Three in five APAC business travellers (60%) admit to bending company travel and expense policies, notably higher than the 50% global average.
According to SAP Concur’s annual Global Business Travel Survey, the data exposes exactly where regional travelers take liberties with company spend, alongside scenarios where they choose not to file legitimate expenses at all.
Employee rule-bending: Flexible policies offer room for interpretation
A fifth (20%) of APAC travellers admit to using corporate discounts to book personal travel, while 19% have extended a business trip without using annual leave or telling their manager. In addition, 17% report using company funds for personal expenses.
Comfort levels with rule-bending vary significantly by generation. Globally, only 32% of Boomers and 37% of Gen X employees admit these behaviours, compared to 55% of Millennials and 55% of the Gen Z workforce. Seniority also plays a role: 54% of global executives report having bypassed T&E policies in the past, compared to 49% of non-executives.
Travellers are candid about why they would boundary-test the organisation’s T&E policies. In APAC, more than half (54%) put it down to flexible policies that make it easy to justify most expenses. Meanwhile, 19% view it as a way to compensate themselves for unfair wages. In addition, 17% point to weak internal vetting processes where breaches are likely to go unnoticed.
Travellers also bend the rules to cater for extra companions: 17% claim to have paid for other people’s meals or expenses with company funds, while 14% say they have taken non-employee guests along for a trip.
Furthermore, 16% of APAC travellers admit that they feel little loyalty to a company that restricts their travel behaviour, while 17% normalise it because “everyone does it”, against 13% globally.
Some expenses are not filed at all
Despite the number of business travellers making the most of what they consider to be flexible policies, more than a third of APAC employees (37%) say they have avoided submitting legitimate expenses in the past year to prevent unwanted attention – a significantly higher rate than 25% globally.
Workplace perception is a major driver of this expense anxiety. One-fifth of APAC travellers (21%) would hold off submitting an expense because they fear being flagged as a high spender. Meanwhile, 27% say it is to avoid looking like they spend more than their colleagues, compared to 19% globally.
Others are trying to be mindful of the company’s funds. More than a quarter of APAC travellers (29%) would abstain from filing if the expense benefited them personally, 25% would avoid claims that would take them over their pre-approved budget for the trip. A final 21% would hold back if they simply did not expect the expense would be approved anyway.
“As business travel continues to rebound across APAC, organisations are managing a more complex trust equation. Policies need to work across different markets, travel norms and cost environments, but vague guardrails can leave too much room for interpretation. At the same time, putting the onus on employees to judge what is acceptable can create expense anxiety and discourage legitimate claims,” says Chon Raman, head of SAP Concur, APAC.
“Organisations in APAC need to clarify their policies and embed transparent guardrails directly into T&E workflows, so employees understand what is covered before they spend and managers can approve claims more consistently across markets. That is how businesses reduce ambiguity, rebuild mutual trust and make compliance feel like a natural part of the employee experience.”
