Global Enterprise Modernized Their T&E Program

Smarter Controls, Fewer Reviews: How a Global Enterprise Modernized Their T&E Program

A global enterprise runs a high-volume Travel & Expense (T&E) program where reviewing every transaction before reimbursement is not practical. The team needed a control model that could scale with volume while still supporting audit confidence and clear control. Instead of trying to “check everything,” the organization made the decision to intentionally limit pre-payment review to roughly 10% of expense transactions then used postpayment controls and analytics to maintain confidence in the program. 

Business Challenge

At scale, the risk wasn’t only individual policy violations— it’s the combination of:

• High transaction volume

• Limited reviewer capacity

• The need to identify meaningful issues without creating unnecessary noise

• The need for defensible reporting and trend visibility for finance and audit leadership This required an approach that could both (1) flag specific transactions and (2) help the organization understand patterns and risk areas over time.

Solution

Using Oversight, the organization analyzed approximately $194M in spend across 2M+ expense transactions in 2025.

Oversight was used to identify risky transactions, support resolution workflows, and provide reporting that helps the team adjust the program over time. The organization has resolved 77,000+ flagged transactions, including 10,000+ confirmed non-compliant expenses.

The program tracked approximately $11M in non-compliant expense impact and reported a 13% findings rate. The team monitored those results and used program tuning to adjust how risk was identified and addressed over time. 

Results

From One-Off Transactions to Risk Patterns Beyond single issues, the organization used employee-level reporting (including repeat offender visibility) to support pattern-based reviews. This helped the team focus attention where risk was concentrated and where behavior was recurring—not just where an isolated transaction appeared.

Where Risk Concentrated Two of the largest drivers of non-compliant impact identified were:

• Out-of-pocket expenses 1 (~$4.9M impact)

• Late submissions (~$4.1M impact) 

Over time, the organization saw a 36% decline in flagged transactions, attributed to auditor engagement, employee education, and ongoing reinforcement supported by reporting. 

Benefits

This approach shows how a large organization can:

• Operate a scalable model (with ~10% pre-pay review) while using post-pay analytics to drive confidence

• Quantify non-compliance and focus attention on major drivers of exposure

• Improve outcomes over time, including a measurable reduction in flagged transaction rates

Learn how Oversight helps global finance teams validate T&E controls, focus audit effort where it matters, and improve compliance outcomes over time