Travel and Expense (T & E) Management solutions have undergone a sea of changes ever since it first surfaced as a serious concept in the business and corporate world, particularly when the first accounting software was developed in the late 70`s. Here’s a quick look at the evolution of T & E Management solutions:
8700 BCE and 2000 BCE:
Human beings started accepting stones or counting tokens instead of goods as trade material. The only expense accounting method during this period was counting rocks – definitely tiring with a lot of manual work involved.
8th – 6th century BC:
The invention of Abacus, also known as counting frames, greatly reduced the painstaking task of counting, and became quite popular in China, Europe and Russia. Scribes were able to record and count transactions effectively and quickly as their fingers could allow them to operate it
600AD:
The technique of using the hands, or “Counting on one’s hands” — more popular as a figure of speech today— to signify the natural numbers was developed in the early 600`s.
500–1000 AD:
Though coins have already been around several hundred of years before, it gained greater currency during the dark ages. The use of modern coin became mainstream in expense management, and in the processes of transaction records and inventory counts.
1883:
The invention of the first cash register, following the American Civil War, was an important step towards management of accounts accurately and how business expenses were tracked.
1928-1950:
The ‘Charge–Plate’, which eventually led to the development of credit card, was developed in 1928. The Air Transport Association and American Airlines simplified the process further with Air Travel Card carrying a numbering scheme identified with the customer account as well as the issuer of the card. In 1950, the Diners Club, started by Frank McNamara and Ralph Schneider, helped customers pay several merchants with the same card, thus consolidating multiple cards. It also brought out the first major “general purpose” charge card which required that customers pay the entire bill with each statement.
1950`s:
The Radiofax was invented and it allowed processing of expenses to another global site.
1970`s:
Development of early accounting software helped businesses in the management of buying, verification of invoices and stock maintenance. The use of software minimised the task of manual processing to a great extent.
1990’s:
As what turned to out to be biggest breakthrough, the development of Microsoft Excel simplified complex math and redundant tasks significantly.
2000`s:
PDAs, followed by the first iPhone in 2007 and smartphones later penetrated the business travel market, and made short work of travel and expense management.
Today:
Travel and Expense management solutions today come integrated with cutting–edge features via mobile and desktop applications such as travel policy compliant spend control & reporting, quick and easy booking, automated expense & reimbursement solutions with receipt capture, live credit card feeds, back up analytics capabilities, HR Integration, customizable real–time reports powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Well, business travel management has really come a long way, to say the least. If you’re looking to achieve significant time and financial savings with Tripeur, our unique business travel automation software, simply give us a shout today.