expenses areflagged and not reimbursed.”
Now, with Concur’s built-in audit rules, out-of-policy expenses are virtually non-existent. Users are instantly alerted of spending limits and policies, increasing expense policy compliance, as receipts are validated against the organization’s defined business rules, policies and preferences.
“Management loves the ability to audit expense reports and the ease of use,” Roe said. “I had a CEO of one of Wolters Kluwer’s organizations who initially complained about implementing Concur. Just a few months after we rolled it out, he took me aside at a meeting and told me how wrong he was and how much his employees like using Concur Expense.”
Concur Expense doesn’t just make it easy for management to review, approve, process and audit expense reports. The intuitive, user-friendly ondemand service also allows employees to quickly create their expense reports at anytime from anywhere – online – which increases satisfaction and has resulted in a 100 percent adoption rate.
“I have a lot of employees call and thank me for implementing Concur Expense,” Roe said. “Our employees love it. Concur is easy for them to use. And, our employees can track their expenses and know when they’re getting paid.”
Not only are employees happy with the ease of use of Concur, but they’re also able to focus on more mission-critical tasks, saving the company money. Wolters Kluwer estimates soft dollar savings in excess of $20 – or 80 percent – per each filed expense report with Concur.
With Concur Expense’s robust audit capabilities, Wolters Kluwer has the tools they need to effectively enforce their employee spend policy. As a result of this improved policy enforcement, employees are more aware of the corporate policy. Wolters Kluwer’s expense and audit processes improved so much with Concur Expense that the company is now implementing Concur into their European offices in the coming months
ABOUT WOLTERS KLUWER
Wolters Kluwer United States is a division of Wolters Kluwer, a leading global information services and publishing company with annual revenues (2007) of €3.4 billion ($4.8 billion) and approximately 19,500 employees worldwide. Visit www.wolterskluwer.com.
About American Express Global Commercial Card
American Express provides the Corporate Card, Corporate Purchasing Solutions, and other expense management services to mid-sized companies and large corporations worldwide. In the U.S., it is the leading issuer of commercial cards, serving more than 60% of the Fortune 500, as well as tens of thousands of mid-sized companies. For more information, please go to www.americanexpress.com/corporate.