A survey of over 400 owners of small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs) reveals the impact of filing, sorting and paying out expenses. According to the data, UK SMEs spend an average of 13 business days per year managing expenses, a significant drain on time and resource for growing companies.

In fact, when compared with other vital business activities, a large percentage of SME owners admit that their company spends more time managing expenses than they do on generating new business (63.2 per cent), thinking about the future of the business (54.1 per cent) or investigating new markets (48.8 per cent).

The survey reveals that - in addition to eating up valuable time for more important activities - the expense reporting process is also a cause of worry and concern for SMEs. Nearly four out of five (78.6 per cent) express concern about how much money employees are spending on expenses. Also, with the MPs expenses scandal fresh in the memory, one in four (27.3 per cent) voice concerns about staff expensing items they should not. In addition, a quarter (25.2 per cent) think that employees could be spending too much, and a third (31.7 per cent) are concerned that some of the expense claims made by employees maybe unnecessary, but they don't have time to check.

Isabel Montesdeoca, Vice President at online expense management software provider Concur (http://www.concur.com/en-uk/) comments: "SME owners find that they waste far too much time and energy managing the expenses process. And yet worries remain among SMBs that all those efforts still leave them lacking the proper controls and visibility. If the right technology is put in place, expenses can be straightforward and transparent, giving confidence to focus on more important parts of running a company."

The survey also reveals one in four SME owners (27.1 per cent) are unsure that all of the expense claims they pay out are justified, and one in six (16.3 per cent) SMEs admit to having no clear written policy for expenses in place.

Although expenses can be easily streamlined for cost efficiency with an automated system, only 39.8 per cent of SMEs currently use one. Given the importance of cash flow to smaller businesses, and the current climate for small business loans, the expense process is a clear stumbling block for many SMEs. Montesdeoca continues: "Not only is bad expense management a drain on resources, it's also an area of company expenditure that can easily escalate out of control without a proper system in place."