Hidden cost of expense reports.

Expense reports cost more than most companies realise. Employee time to fill out, receipts to gather, manager time to approve, finance team time to process - all add up. Industry research shows average corporate expense report takes 45 minutes employee time + 15 minutes manager approval, costing 25-60 per report just in labour.

500 monthly reports × 45 mins × 30/hr employee + 15 mins × 50/hr manager = 22.50 + 12.50 = 35/report. Monthly 17,500, annually 210,000. This is why automated expense tools (Expensify, SAP Concur, Pleo) pay back - if tool costs 10/user/month but saves 30/report in labour, it's obviously worth it.

Process automation opportunities: receipt auto-capture via mobile photo, credit-card auto-import, policy violation auto-flag, auto-approval for under threshold, pre-approval workflows. Best-in-class reduces per-report cost from 35 to 8-15. At 500 reports/month, that's 10-15k monthly saving, 120-180k annually - worth meaningful investment.

Quick example

With reports per month of 500 and time per report of 45 (plus employee hourly cost of 30 and manager approval of 15), the result is 35.00. Change any figure and watch the output shift — it's often more useful to see the pattern than to memorise the formula.

Which inputs matter most

You enter Reports per Month, Time per Report (mins), Employee Hourly Cost, Manager Approval (mins), and Manager Hourly Cost. Frequency and unit price pull the total in different directions. The biggest surprise for most people is how small recurring amounts compound into large annual figures — that's where this calculation earns its keep.

What's happening under the hood

Per-report cost = (employee time/60 × rate) + (manager time/60 × rate). Monthly = per-report × reports. The formula is listed in full below. If the number looks off, you can retrace the calculation by hand — that's the point of showing the working.

What the score tells you

Headline financial numbers — income, savings, debt — each tell part of the story. This calculation stitches several together into a single read you can track over time. The value is in the direction, not the absolute number.

What this doesn't capture

The score is a composite of the inputs you provide. Life context — job security, family obligations, health, housing — doesn't appear in the math but shapes the real picture. Use the number as a prompt, not a verdict.