Instant Reimbursements for Employee Expenses Rise 15% in 2023

Business travel is increasing as professionals attend industry conferences and meet with clients in person now that pandemic-related measures have lifted. This rise has also led to an uptick in business expenses and the need to reimburse employees. With the rise of digital payments, employees increasingly expect reimbursements to come sooner — without the hassle of waiting to receive and deposit a check.

These conditions help explain why instant payments of business expenses reimbursements are also on the rise. Employees received 43% of these reimbursements via instant payments — a 6 percentage point increase from one year ago. Employee satisfaction with instant reimbursements has reached a high of 78% this year, indicating that employees increasingly value the convenience and quick access to good funds that instant payment methods provide.

These are a few key findings explored in “Generation Instant: Business Expense Reimbursements,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and Ingo Money collaboration. The report is based on a census-balanced survey of 2,606 consumers across the United States conducted between Aug. 28 and Oct. 4. The survey examined their satisfaction with disbursements received from government and nongovernment entities.

Other findings from the report include the following.

The amount of business expense reimbursements has grown.

The share of consumers receiving business expense reimbursements has risen by 57% in the last two years. At the time of our survey, 5.5% of consumers had received business expense reimbursements in the last 12 months, up from 3.5% who said the same in 2021. Millennials and high-income consumers — those annually earning more than $100,000 — received reimbursements the most in the last year, at 9.4% and 9.5%, respectively.

Close to half of consumers received instant reimbursements of business expenses.

When looking at how consumers receive business expense reimbursements, all indications are that the increased ubiquity of instant payment options carries over to these payouts. Overall, 58% of receivers used instant methods to receive these reimbursements at least once in the last 12 months. Moreover, 43% of consumers said they received instant reimbursements the most, compared to 37% in June 2022.

Consumers are 12% more satisfied when receiving instant reimbursements.

The data confirms that instant payments positively impact satisfaction. Seventy-eight percent of consumers said they are very or extremely satisfied when receiving instant reimbursements. In contrast, 70% of receivers are highly satisfied across all payment methods.

With such high satisfaction levels, enterprises could benefit by enabling instant payouts of expense reimbursements to attract and retain employees. Download the report to learn how employees increasingly value receiving business expense reimbursements via instant payments.