Tracy Cox, Accounts Payable Coordinator, Dornier Medtech

“Automating and simplifying travel expense management helped us generate substantial savings of time and money, keep consistency with company policies, and strengthen managerial control.”

Tracy Cox, Accounts Payable Coordinator, Dornier MedTech

Business Needs

Dornier MedTech is a global organization that develops, manufactures, and distributes lithotripters, surgical lasers, medical aesthetic lasers, and many other medical devices. The company’s worldwide headquarters are in Munich, Germany. In the United States, the Dornier MedTech office in Kennesaw, Georgia, is the hub for approximately 120 employees who support customers throughout the country.

Even in a slow economy, Dornier MedTech’s business has continued to grow. Close to 100 executives, account representatives, and service managers frequently travel to meet with existing customers and new prospects. All of these employees needed to file travel expense reports manually and send them to the office together with their receipts twice a month. Because the company kept American Express charges and other expenses separate, every mobile employee submitted four reports per month. Tracy Cox, Accounts Payable Coordinator at Dornier MedTech, says, “Auditing, reconciling, and filing expense reports took up 80 percent or more of my time. Sometimes receipts were missing or misplaced, making errors almost inevitable. Even with clerical help, I was never caught up.”

Since 2001, Dornier MedTech had relied on Microsoft Dynamics GP as its financial and business management solution, but had not extended it to all critical business processes. Reporting on travel and entertainment expenses was a complex, manual task that took up to two weeks and required diligent research. Cox had to refer to the ADP payroll system and a number of stand-alone spreadsheets. The amount of detail available in reports was limited. For example, American Express expenses were summarized by employee groups, and it was necessary to review individual expense statements to review the actual charges.

Dornier MedTech also found it difficult to maintain its travel and spending policies. Analyzing expenses by categories, such as mobile phones or entertainment, was almost impossible. Cox comments, “Employees printed expense report spreadsheets and sent them to their managers for approval. However, the managers were unable to see the actual receipts, so they had to trust in the accuracy of the reports. Because of this, they had very poor control over spending.”

Solution

After reviewing how Dornier MedTech organizations in other countries managed travel and entertainment expenses, the company reviewed Concur Travel & Expense. The solution is designed to simplify employee reporting of their travel costs, ease expense management, and eliminate paper receipts with electronic imaging. Dornier MedTech employees developed a detailed cost and benefits analysis to justify the technology investment to company executives.

Through participation in a beta program, Dornier MedTech acquired the newest version of Concur Travel & Expense, which integrates with Microsoft Dynamics GP. The company added the Concur Expense Integrator module to Microsoft Dynamics GP to make the integration into the accounts payable module completely dependable and eliminate any data cleanup. Dornier MedTech first performed a pilot project with a small number of people to establish best practices for training and use of the solution before they made it available to all mobile employees. Preparations for the implementation included ensuring that the solution reflected the company’s travel policies.

Today, filing travel and entertainment expenses is completely paperless, as is approval and processing. Mobile executives and sales and service employees file their travel expense reports online from any location. By using Concur Mobile, they can take pictures of their receipts with a smartphone and submit them immediately. Managers, in turn, can use their phones to access a link to review expense reports before they approve them. In addition, they can now see expense reports together with receipts. Cox does not receive expense reports for processing until managers have approved them.

For Dornier MedTech executives and employees, the integrated solution of Concur Travel & Expense and Microsoft Dynamics GP is easy to use, allowing convenient drag-and-drop steps. Expense reporting details from Concur Travel & Expense import into Microsoft Dynamics GP, where sales and service managers and company executives can run their own reports on financials, including travel spending, whenever they need to.

Benefits

Automating expense reporting and management with Concur Travel & Expense and integrating it closely with Microsoft Dynamics GP has enabled Dornier MedTech to save significant time and cost, make the finance department more effective, and offer more managerial control. Says Cox, “I’m no longer always behind. Now, I can focus on helping the company move forward. Travel and entertainment expense management has become manageable and can dependably align with corporate policies.”

Cut Processing Time by 64 Percent, Save $191,000 Yearly

Dornier MedTech has saved significant time and cost by managing travel and entertainment expense reporting with Concur Travel & Expense and Microsoft Dynamics GP. The company no longer hires part-time help to assist with opening, sorting, and filing expense reports. Says Cox, “I was jumping for joy when I realized how much time I would get back that I previously spent auditing, reconciling, and filing expense reports.”

Across all business groups including the finance department, Dornier MedTech reduced the time needed for creating, submitting, approving, and processing travel expense reports by almost 64 percent. However, in the finance department, the time saved amounts to a little more than 75 percent. Subsequent to the changes in technology and processes, the company enjoys annual savings of almost U.S.$191,000 compared to the former, manual process.

Deliver More Strategic Value
Through the Finance Department

No longer overwhelmed with the many tasks of manual expense management, the Dornier MedTech finance department is in a much better position to support executives and employees. As Cox explains, “It is now much easier for me to provide reliable reports with the right amount of dependable detail to headquarters.” Tasks, such as auditing expense reports for American Express expense reconciliation, are now largely automated and nowhere near as complex and at risk for errors as they used to be. “It helps that Concur Travel & Expense and Microsoft Dynamics GP make our jobs simpler by offering easy navigation, drag-and-drop file moving, and other convenient, practical features,” says Cox.

Maintain Consistency and
Managerial Control

The integrated solution of Concur Travel & Expense and Microsoft Dynamics GP reflects Dornier MedTech’s travel policies and audit rules, enabling the company to perform travel expense management with perfect consistency. Today, managers can see the electronic reports and associated receipts they are approving, relieving the finance team of ultimate accountability. What’s more, managers can review and control spending, for example, by individuals or in certain categories. Through Microsoft Dynamics GP, they can also run their own reports on travel and entertainment expenditures, determining how much of the now readily available detail they want to incorporate.