TPN Register: Solution Saves T&E Headaches

Software Magazine, April, 2001

Jeff Yentis, controller for TPN Register, knew he could avoid a lot of headaches if he could find an ASP solution for the company's travel and expense processing. Those potential headaches included: shelling out about $10,000 for a server to run a T&E application, getting MIS involved with maintaining and administering the software, and hiring more personnel in the finance department to keep pace with the needs of a rapidly growing company.

Headquartered in Rockville, Md., TPN Register offers an interactive catalog management service for the B2B arena, called TPN Marketplace. Founded in 1997, the company is a joint venture of GE Global eXchange Services and Thomas Publishing Co.

When Yentis joined the company, there were about 60 employees, about 75% of whom did some traveling. Employee expenses were tracked using Excel spreadsheets, and employees submitted paper receipts to managers. That process, in addition to taxing the finance staff, had some inherent inefficiencies.

For example, he says, since both managers and employees are constantly on the road, the expense report could spend days sitting on a manager's desk, or a check could languish for days in an employee's mailbox. While the reimbursement process, typically took four weeks, it could take as long as eight, Yentis says. In addition, one finance department staffer was spending about 50% of his time processing expense reports.

Yentis began the search for an automated solution with the intent of buying a software package, but cost quickly became a factor. "I got a six-figure quote; the maintenance fees alone for a $100,000 application means paying $20K in maintenance."

He then looked at ASP solutions from Concur Technologies, Redmond, Wash., and Gelco Information Network, Minneapolis. The control Concur's workflow gave him was a selling point. With Gelco, everything was outsourced, he says, so employees were automatically reimbursed after the expenses were processed. If Yentis' department later found a discrepancy or an unnecessary extravagance, "I'd have to withhold that cost against the future. But I would rather withhold now, and explain why it's not correct behavior. The sting of not getting reimbursed has more impact, plus it gives you more control."

With Concur, he says, "employees submit a report, and the manager gets an e-mail saying there's a report waiting for approval. When it's approved it queues up for someone in finance to await employee receipts. The finance person matches receipts to reports. The finance folks don't mark it for payment until a manager has approved it."

In addition to the built-in checks and balances, Concur had some other advantages, says Yentis. "I wanted something Web-based; I wanted employees to be able to submit expenses anyplace on the planet. I wanted to easily integrate with the [Solomon] accounting system. Out of the box, Concur didn't have that, but it provided a good data feed for me to customize. I was able to generate my own reports, and get a good deal of data out of the system. And my managers can easily keep track of employees by giving them access to online reporting tools. Also, I didn't have to issue paper checks. Money is transferred directly to employee bank accounts."

Today, Yentis says employees are reimbursed between 10 and 12 days on average, and never longer than two weeks. And that finance department employee went from spending 50% of his time processing expenses to 10%.

TPN Register has a two-year contract with Concur. They paid an initial setup fee, plus $500 per month for up to 50 users.

While he's saving price-wise, Yentis acknowledges that he gives up something in terms of customization. "You have to be willing to trade some of the nice-to-haves for some cost reductions," he says, "but what I gave up in customization I more than make up for in what I'm saving. So if you get 85% of what you want and save a fortune up front, it's worthwhile. If you decide it doesn't work later on, you dump the ASP and go to something else. It's not a bad first try."