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Today's world is one of rapid digital transformation. One particular mundane task still stuck in the dark ages? Filing and approving expense reports.
Businesses that are still relying on manual expense management may be more likely to incur out-of-policy expenses, have a heightened risk of fraud, and prevent employees from spending more time on meaningful tasks. But innovation has already reached business travel expense reporting.
Following these seven options to help modernize business travel expense management could bring your company similar benefits.
7 Options to Help Optimize Business Travel Expense Reporting
The time it takes to reconcile, review, and approve reports and errors in the reports – such as incorrect codes or payment amounts – can be a top pain point in expense management.
As many businesses and executives know, time lost can be money lost. Companies can help avoid these unwanted losses (and employees can avoid unwanted frustration) by considering implementing tech-forward changes to help streamline the expense reporting process.
1. Move away from paper payments.
Though many companies still use paper-based processes for their business travel report formats, the market is becoming more digital daily.
2. Go mobile.
For business travelers, losing receipts and missing submission deadlines can be common. Mobile expense reporting can help mitigate these pain points by making submitting expenses easier and possible to do on the go.
3. Automate policy adherence.
The market size of travel and expense management software is projected to reach $9.78 billion by 2032, according to a 2025 report by Fortune Business Insights. Businesses can help ensure workers follow company policy on spending limits and prompt charge approval using travel and expense management software. According to the report, the ability of these software options to reduce operational costs, create hassle-free reimbursement, and a growing adoption of mobile devices is part of what's driving the growth of this market.
Employees may feel the benefit of optimized expense management, too. Business travelers could save time by reducing repetitive data entry and may get paid faster by reducing reconciliation and reimbursement times.
4. Switch to a corporate card program.
Corporate credit card programs can offer employees numerous advantages, from eliminating the need for employees to cover business expenses out of pocket, to providing added security features like lowered identity theft risk. Some even offer perks like airport lounge access and hotel upgrades, which can help to foster stronger ties between employers and employees.
5. Use a system that reconciles data.
Reconciling data – like the data between receipts and credit card statements – can be a big pain point in expense management. Systems that leverage tech-enabled receipt matching can help eliminate the need for manual linking and verification by automatically reconciling data, helping to make expense reporting quicker and more accurate.
6. Track your business travel expenses and processing costs.
Some companies don’t know how much it costs to process expense reports or don’t track these costs. That could be a considerable expenditure pit, but companies can save costs and allocate resources better by considering tracking the cost of processing expense reports, identifying inefficiencies, and optimizing procedures.
7. Allow for digital wallets.
Business travelers may find digital cards and wallets useful, as they potentially lead to increased security, minimized leakage, and better vendor compatibility.
The Takeaway
Upgrading your expense reporting may yield many benefits, including reduced processing costs, improved adherence to T&E policies, and upgraded capital management. Data from upleveling expense reporting could also enhance finance-related functions like budgeting, forecasting, auditing compliance, AP invoicing and payments, and vendor negotiations.
Plus, employees may feel the benefit of optimized expense management, too. Business travelers could save time by reducing repetitive data entry and may get paid faster by reducing reconciliation and reimbursement times. Optimized reporting may also help employees keep accurate records, so they’re not scrambling to turn expense reports in on time.
Business travel can be time-consuming and costly, so why not consider one optimization that could benefit both the company and its travelers?
Photo: Getty Images
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