Tue, Oct 08, 2013 Fraudulent Expense Claims Are Common – 5 Ways to Stop Them

Many organizations find that travel expense claims are a prime target for internal fraud, from altered receipts to personal charges disguised as business expenses. A new survey by AirPlus shows that companies are using a variety of methods to combat fraudulent expense claims, according to Business Travel News.

Here are four common ways that travel managers try to prevent and reduce fraud, plus a fifth tip for tying these strategies together.

1. Supervisor approval for all expense claims (81 percent). According to the AirPlus survey, which reached out to 180 companies in North America, 81 percent of the respondents say their company requires manager approval for all expense reports.
2. Documentation for all expenses (66 percent). AirPlus found that 66 percent of respondents said their employer requires receipts for all expenses claimed.
3. Using corporate credit cards (59 percent). More than half of respondents said the use of a corporate credit card was mandated and monitored.
4. Consistent auditing of expense claims (52 percent). Regular monitoring was found to be the most effective method for preventing fraud.
   Each of these strategies has the potential to reduce fraudulent expense claims. Attempting to implement these best practices individually, however, would require significant investments of time and resources and produce a large amount of data. For such fraud prevention measures to be useful, cost-effective and consistent, it’s important to add a fifth strategy that helps weave everything together.
5. An automated travel expense management platform. With software like Chrome River EXPENSE, travel managers can integrate the previous four strategies with powerful analytics to uncover suspicious expense claims and identify errors and trends that suggest fraud.
   Because travel expense claims may present an attractive target for fraud, organizations need efficient, streamlined ways to process expense reports. Travel expense management software can help managers reduce fraud while also reducing paperwork.

We appreciate hearing from our readers! Which of these five strategies would you say is most important, and why? Please share your thoughts below in the comments section.

Source: Business Travel News, September 2013