Expense Management Statistics
Last updated: June 2026 · 5 sourced statistics
Expense reports are small invoices with worse data quality. GBTA Foundation research put the cost of processing one at $58 — with nearly a fifth containing errors that cost another $52 each to fix. Add the ACFE's findings on reimbursement fraud and the case for automated expense capture writes itself.
Key takeaways
- Processing one expense report costs $58 on average (GBTA Foundation).
- 19% of expense reports contain errors; each correction costs ~$52 and 18 minutes.
- Expense-reimbursement schemes appear in over a tenth of occupational fraud cases (ACFE).
The statistics
Processing a single expense report costs $58 on average, per GBTA Foundation research.
Source:GBTA Foundation2015
19% of expense reports contain errors, and correcting each one costs about $52 and 18 minutes of staff time (GBTA Foundation).
Source:GBTA Foundation2015
Occupational fraud causes a median loss of $145,000 per case, per the ACFE's global study — with expense-reimbursement schemes among the most frequent categories.
Source:ACFE Report to the Nations2024
Expense-reimbursement schemes appear in more than a tenth of occupational fraud cases and typically run for years before detection (ACFE).
Source:ACFE Report to the Nations2024
Receipt-scanning and card-feed automation eliminates most manual entry — the same capture economics that cut invoice processing costs 60–80% (Billentis, for comparison).
Source:Billentis (capture-automation comparison)2024
Methodology & sources
Compiled June 2026 from GBTA Foundation studies (the standard industry citation for expense-report costs), the ACFE's biennial Report to the Nations, and Billentis automation research. The GBTA figures date from 2015 and likely understate today's labor costs.
Frequently asked questions
What does it cost to process an expense report?
About $58 per report in GBTA Foundation research, plus $52 per correction for the ~19% containing errors — figures that predate recent wage inflation.
How common is expense fraud?
Expense-reimbursement schemes show up in over a tenth of occupational fraud cases (ACFE), typically small amounts repeated over long periods.
How do companies cut expense-processing costs?
Corporate cards with automatic feed matching, receipt-photo capture at purchase time, policy rules enforced at submission, and sampling-based audit instead of reviewing everything.
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