Save time on expense reporting by switching to Grab Business Profiles
For large organisations or fast-growing businesses that deal with expansion — local and overseas — business travel takes up a sizeable chunk of the company’s budget. Yet it is necessary; business travel drives growth. Nothing beats a face-to-face meeting to discuss complex projects or close deals, and this is the sole reason why big corporations have suffered through the logistical nightmare of business travel for decades on end.
In fact, business travel made a total global economic contribution of US$1.23 trillion during 2017[AL1] , and the number just keeps getting bigger. It’s even one of the more heavily-weighted metrics that determine job satisfaction of those in the workforce: 79% of business travellers tie a good business travel experience to their overall job satisfaction.[AL2]
With all its necessity, business travel continues to be a thorn in the side for SMBs and MNCs alike. Rising travel costs has forced management to tighten policies on transport spending and claims, making expense reporting one of the least cost-effective and most time-consuming aspects of budget management[AL3] . Additionally, cumbersome claims procedures further muddle the chain of expense reporting.
Here’s a breakdown of challenges addressed by Business Profiles, and how it works to eliminate them.
Challenge #1: Booking safe and reliable transport overseas
Employees who find themselves alone in a foreign country and having to ferry between meetings and offices are often at a loss when it comes to sorting through a myriad of transport options, not knowing which to choose from.
Grab allows convenient booking of all kinds of transport, whether it be a simple car ride from the hotel to the office or scheduling an airport transfer for the following day. With Grab available for use across borders in Southeast Asia, there is no need for travellers to download any additional apps or relearn new functions with every new city they encounter: simply book a ride just like any other day at home.
Challenge #2: Expense reporting
A quick overview of a claims system usually goes like this: scan a receipt, fill out a claim form, submit both, and wait for the reimbursement to go through. As most seasoned business travellers know, it’s not as simple as it sounds. Receipts get mixed up or lost, if the passenger remembers asking for one at all. Breaking down each individual travel detail gets complicated when multiple rides were taken through the day, and one is usually so busy catching up on work itself that the details of travel expenses are quickly forgotten. On top of that, it takes longer than it should for the reimbursement to come back, often because of all the channels it has to go through first.
Business Profiles tracks the rides taken while employees are on business trips, automatically logging all important information and generating automated email receipts and monthly statements. This eliminates the need for scanning bits of faded receipts, inaccuracies in recording the data manually, and the hassle of drawing up all these claims to submit to the claims department.
Those reviewing the claims will always be able to view transport information at a glance, all of it presented in a uniform way that a manual claims form can never achieve. This means significantly less time spent submitting, reviewing and approving claims, and maximised productivity all around. That also means no absurdly long period of time waiting for the claim to go through before getting reimbursed, since the data is concise and digestible.
Challenge #3: Monitoring travel expenses
With business travellers writing up their own travel claims, it’s not easy to keep track of exactly what the claim is for and whether the amount is justified. One big cost to the company is when business travellers make claims for non-work-related expenses, which claims departments spend precious time trying to verify.
An easy fix is the ability to toggle between personal and business profiles on the Grab app, such that business travellers can use the appropriate profile where necessary and not have to worry about accountability issues. Trip details will be readily available for viewing should the question of an unendorsed booking be raised, avoiding any misunderstandings or need for dispute.
Using the Business Profiles feature on Grab
Once the Business Profile feature is used, all rides tagged to the account will be logged, with receipts and monthly statements sent to a designated work inbox. Expense reporting will also be made simple through Grab’s partnerships with key expense partners: Concur, ChromeRiver and Expensify.
Optimising a painless business travel system on a global platform improves productivity and cuts down on all the pain points of business travel for both the traveller and the company managing the costs of the trip. The goal is to make business travel a breeze to book, pay and file claims for, and that’s what Business Profiles does. With just a few extra taps while making transport arrangements, Business Profiles tackles essentially all the challenges posed by expense management.
To set up follow the steps here https://bit.ly/2TNwldj
[AL1]https://www.statista.com/topics/2439/global-business-travel-industry/
[AL2]https://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article96714.html
[AL3]https://www.accountingdepartment.com/blog/the-top-5-expense-management-challenges-for-smbs
