Digitization of expenses management

Most of us love when the company pays for accommodation and transport to an interesting location that was on our bucket list anyway. But we all know the pain of accounting for the business portion of the trip. At Deloitte, we know it doesn’t have to be like that — as the benefits of digitization can far outweigh the hassle. Whether employees regularly travel between plants and offices, searching for new territories, suppliers, clients, or maintaining existing relationships, all of this generates expenses that employees must incur, and company has to ensure reimbursement.

Managing travel and employee expenses is often associated with a significant amount of effort for both employees and employers. It also leads to recurring questions about whether something is missing, entered incorrectly, or when the reimbursement will actually be processed.

By digitizing travel and non-travel expense claims, employees can save time while employers reduce costs and increase employee satisfaction by using tools they enjoy. However, several principles must be followed to increase efficiency in line with applicable legislation and to strengthen the company’s evidentiary position in the case of a tax audit.

What Is Your Starting Position?

Reimbursement of travel and employee expenses is generally part of company accounting and its obligations toward employees. Still, internal processes are worth digitizing — your employees and your operational costs will appreciate it. Let’s compare the traditional processing of travel expenses with the modern digitized approach.

Traditional Travel Expense Processing

In many companies, the processing of travel expenses is far from fully digitized. Business trip data is recorded in Excel, printed, receipts are attached, and the entire package is sent — either internally or even by standard mail — to the accounting department responsible for managing travel expenses, or to an external provider. There, compliance with internal travel guidelines, formal tax requirements, and the Labour Code is manually checked.

It often takes multiple emails to approve the claim from both a business and compliance perspective before the payment and accounting can begin. The whole process is lengthy, error-prone, frustrating for everyone involved, and lacks standardized control and a comprehensive overview. In many organizations, digitization still only means scanning receipts — while true automation and digital processes go much further.

Modern travel expense processing process

How to take the process to the next level? In the modern world of travel expense management, much of the process is digitized and moved into user-friendly IT systems. A digitized travel expense statement is characterized by the following elements:

• Are you requiring pre-approval? Let's record that in the tool. Once spend is approved, the request is linked to the expense report, and expenses can be claimed.
• Digital platforms are creating claims and dropping there corresponding transactions to minimize manual input.
• Paper receipts (accommodation, taxi, parking, etc.) arrive as digital receipts or employees digitize them using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on the go which creates a proposed transaction. They are merged with other sources such as reservations and credit card transactions which create a 360-degree view of the spend.
• Intelligent validation rules prevent mistakes or fraudulent behavior. This ensures compliance with internal guidelines and applies systematic tax checks right during the moment of entry.
• Auditors are equipped with automated tools that track trends and compare expense patterns against historical or peer benchmarks. data and analytics that can be processed in reporting tools (e.g., Cognos, PowerBI, Tableau, SAP Analytics Cloud).
• Not sure of the next steps? Ask your AI assistant who has access to policies and help materials to make the claim right the first time. If no policy violations are detected, claims are automatically processed, accounted for, and reimbursed.

Data is collected in the tool and employees do not enter spend data anymore, they rather correct and confirm what is already there, and they do it via laptop or mobile app.

Why Are These Processes So Complex?

The complexity often has two main causes:

1. The process of recording and reimbursing travel expenses itself is often decentralized. Employees returning from business trips frequently submit numerous small expenses from vendors who are not recorded in the supplier master data.
2. Tax implications and obligations further increase the complexity and compliance requirements of the entire process.

A Partner that makes a difference

Digitizing Travel & Expense is not just another IT project — it's a transformation touching every corner of the business.  At Deloitte, we don’t just implement software. We integrate people, processes, and technology into a single, efficient T&E ecosystem. How do we do that?

• We understand the real complexity behind T&E: Most companies underestimate how many moving parts sit behind T&E: Finance, HR, procurement, IT, managers, auditors — infrequent travelers as well frequent travelers and delegates. Our experience has taught us that successful digitization doesn’t happen in a system; it happens across the organization. We know how to navigate these realities, not just configuration screens.
• We’ve delivered dozens of implementations—and refined what works: Years of hands-on projects mean we’ve seen every pitfall fragmented policies, decentralized habits, legacy integrations, missing data structures and resistance from non-expert end users. We bring proven methodologies that reduce risk and speed up adoption because they’re based on real lessons, not theory.
• We focus on the process, not just the platform: Technology is only as good as the process behind it. Our approach aligns policies, workflows, approvals, compliance and finance controls. By designing the full process end-to-end, we ensure the system delivers its promise — cost savings, compliance, and employee satisfaction.
• We make change management a priority: T&E is used by non-expert employees — which makes adoption a make-or-break factor. We support clients with clear communication, role-based training, easy-to-understand guides and user feedback loops. Our goal is to ensure employees use the system the right way, every time.
• We deliver integrations that actually work: T&E system doesn’t live in isolation. ERP, HR, identity management, credit cards, booking tools — many systems to connect. Our technical teams specialize in delivering stable, compliant, and scalable integrations that remove manual work instead of creating new bottlenecks.

Compliance is King

Compliance is a safety net, it ensures that business spending is intentional, aligned and accountable. To do that, companies must consider the following:

1. Digitization of paper receipts must meet high requirements for readability and verifiable scan quality. Processes must be documented in detail, including automatic or manual checks. Documents must meet formal tax requirements, whether stored as paper or digital files.
2. All data from travel expense statements, including receipt images, must be stored in an unalterable format for the entire retention period. Accidental changes or data loss must be prevented, and intentional manipulation must be impossible.
3. Access to data for tax audits must be ensured throughout the retention period, based on respective tax laws. In travel expenses, this includes travel orders and related receipts.
4. All system interfaces transferring tax-relevant data between the expense system, payroll, and accounting systems must be checked for tax compliance and documented.
5. System-generated calculations (e.g., taxable portions of travel reimbursements) must produce correct results in all scenarios to prevent unintentional tax evasion.
6. Accounting logic (e.g., posting advances) and automated controls must accurately reflect current legislation. Otherwise, they become ineffective or misleading.
7. Data protection regulations must not result in premature deletion of accounting or tax documents subject to mandatory retention.

Conclusion

If these conditions are met — supported by proper system implementation, revised internal processes, and continuous monitoring of legal rules — the digitization of travel and employee expenses can significantly increase efficiency, strengthen internal control, and reduce human errors.