LIVE WEBINAR

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25,

2015

Hosted by CFO.com | Presented by

Certify

A Guide to Effective Expense

Management Strategies for

2015

Learning Objectives

• Benchmark key categories of T&E to compare your company's overall

spend with other organizations

• Learn the business travel spend trends of 2014 and what to expect in 2015

• Recognize current and emerging trends in T&E automation

• Identify ways to improve management of your company’s T&E spend in

2015

After attending this event you will be able to:

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Today’s Speakers

Jennifer ColegroveController of Inventory and Operations

Accounting

Backed by 20 years of accounting experience,

Jennifer is Controller of Inventory and

Operations Accounting at BlueLinx. She joined

BlueLinx in 2004, received the prestigious VP

Roundtable Award (the highest honor for non-

senior-management) in 2012, and is currently a

CPA candidate.

Robert NeveuPresident & Co-Founder

In 2008, Bob and his team launched the

Certify product featuring mobile technology

and web-based automation. Certify has

accelerated its position to become the second

largest provider of expense reporting software

in North America.

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About Certify

A leading provider of expense management software since 2008

Over 15 million expense transactions worth more than $8 billion in 2014

64 languages, 140+ currencies, users in 18 countries

Ranked #1 for User Satisfaction on G2 Crowd4

Clients and Press

5

About BlueLinx

Leading distributor of building products

Headquartered in Atlanta

49 distribution centers across U.S. and Canada

More than 1,700 employees

The BlueLinx advantage: “With unique combination of market position and coverage,

the strength of a local and national sales force, the buying power of centralized

procurement, and the efficiencies of centralized accounting and systems technologies.

BlueLinx is able to provide a wide range of value-added services to our customers and

suppliers.”6

The Importance of T&E

On average, Travel and Entertainment (T&E) accounts for

10-12% of the annual budget,second only to payroll as the largest business expense.

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About the Data

• Total Respondents: 434 companies (non-Certify clients)

• Audience:

• 28% Small Business: less than 100 employees

• 37% Mid-Sized Business: 101 – 999 employees

• 35% Large Business: 1,000+ employees

• Location:

• 6% International

• 94% U.S.

• Demographics:

• 38% C-level or above finance professionals

• 43% manager, controller or accountant

• 19% other (accounting staff, consultant, administrative, etc.)

Third Annual Expense Management Trends SurveyConducted in December 2014

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Annual Spend on Travel & Entertainment

$50k – $5mm

Mid-Size Company101 – 999 employees

> $5,000,000

Large EnterpriseMore than 1,000 employees

< $50,000

Small BusinessLess than 100 employees

Reference: Certify’s Travel and Expense Trends Data, February 2014 9

BENCHMARKING DATA:

T&E TRENDS FOR 2015

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Poll Question #1

How does your organization currently

manage travel and expense reporting?

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How Companies Manage T&E

Reporting

Reference: Certify’s Annual Travel & Expense Management Survey 2015

SMALL

BUSINESS

MEDIUM

LARGE

64%

48%

19%

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Spend Trends in 2014

1. Meals

21%

2. Airfare

16%

3. Lodging

14%

4. Gas

12%

5. Misc.

8%

6. Cell Phone 6%

7. Car Rental 5%

8. Groceries 5%

9. Supplies 5%

10.Taxi

5%

11.Tolls 2%

12.Shipping 2%Reference: Certify’s SpendSmart Report, Q4, 2014 13

Benchmarking Data: Expense

Categories

The average expense amounts, based transaction data

from the 2014 Certify SpendSmart Report:

Category 2013 2014 Difference

Meals $26.08 $25.67 – 1.58%

Airfare $329.65 $345.21 + 4.61%

Lodging $200.24 $213.90 + 6.6%

Car Rental $185.27 $193.58 + 4.39%

Taxi $32.76 $31.81 – 2.94%

Gas $50.73 $40.41 – 22.65%

Parking $32.75 $32.70 – 0.15%

Cell Phone $98.88 $89.30 – 10.18%

Reference: Certify’s SpendSmart Report, 2013-2014 14

Poll Question #2

What is the largest pain point

surrounding expense

management?

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Top Pain Points in 2014

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

Reviewing for policy violations

Reconciling the data

Errors on the report

Employees losing receipts

Time it takes to reconcile, review, and approve

Employee's failure to submit reports on time

16Reference: Certify’s Travel & Expense Management Survey 2015

5 Goals for Improvement in 2015

Expense Management Process (36% ranked this the #1 area for

improvement)

• Increase efficiency by automating expense management

Integration Between Systems (25%)

• Eliminate manual data entry and reduce human error

• Gain insight in real-time across multiple systems

Integrated Travel Booking (21%)

• Enforce T&E policies before employees book travel

• Save money with negotiated corporate travel rates

Mobility (14%)

• Increase productivity in employees on the road

Software Deployment (4%)

• Efficiently implement large-scale software by involving all

departments in the rollout plan and vendor selection process

17Reference: Certify’s Travel & Expense Management Survey 2015

Poll Question #3

How is your organization

enforcing T&E policies?

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Policy Enforcement: Manual vs. Web-

Based

14%

35% 36%

21%

1%

4%

31%

27%

19%

63%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

T&E policy is notenforced

It is the responsibility ofthe employee

Manager manuallyreview each expense

Accountant manuallyreviews, checking only

high value expenses

T&E systemautomatically flags out-

of-policy violations

Companies on a Manual Process Companies on a Web-Based System

19Reference: Certify’s Travel & Expense Management Survey 2015

Fraud in Expenses

Organizations who monitor compliance have a

70% decrease in fraudulent spending.

Reference: www.businesstravelnews.com/Expense-Management/Study--Fraudulent-Expense-Reports-Have-Cost-Cos--Millions-In-2014

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BEST PRACTICES FOR

T&E MANAGEMENT IN

2015

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Strategies to Meet Expense Management Goals

1. Automate the process

• Automated expense reports, direct credit card

feeds, automated approval workflows, etc.

2. Improve and enforce corporate T&E policies

• Ranked #2 by 48% of companies surveyed

• Automated pre-trip policy enforcement

3. Arm travelers with new technology

• Mobile apps

• Globally accessible tools with currency, multiple languages

4. Leverage analytics to improve intelligence and data

• Manage large-scale user data through integrations with HRMS

interfaces, multiple ERP systems, and accounting software

References: Aberdeen Group 2014, The Traveler & Expense Management Guide

for 2014; Certify’s Annual Travel & Expense Management Survey 2015

Ranked the #1 top priority in

2014 by 52% of companies

in the 2014 Aberdeen

Report.

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Automate Key Components of T&E

Reference: Aberdeen Group 2014, The Travel & Expense Management Guide for 2014

Companies using automated expense management systems

experience: • 50% lower expense-processing costs than other companies

• 43% higher rates of business travel spend under management

• 31% higher rates of corporate policy compliance

Automating the expense management process is the first

step to a “Best in Class” expense management program,

according to 52% of companies in the Aberdeen Expense

Management Benchmark report.

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Switching from Spreadsheets to Automation

Of companies on a manual process who plan to switch to a web-

based system, 53% estimate they will switch within the next 12

months.

21% 32% 26% 9% 9%

Within the next 6 months

6 – 12 months

12 – 24 months

24 – 36 monthsNot sure

Timeframe of anticipated switch:

24Reference: Certify’s Travel & Expense Management Survey 2015

ROI Timeframe for Expense

Software

Small

Businesses

Have the

Fastest ROI

experience 100%

ROI in under a

year

70%

25Reference: Certify’s Travel & Expense Management Survey 2015

Improve and Enforce Corporate Policies

The #1 way to reduce expense management costs is to improve compliance to T&E policies.

Organizations using cloud-based expense management are experiencing up to 91% compliance rates to

corporate travel policies and guidelines.

“Setting hard travel policies around formerly ‘gray areas’ such as seat

upgrades has trimmed travel spending by 10% to 20%.”

Linda Parcher, VP and CPO, Diebold, Inc.

Wall Street Journal

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Flagged violation, notifying manager

amount exceeded policy limit

Guide to Increasing Policy

Compliance

1. Create corporate travel and entertainment expense policy

2. Integrate policy into expense system, setting both:

• Hard policies (decline expenses exceeding a predetermined amount)

• Soft policies (manager’s discretion for approval)

3. Allow technology to enforce policy, notifying employee and manager of any violations, such as:

• Missing receipts

• Duplicate transactions

• Items exceeding spend limits

27Reference: Certify’s Travel & Expense Management Survey 2015

Arm Travelers with Technology

Online travel booking system• Used by 87% of all “Best-in-Class” companies

• Control the expense before it occurs

• Spend captured more quickly, and in compliance to policies

Mobility• Second most important feature when selecting an expense vendor:

45% of companies named it #1

• Users of mobile expense applications have reduced their expense-processing costs by 65%

• By enabling travelers with the power of mobile, they can store virtual receipts, enter expense data, and review expenses on the go

28References: Aberdeen Group 2014, Certify’s Travel & Expense Management Survey 2015

Established Technologies for T&E Management

1. Credit Card Integration

Automated data feeds of corporate credit card

transactions eliminates the reconciliation process

2. Mobile Receipt Capture

Employees take a photo of a receipt with their

smartphone, turning it into an electronic receipt

3. Online Expense Report Creation

Create, submit and approve expense reports online,

eliminating time-consuming spreadsheets

4. Direct Feeds

Automated feeds sync data with accounting and HR,

eliminating manual data entry between systems

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Emerging Technologies in

Automation

Three features specific to Certify:

1. AutoFill (Parsing) Technology

Software scans receipts and extracts

expense data, eliminating manual

entry

2. Receipt Match and Merge

Software matches expense items

from employee’s corporate credit card

feed with corresponding receipts

3. Auto-generated Expense Reports

Expense reports are built

automatically on preset schedule.

Users receive email reminders to

review and submit30

Leveraging Analytics to Improve Visibility

Reference: Certify’s Annual Travel & Expense Management Survey 2015

Types of visibility gained with cloud-based expense management:

• Documented path of approvals

• Expense by employee

• Expense spend by category

61%57%

74%

57%

30%

40%44%

29%

Visibility into T&E Spend Regular Reporting Regular Audits of Expenses Automated Data Analytics

Web-Based Expense System Manual Expense Process

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Client Case Study: BlueLinx

• Certify client since autumn 2013

• Had used a competitor for 8 years prior to switching to Certify

• All employees create and submit expense reports

• Users travel internationally to source product

For BlueLinx, an automated, reliable means to conduct reports and

manage expenses was crucial. Certify significantly increased

visibility into spend and minimized manual data entry with system

integrations.

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To learn more about Certify, please join us for

a

Live Product Demonstration Webcast

Thursday, March 26 at 2 p.m. EST

Wednesday, April 8 at 2 p.m. EST

To register, visit bit.ly/CertifyLiveDemo

For more information about

Certify, visit www.certify.com

Thank youfor attending today’s session.