The ROI of consolidating your vendor landscape

More vendors means more work for your team

The work it takes to juggle all those vendors adds up quickly. Every additional vendor brings its own contract, invoice, and dashboard to manage. As Ali pointed out in the webinar, that multiplies the admin overhead and can make getting a single view of total travel spend feel impossible.

The numbers reflect how widespread the problem is. According to Skift Research and Navan, more than 60% of travel and finance managers still process expense reports manually, processing trips one receipt at a time. And 63% of them say manual, time-consuming expense submission is their single biggest pain point, according to the Global Business Travel Association.

How to get started with consolidation: Look where receipts pile up

Consolidating doesn’t have to mean tearing out your existing system and starting from scratch. Melissa’s advice is to start with day-to-day expenses like rides, meals, deliveries, and perks.

“Go after the recurring, high-frequency operational spend first,” she said. “They’re the expenses where everyone wonders if it’s worth turning in [an expense report] at all.”

Since these categories generate the most receipts and require the most manual work, they’re also where a managed system will have the most immediate impact.

Evaluate vendors based on coverage, not features

Once you’ve identified your starting point, it’s time to start refining your list of vendors. Every vendor has a list of things they can do, but the key is to look at the services you actually use them for. Ideally, you’ll find as many uses as possible for every vendor. If you’re paying an invoice for a vendor that only does one job, they’d better be incredibly good at it.

Also keep in mind that there’s more than cost to consider. Details that promote quality of life—like priority support and predictable service—should play a big role in earning a place on your vendor list. Going with a slightly less expensive vendor could lead to larger frustrations felt by your team, ranging from lost time troubleshooting support issues to increased complaints about clunky tools. As Ali put it, “Ask yourselves, does this platform really protect my employees’ time and sanity? Or just lower the cost?”

When consolidation is done correctly, you should end up with vendors who deliver greater efficiency for your Finance team as well as better experiences for your employees.

Have a defined policy at the point of purchase

Putting controls like spend limits, expense types, or eligible groups in place at the point of decision means employees will spend less time trying to figure out whether something is within policy. Your Finance team will also appreciate spending less time pushing back on out-of-policy expenses.

The key is to set guardrails so that every option your employee can choose is one you’ve previously approved. For example, Uber for Business allows you to build ride programs that specify which members of your team can access specific ride types. You might give your C-suite access to Uber Business Black while giving managers options like Uber Business Comfort or UberX. The same idea applies to meals. For example, you can set up a late-night meal program that’s available only during certain hours.

“It doesn’t mean you’re taking away their options,” Melissa said. “Instead, you’re saying, ‘Here’s the sandbox. You can do whatever you want inside it. If you’re able to request it, you’re approved, and no one is going to send you a stern email about it later.’”

Make sure data moves the way you expect

Even after evaluating your vendors, if your data doesn’t do what you want it to when you want it to, your team might wind up processing expense reports manually.

Before you finalize your vendor consolidation, confirm how spend, billing, and receipts actually flow into the tools your Finance team already uses. Start with how data gets from the point of purchase into your systems: The more automated the process, the less work required by your employees and Finance team.

Then look at how useful that data actually is once it lands. If you want real gains from consolidation, look for a platform that can categorize purchases and attach expense codes that follow the transaction through every system it touches.

Finally, consider how well the platform adapts to your business—not how much your team has to adapt to the platform. Systems that make compliance easy and feel familiar to your team are more likely to deliver results after consolidation.

What a consolidated vendor list looks like with Uber for Business

Those are the starting points of streamlining your vendor relationships. But what does that actually look like applied to services your travelers use day to day?

With Uber for Business, one program can cover multiple spend categories, with data flowing into one convenient dashboard and, if your team prefers it, one consolidated bill.

• Everyday rides: Provide business rides, including premium options like Business Black and the newly rolling out Elite,* with policy controls and ride-type limits
• Meals: Offer team meals, individual in-office or late-night meals, and on-the-road dining, all through Uber Eats
• Perks: Provide vouchers, gift cards, and Uber One corporate memberships for commutes, events, and employee appreciation programs
• Concierge: Arrange rides for guests (even if they don’t have the Uber app) through Uber’s Central dashboard, send ride vouchers, get packages delivered, or get office supplies delivered to your door

Ali noted that for Uber’s own team, consolidating and automating expensing has translated to significant savings in employee hours annually.