Case Study

Automation Helps Global Travel Powerhouse Address VAT Challenges

BCD Travel is the third largest travel management provider in the world. The company has three main business lines: corporate travel management, travel program optimisation and events management. BCD Travel is headquartered in the Netherlands, operates in 109 countries, has $27.1 billion in total 2018 sales and a combined worldwide workforce of 13,800.

When selecting their VAT recovery partner, the key criteria for BCD Travel was:

Technology-based solution Minimal required involvement of BCD Travel Increased compliance of T&E data Easy-to-use portal with insights for increasing VAT recovery

The company

The challenges

“We chose VATBox because we want to optimise our VAT reclaim process, simplify the administrative processes for our finance departments and to increase the compliance of our T&E invoices.”

Marcel de Wit, Vice President Global Tax & Treasury at BCD Travel

“BCD Travel went through a process ofstreamlining multiple Expense Management Systems in primarily two systems. However, these two systems could not guarantee proper VAT handling because they can’t check whether an invoice is VAT compliant and if the VAT is reclaimable.”

Marcel de Wit, Vice President Global Tax & Treasury at BCD Travel

13,800 workforce

$27.1 bn total sales 2018

109 countries

BCD Travel faced difficulties in obtaining sufficient insight into VAT/GST (hereinafter referred to as VAT) recovery and compliance on domestic and foreign Travel & Entertainment (‘T&E’) invoices. With multiple expense systems, and the lack of resources and knowledge to cover VAT rules around the globe, the company was only recovering a fraction of its eligible VAT. In addition, the expense systems in place did not allow for invoices to be processed, and VAT invoice requirements to be validated at the same time. As the volumes were simply too high for a full manual audit process, a significant opportunity remained untapped.

The company’s mission is to help their clients travel smarter and achieve more by providing travellers with innovative tools that keep them safe and productive and guide them in making good choices on the road.

The solution

The results

Automated VAT recovery platform that seamlessly integrates with BCD Travel’s existing EMS solutions

BCD Travel partnered with VATBox to automate and optimise its VAT reclaim processes, improve invoice compliance and make the traveller’s life easier.

BCD Travel made two strategic decisions to optimise their VAT recovery process:

The first was to reduce the number of Expense Management Systems to two – SAP Concur and MobileXpense – and leverage the VATBox integrations with these systems, allowing a seamless data extraction process without any internal involvement. By working with a partner that is laser-focused on data integrity and data science, the extracted T&E and AP invoice data can be used to reach the highest level of VAT compliance, while also providing insight into travel policy compliance.

The second strategic decision was to select a VAT recovery partner that could not only process and improve BCD Travel’s internal T&E data but could also be offered as an added value service for BCD Travels client’s within the Solution Source platform. Together with BCD, VATBox brings savings to business travel spend through an automated process. As a strong technology-driven business, BCD Travel was well positioned to evaluate the different offerings and chose the partner with the strongest technology platform and capabilities for future joint developments.

By partnering with VATBox, BCD Travel gained:

An optimised VAT recovery process

Increased level of compliance

Increased level of control – full matching between invoice and record

Detailed T&E reporting in order to manage non-compliant invoices

Painless data retrieval via SAAS based integrations with existing Travel Expense Management systems

Fully digitalised workflow, which allows for a full audit trail, real-time insight and a wide range of data anyaltics insights fully available online

A combined platform to offer VAT recovery powered by VATBox to all BCD Travel’s clients

Marcel de Wit Vice President Global Tax & Treasury at BCD TravelWith over 15 years of experience in the corporate tax industry, he leads BCD tax compliance and treasury towards the digitalisation area. He has a Masters in Tax Law from the University of Amsterdam and is a strong believer in the power of technology.

Contact us

For a FREE analysis of your company’s VAT recovery potential, or to book a demo with the VATBox team, contact us at www.vatbox.com

BCD Travel’s clients can leverage our seamless integration via a single click by visiting VATBox’s Solution Source page at https://solutionsource.bcdtravel.com/vatbox/

“As de Wit summarised, “It is all about data, and VATBox’s portal provides us with the reporting, analytics and business intelligence for our customers and ourselves to optimise processes and further increase the value we bring not only to our business but also to the compliance and savings of our customers.”

Marcel de Wit, Vice President Global Tax & Treasury at BCD Travel