As many employees await the holiday break, accountants are gearing up for the busiest time of year, according to data from Concur, a provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions.
The company, which processes over $50 billion in T&E spend annually, has identified December 19, as the busiest day for submitting expense claims in India – with the main reason being that employees are eager to wrap up unfinished business before the New Year. The expense reports submitted in India on December 19 was close to 159% higher than the average daily volume.
Based on Concur’s expense transaction data – where they processed over $50 billion expense reports globally – the volume of reports submitted on December 19 was more than double the average daily volume for the year.
This rush to claim unpaid expenses provides a striking contrast to the lower volume of reports submitted during Diwali (India’s biggest festive season) or March (End of India’s financial year) which was 37 per cent and 140 per cent lower respectively as compared to the volume on December 19th. However, it may also be interesting to note that October 17 (ninth days before the festival of Diwali) was the tenth largest day for expense submission at an 88 per cent increase above the average number of expenses.
December 19, has also been identified as the World’s Busiest Expense Day, witnessing more than double the average daily volume of expense reports submitted for the year. In striking contrast, the lowest volume day for submitting expenses globally, was Christmas Day– with just 2.56% of the volume seen less than a week earlier on the 19th.
“Whether it’s closing out of a calendar year or a fiscal year, the last thing a finance department should be worrying about is shuffling paper and locating lost receipts, said Christopher Juneau, Sr. Director Marketing, Asia-Pacific, Concur.
