A new study conducted by Soldo unlocks insights on employees’ expenditures in London, revealing the most common kinds of expenses and how different industries compare.
Employees working in Media and Entertainment in London file the most expenses, followed by the IT and Finance industries. Those in the Legal and Insurance industries expense the least.
In Europe, Italians are the biggest ‘spenders’, with Milan coming in first for European cities with the highest volume of claims. London follows closely behind in second.
Soldo has developed this interactive tool to showcase and compare the UK and Europe’s most prolific business expenses.
A new study from Soldo, a B2B pay and spend automation platform that helps businesses better manage their spending, uncovered patterns in UK and European expense claims which unveil how employees in different industries are making expenses—the findings unlock data about the true cost of hiring employees, showing what employees often expense.
The research analyses the top industries claiming the most expenses in the UK and Europe. Soldo also has created an interactive tool, which allows users to input the industry they work in and compare employee expenses between different industries, as well as different expense categories.
London industries expenses:
The data, which Soldo collected using customer insights between August 2019 and July 2020, shows that in London employees working in Media and Entertainment in London file the most expenses compared to the rest of industries in the city. Their top claims come from Restaurant meals, Food store shopping, and General Shopping including Technology, Books, Clothes, and Digital Goods.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, those in the Legal and Insurance industry expense the least. With Transport and Restaurant meal as their top expenses respectively.
London top 10 industries that expense the most:
Rank Industry Top claims
1 Media & Entertainment Restaurant meals
2 IT Business Services
3 Finance Food Shopping
4 Consultancy Transport
5 Communications & Marketing Business Services
6 Technology Restaurant meals
7 Professional Services Transport
8 Charity / Non Profit Food Shopping
9 Real Estate Restaurant meals
10 Retail Clothes
European Industries Expenses:
The data in Europe shows that Italian are the biggest spenders, with Milan leading with the highest volume of claims. The employees that expense the most in Milan are those working on the Shipping industry followed by Government, Telecommunications, and Media & Entertainment.
Top European spenders:
Rank City Industry Top claims
1 Milano Shipping Transport
2 London Media & Entertainment Restaurant meals
3 Berlin Travel Organisation Services
4 Roma Construction Transport
5 Amsterdam Manufacturing Restaurant meals
6 Madrid Media & Entertainment Store Shopping
7 Paris Retail Store Shopping
Overall Key Findings of the Study:
The study analysed over three million transactions, from 445 industries across 1096 European cities. Overall the most common type of expenses (from most to least expensed) are Food, Business Services, Dining Out, Petrol, and Taxi Fares.
The data also indicates that many employees are making expenses outside of traditionally expensed goods (e.g. airfare for work trips, business services): many industries saw time and money spent in cocktail bars (mainly in Engineering, Manufacturing and Machinery), on clothing items (Telecommunications), or on beauty products (Government).
Looking at the total number of transactions, the Courier Service Industry files the most employee expenses, followed by the Government and the IT industries; finance departments claim the least expenses.
Industry Top expenses
Courier service Food Shopping
Government Food Shopping
IT Business Services
Transportation Petrol
Media Business Services
Communications Food Shopping
Retail Clothes
Technology Restaurant meals
Engineering Restaurant meals
Construction Restaurant meals
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to upend daily lives and keep many people working remotely, these findings help identify and anticipate a likely shift in future business expenses. While business travel like airfare and taxi fares have decreased dramatically since the start of work-from-home orders, business supplies and food delivery expenses have soared. Looking ahead to 2021, business managers and HR leaders will need to optimise their budgets to ensure that employees are able to expense the items that are most important for remote workers, likely: food and coffee purchases; utility bills from increased internet or heating usage while at home; home office supplies like desks and monitors; IT services to ensure company data is secure; and more.
Soldo allows employers to quickly analyse the biggest expense categories and make decisions about where they may need to allocate budget or approve spending.
Please visit here to use Soldo’s interactive tool. You can select which industry you’re interested in exploring expenses for and compare it to others, as well use the interactive tables to see what categories employee expenses are generated from.
