14th March Declared as Busiest Expense Day for India's FY Ending

Mumbai: As India gears towards another financial year ending, with Indian companies rushing to close their accounting books for the year, expense report data from Concur (Nasdaq: CNQR), the leading integrated travel and expense company, shows that March 14th is India's busiest day for submitting expense claims during the final month of the financial year. Based on an analysis of its clients' 2011 expense transaction volume, the number of claims made in India on this day is 149 percent above the daily average. In India, March is a hectic month for accountants and financial teams because of the enormous pressure they face to process all last minute submissions of claims before they move towards the new financial year. With over 15,000 clients globally, the company has unprecedented insight into corporate T&E spend. One of the causes making this particular day so busy could be a backlog of expenses incurred by employees in previous months that need to be reconciled by the end of the financial year. "As Indian companies are preparing to close their accounting books for the financial year, claiming expenses suddenly springs to the forefront of minds," comments Christopher Juneau, Senior Director Marketing, Asia-Pacific "Due to the volume, accountant teams often have a very tough job getting everything processed before the financial year ending, leading to a severe strain on resources." Advancements in travel and expense management technology mean organizations can now gain complete visibility and control over the entire expense claims process. Companies like, Concur, make it easy for employees gain travel approval, then submit and track expenses online or from their mobile and convert paper receipts into digital records. Employees can even take photos of receipts with a smartphone, automatically attach the receipt image to an expense claim, and associate the claim with the original travel request. Speeding up the entire process rather than filing expenses by hand. "Automated expense systems make it much easier to submit expenses. They eliminate frustrating and time consuming practices like matching the travel approval with the claim or stapling all of the right receipts together and filling out reams of paperwork. Credit card charges are automatically imported and using a smartphone, you can take a photo of the receipt from any cash transaction. As a result, expense claims are much easier for finance teams to track and approve." added Juneau