Expensya Barometer: Employee expenses increased by 8.57% in 2023

Key figures:

• The number of expenses stayed relatively flat; only increased by 5% in 2023
• French employees spent an average of 2 525 euros over the year in 2023
• Overall spending by employees has risen by 8.57% compared with 2022
• Transport remains the main item of expenditure, accounting for 51.5% of spending by French employees
• Spending on training is growing strongly, up 24.27%

 

France - Paris, 13 March 2024 - Expensya, the scale-up now part of Medius that specializes in business expense management, unveils the key figures from its annual barometer of employee spending in France.

In France, the amount spent by employees rose by 8.57% in 2023 compared with the previous year, while the number of expenses also increased by 5%. Inflation is one of the main factors contributing to the increase in expense claims. In 2023, inflation reached 3.70% in France. This translates into increased spending on meals, transport, accommodation, and other business expenses.

Business meals in France: McDonald's in the lead, E.Leclerc on the podium

In 2023, business meals accounted for a significant proportion of spending by French employees, reaching 19.7%, an increase of 0.31% on the previous year. This growth is accompanied by an increase of 6.02% in the number of meal-related expense claims.

Several factors are contributing to this growth, such as inflation, the economic recovery, which has led to an increase in business travel and business lunches, and changes in working practices, which favor business meals as a way of maintaining social links between colleagues.

McDonald's is the restaurant preferred by professionals for meals, followed by brasseries and E.Leclerc. This is due to the high fragmentation - making the chains and supermarkets stand out.

Businesses focus on skills development to stay competitive

Spending on training is set to rise sharply in 2023, with an increase of 51,25%. Although training accounted for just 0.44% of total expenditure.

Transport remains the biggest expense item for employees in France

In value terms, transport accounted for costs increased 8.85% in 2023, compared with 2022. This growth it explained by a 5.49% increase in the number of transport-related expense claims compared with 2022 - showing that employees are travelling again.

The car remains the preferred mode of transport for French employees, followed by the train and the plane in third place. For business urban trips, taxis platforms account for 36.42% of all car related expenses, while Uber accounts for 19.24%, the rest is covered by fuel, parking, car rentals, etc…. Air transport accounts for only 3.53% of the total expense captured by Expensya in 2023 (this number is lower than reality, as companies often rely on a direct relationship with the airline and do not capture the spend in Expensya), with Air France being the most widely used airline both in terms of number of tickets booked (32.87%) and the budget allocated to air transport (49.33%), followed by EasyJet (17.56% of tickets booked) and Transavia (5.23% of tickets booked).

The increase in expenditure in 2023 is linked in particular to inflation, which has led to higher prices for fuel, rail and air tickets. The choice of mode of transport depends on a number of factors, such as the distance to be traveled, budget and time available.

The car remains the most practical mode of transport for long and frequent journeys, while the train is a more economical and environmentally friendly alternative for longer journeys.

Utility expenditure and accommodation: a slight fall

Utility expenditure (particularly teleworking-related expenditure) and accommodation represent 13.21% and 9.94% respectively of the total expenditure of employees in France in 2023, representing a 7.79% growth in volumes (but lower growth than the other categories).

The main brands in terms of expenditure remain unchanged compared to 2022: Amazon, Orange and Leroy Merlin.

Hotels remain the preferred type of accommodation (95%) for business travelers, compared with 5% for rented accommodation. Ibis hotels are the most popular (13.12%), followed by Mercure (4.21%) and Novotel (3.44%).

"The surge in expense claims in 2023 (+8.75%) is a warning sign that the French economy is moving at two speeds. On the one hand, inflation and economic recovery are boosting spending, particularly on transport and business meals. On the other, companies are investing in developing their employees' skills (+24.27% in training) to remain competitive. Expense management is becoming a crucial issue for organisations, which have to navigate between controlling costs and investing in their employees' future," says Karim Jouini, co-founder of Expensya.

Methodology:

Expensya conducted a two-year analysis of corporate spending (Jan 2022 - Dec 2023) based on over 13 million anonymized expense reports from different sectors and covering a diverse range of spending categories.

---

About Medius

Medius links invoice capture, processing and payment to replace the worry and wondering of managing AP with calm and confidence. Medius goes far beyond basic automation by using artificial intelligence to do most of the work – so invoices get confirmed, coded and paid; AP teams get to go home and rest easy; and businesses can trust their budgets and forecasts. Medius has more than 4,000 customers across 102 countries and processes $180 billion in annual spend through its system. Visit medius.com to learn more.

About Expensya

Expensya eliminates the administrative hassle of processing employee initiated spend. It facilitates companies in empowering their employees to spend independently while maintaining budgetary control. Its innovative solution generates benefits for employees, finance teams, and managers alike , enabling companies to transition from retroactively tracking expenses to pre-approving budgets.

Expensya uses artificial intelligence to eliminate manual data entry and automate the processing of expenses. Expensya is an easy-to-adopt and easy-to-adapt employee spend management solution that offers full control over spending while improving the bottom line of its customers. With a workforce of 200 individuals representing 20 different nationalities spread across 4 countries, Expensya has more than 6,000 client companies and over 700,000 users across 100 countries.