More than 10 per cent of employees in the UK have cheated on their expenses in the last year, according to a report from Concur.
The expense management firm commissioned pollster You Gov to survey more than 1,200 workers to find out their attitude towards filing expenses.
The survey found that 11 per cent of those questioned had “exaggerated” expense claims during the last year. It also found that those working in large private sector firms were more likely (28 per cent) to c
onsider exaggerating expenses as “acceptable” compared to their counterparts in the public sector (13 per cent).
Concur’s UK managing director David Vine said: “In recent years, the public sector has faced significant publicised scrutiny over the accuracy of expense claims, resulting in a mandate for increased transparency.
“As such, we’ve witnessed a reduction in those in the public sector who think exaggerating expenses is acceptable (14 per cent in 2011 compared to 13 per cent in 2012). In a tough economy with little spare cash, it’s imperative that attitudes within the private sector towards expenses quickly follows suit.”
The most common reason given by those who exaggerated their claims was “to make up for the times when I forgot” (68 per cent) followed by the excuse of “money is tight” (32 per cent).
The survey also found that only 7 per cent of respondents had had one of their expense claims queried or rejected for being out of policy or the lack of receipts. Just under half (41 per cent) of employees also still completed their expense forms manually on paper while 26 per cent used a spreadsheet, compared to 27 per cent who now use an automated system.
“Our data suggests that over one in ten employees are exaggerating their expenses and the reliance on manual-based expense management processes exacerbates the problem, as it exposes businesses to unnecessary revenue leakage due to the lack of checks and balances in the system,” added Vine.
“Expense automation can reduce expense processing costs by up to 50 to 60 per cent and can increase travel policy compliance by up to 30 to 50 per cent.”