If you are not tracking your Return on Investment for a particular strategy or project, then you can fail to notice a number of important clues that could help you spend your time better.

However, in order to get that calculation correct, you need to understand all of the relevant factors that go into a project — not only the obvious possible gain, but the opportunity cost.

Let’s look at an item that has a number of hidden costs, something that many people would not even realise is very important at first: The expense report your business travelers fill out.

It is easy to look at this as overhead that you have to deal with in the most efficient way. While that is true, it’s important that you estimate the real cost that overhead represents.

That means asking yourself the question: Just how much can a bad expense report cost you?

How Much Does An Expense Report Cost To Fill Out?

The traditional, manual method of dealing with an expense report has required the traveling executive to deal with the report. Most traveling executives make a significant sum of money, often in the area of six figures — sometimes substantially more.

If you require travelers to handle the process themselves, you can count on two hours being spent dealing with the expense form. Not only that, but additional time will disappear as a traveler looks for all the documents that might be necessary.

Without the support of a software program that can drive cost reduction in this area, it is easy to assume that your executive might have to do all the work alone. The necessary research, if done correctly, may take two more hours.

Already, your executive has spent almost a full work day getting together such a report. This, of course, assumes he or she is able to devote full attention to the task and do everything possible to make it happen.

Now, what happens if there is a mistake? If there is a mistake in a report that creates a material misstatement of fact in your reporting documents, it could cost you thousands and thousands of dollars — or lead to an audit that might uncover even more problems.

You — and your rivals — have a serious incentive to drive cost reduction by making it easier to expense travel costs. With the right software, you can begin an effective transition to savings almost immediately.