Monica Wahlberg is in charge of procurement for all travel-related services in construction giant Skanska. The cooperation with Travel Clearing has led to better financial control, fewer errors, and less administration. On top of that, the solution is highly liked by staff members.
Skanska has some 11.000 employees in Sweden alone and is a major buyer of travel-related services. On the home market, the annual spend on air travel, trains, taxi, car rental, and hotels is more than EUR 11 million.
This adds up to close to 30.000 individual purchases that have to pass the company bookkeeping. Every cost must be booked at a specific cost centre for it to be charged to the right project.
Thanks to Travel Clearing’s solution, all travel expenses are automatically accounted. Every time a trip is booked, or a booking is made, it gets a code. Once that is done no manual work is required – nor by the accounting department or the traveler. The payment is made via a business travel account with American Express, and every penny finds its way to the right spot in the books.
– Travel Clearing has been amazing for us, says Monica Wahlberg.
– We have a very dynamic corporate structure with lots of different projects and cost centers that are in constant change. Travel Clearing keeps track of all this for us and among other things, make sure that no costs are booked on inactive projects.
The HR department continuously sends lists of employees with user names and other information to Travel Clearing. At the same time, lists of current projects and cost centers are sent from different parts of the organization. Travel Clearing synchronizes the lists so that each employee only can choose to book the cost on the project[s] that he or she is working with at that time. This is even the case when a staff member pays for a taxi journey with a taxi app.
If the booking is made using an invalid code, the payment is not made, and Travel Clearing alerts the right person at Skanska so that the error can be corrected.
– This is a significant change for us, says Wahlberg. We used to have many invoices that were blocked, and the use of cost centers and project numbers left a lot to be desired.
– We have reduced our administrative work and have a lot less hassle now.
A major advantage with Travel Clearing is that the staff has so well received the system.
– Staff members really use it! They know that if they buy and book in the right way, they will reduce their work to a minimum and won’t have to make any travel expense reports.
– Our employees are very solution-oriented and creative, and they always want to save money for the company. Previously we would have people who negotiated their own deals with, for example, hotels who then charged us. All done with the best of intentions, but the money saved could often result in administrative costs that would cost more than the saving gave.
– We have much better compliance with our travel policies now. Staff members book according to policy and guidelines and feel that ”this is good for me.” They don’t have to make any travel expense reports, and the project managers always have correct and updated financial information.
Travel Clearing has created a process and a workflow that makes people use their solution. They are agile and quick and have learned how our company works.
Travel Clearing is a USP
Monica Wahlberg means that a connection to Travel Clearing is a USP for businesses who wish to sell to Skanska.
– In our procurement processes, we always ask for a connection to Travel Clearing. If we are to buy from companies that do not have this, our administrative costs will be higher, and that company will be of less interest for us to work with.
– We don’t want to have suppliers where our staff members have to pay with card or who send their own invoices. We want everything through the Business Travel Account and Travel Clearing
