 1997 Summer ACTE Quarterly: President's Message | Expense Management Solutions| Hot Topics Survey |
1997 Summer ACTE Quarterly: President's Message | Expense Management Solutions| Hot Topics Survey |
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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE: PAYING UP The expense management seminar at ACTE IX Chicago was so well attended and the discussion so lively that we decided to make the subject this issue's cover story. And while expense report management isn't exactly the most glamorous of subjects, I strongly encourage each of you to get involved with this phase of travel management. If you do not, then I can assure you that someone else at your company will. At an average of up to $45 per, the cost of processing expense reports on the minds of most CFOs at companies of all sizes. Streamlining the process should be in your inventory of travel management tools. Proper management is an interdepartmental challenge that will bring direct bottom-line results to your company. And that's merely one reason why improving the expense report process should be at the top of your agenda. ACTE, meanwhile, is actively involved in improving the process, too, by working with the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) on the Hotel Folio Project. A joint task force has been formed to advise hotel companies and other interested parties in the development of a universal reporting standard for electronically reported T&E-related charges. Travel purchasers from both associations will give input on their electronic data preferences. Ultimately, it is our hope that this cooperative effort will help accelerate the development and implementation of the new standard. Why is the standard so important now? The new integrated expense management systems, like the ones outlined in the article on page 8, call for electronic data, plus the ability to access and interpret this data quickly and accurately. We recognize that the establishment and implementation of the standard is a painstaking undertaking. But it's also an essential one. Missing, incomplete and inaccurate data is too costly for all of us.
Earl Foster
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