Name: Plan smarter, spend better: 2026 budget strategies for finance and operations leaders
Uploaded: 2025-11-13T19:46:12.060Z
Duration: 30 min 12 s
Description: Plan smarter, spend better: 2026 budget strategies for finance and operations leaders

Transcript for "Plan smarter, spend better: 2026 budget strategies for finance and operations leaders": Hello, and welcome to today's webinar, Plan Smarter, Spend Better, twenty twenty six budget strategies for finance and operation leaders. In the next thirty minutes, we'll show you practical strategies to build employee facing programs that deliver ROI without breaking the bank. I am Ali Slusser from Uber for Business. I'm a working mom of three young children, and there is nothing I love more than creating practical strategies to make all areas of my life easier. Today, I am joined by my colleague, Bob Williams, and together, we'll walk you through how to do more with less in twenty twenty six while still giving your employees the experiences they love. Bob, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and Uber for Business? Love to. Ali, thank you. And to our audience, thank you for taking the time today to spend a little bit of, the afternoon with us. We hope that we impart some valuable strategies that make the time investment worthwhile. So as Ali said, my name is Bob Williams. I was a former US army soldier as you might see in the background and now a corporate warrior for the last twenty five years or so spending the last three in a project we roll with Uber for Business, where our goal is to, in a B2B format, help move and feed your people at scale in a cost control bubble and in a way it enables you to plan smart and budget better. So thank you again for the time this afternoon, and let's get to it. And while we give people a second to get joined, I have a quick question for the chat, which is, what are you most looking forward to in 2026? As you're watching, let us know what your answers are in the chat. And before we dive into today's content, we've got a little bit of housekeeping. For everyone listening to this webinar, if you would like to submit questions, just look for the q and a tab on the right side of the screen. If we don't get to all of them during the webinar, our team will follow-up with you after the call. If you would like to learn more about Uber for Business, you can explore the related content tab under the docs tab. Click the get demo button at the top of your screen to request a demo from our Uber for Business team, and we'll follow-up with you post webinar to get that set up. And if you miss anything during the webinar, we'll be sending you a replay after we get wrapped up. Now that we've got that out of the way, Bob, what are we covering today? It's a good question. So to set the table for the time that we're gonna spend together, today's agenda, of course, is to plan smarter and to spend better. Those are the two focal points. So as you see the four bullet points, one through four, the first part, twenty twenty six planning reality, what the data says. But getting data used to be a problem. That's not the case anymore. We now have mountains of it available, especially with the advent of AI. So how do we wade through that and and make a clear picture of what the data shows us? And number two, building programs with measurable ROI. So how can you create demonstrable return on investment on paper that carries real value to your stakeholders and that's what we're gonna talk about there as well. And then what hidden opportunities are there? In other words, what quick wins are available for you to grab right away to make a difference and make an impact quickly? And lastly, it says right there, creating flexible, scalable programs. So spoiler alert, we have some that are working conjunction with Uber for Business, so we'll probably get to those. But we'll tell you tell you how we can put some of these recommendations in play for you at a small or large level. Alright. So the 2026 landscape, how is it different than 2025? What's the variant between last year and and this year? As the next slide is gonna show us, the stats here are pretty telling and surprised me at first. 86% of tech leaders expect increased budgets, which have not always been the case and as the second point says travel budgets have been increasing since 2024. So in summary, we're pretty much back at pre COVID levels for spend, if not more. But with that comes a unique set of new problems that we haven't had before, right? With an increased budget comes additional expectations. So to use a sports analogy, when people have been praying, if we could just have that great quarterback, that's all we need and we can win. Well, now you have a quarterback, we better deliver the results that are expected by everybody involved. And then lastly, the economic uncertainty, two out of every three people agree that there will be constants beyond your control. I mentioned the FAA a minute ago, federal furloughs changing international tariffs, it's a daily landscape change and uncertainty is at an all time high. So it's important to put together a planning and budget reality that works for you that can stand the test of time and those challenges. So summary, if you need to do more with the budget you have, ROI becomes even more important than all the other programs. So, Ali, can you talk us through some of the more important parts of the ROI conversation? Yeah. Thanks, Bob. So as we think of ROI, we really like to think of it in a three pillar format. And we know that ROI is pretty easy. Do something that brings in more money than it costs. But employee programs can be a little bit trickier. So when you're considering those, there's really three big things we would encourage you to think about. That is cost efficiency, employee retention, and productivity. We can dive a little bit more into these in today's webinar, and we'll start with cost efficiency. Cost efficiency, if it's it it's not important, but it if it doesn't drive revenue. What's the most efficient way you can do it? Policy compliance savings. Let's not leave it to our employees to stay in compliance on our own. When we can, let's create automated processes to help employees stay compliant. I've heard that nobody wants to click a button these days. And this will lead us to reduced errors, and we all know that less errors means less money, and that means more time. Moving over to employee retention, this is no surprise that this brings massive savings. Does the execution of the program help keep your employees on the team, or is it pushing them off the team? We do know that replacing employees costs 40 to 200% of the employee's salary. And we see 21% higher profitability with engaged employees, which doesn't surprise us that 87% are less likely to leave when they are happy and engaged. And finally, productivity. Productivity efforts increase return. Your program might not have a direct impact on revenue, and that is okay. But it but does it increase revenue if it increases your productivity? Yes. 50 to 70% of faster close cycles with automation. And productivity gains can be found everywhere. The biggest gains are found in streamlining repeated processes. My favorite statistic, the average expense report takes forty five minutes to complete. Cutting that down by twelve minutes would gain you an hour for every five expense reports. That's a look at some of the ways your various employee programs can help increase ROI, and you can make an even bigger impact by implementing your programs in a smart way. Bob, why don't you talk us through some smart ways companies are finding savings? You bet. So we're gonna look at savings in terms of where they can be found, and there's generally three major areas. Right? The first is policy level savings. In other words, how can you spend less, in terms of executing new processes? The other two are platform consolidation and administrative efficiency. So we'll we'll talk in a little bit about vendor sprawl and what that concept is, but consolidating platforms to create efficiency and then administrative efficiency. So in other words, we can look for savings by spending less or more importantly, doing more with what we have. Okay? So in terms of policy level savings, I'm seeing less money flow out. How can we do that? What are some specific tools that are a little more granular? Well, the first one is through spending audits. Now when I think of audit originally, it sort of creates the image I had of of doing inventory when I was in college at a college job where you were with a clipboard counting out all the hammers and nails that you have was a tedious exercise. Right? Or it can sort of trigger that that same sort of fear, you know, in terms of the time investment. But with the tools available now with Uber for Business and in general, most of the grunt work, if you will, is is done for you, by the automated process so that the intensive manual audit of the of the pass is gone and you had it now have a clear picture of whether people are compliant or not compliant with the policies that you put into place. So that second statistic, I'd like to explain a little better. It says forty nine percent of travelers now book in channel when policies are easier. So when people are spending out of policy or acting out of policy, why do they do that? Because they find it to be an easier methodology than complying with the rules. So let me give you a very personal example, and I I have to claim fault here. For years, I preferred using my own personal credit card when traveling even though I I might add a corporate one because I enjoyed the frequent flyer miles and points and benefits that I would get. Right? But it got to the point where when filing the expense report with the easy to use processes that we have in place now, of which we move for business as a solution, If I played by the rules and used the corporate card, it took me five minutes to file an expense report instead of the seventy five that Ally told me. So in effect, we now have created a situation where playing by the rules and booking in channel was more attractive to me than breaking the rules and getting a few frequent flyer points. So what strategies can you be put into play? And, of course, we have a couple here in Uber for Business. What can we put into play to help making in channel and in policy decisions easier and more attractive for your employees? So it takes seventy five minute process down to five. You're happy because everybody's gonna find time to save the employees happy. So let's take a look at vendor spa. I touched on that earlier. It might be a foreign concept too, but Ally's gonna explain a little bit more about that. Yeah. Thanks, Bob. I think as we go into 2026, something that we're hearing from a lot of our biggest, customers in the market is how can we vendor consolidate. This historically used to be something that people did not think about, but we saw a big movement in 2025 across all industries and company sizes. 41 of orgs increased IT control to reduce SaaS costs and 18% reduction in tools for midsize companies. When you're looking at Uber for Business, this is where we're really trying to show you how to lead in this space. You can come to Uber for your rides, your meals, your black car service, your high capacity vehicles, even your item delivery. Add that with e receipt forwarding and policy enforcement all in one platform, it's truly incredible. Having that many platforms brings its own headaches. We all know you have contracts and IT and lawyers, but with Uber for Business, you can come to one place with no monthly fee, no setup costs, and you're only paying for what is used by your employees. Fewer contracts, less training, lower overhead. Alright. So as the slide you see here indicates, effective expense management can save up to $75 a month. So we've we've touched on this point several times. So to provide a real to put a bow on it and to provide, a final analysis on how effective this could be in reducing your bottom line, let's take a look at an expense report, statistic that I learned. Some of you, I think, have probably been to the GBTA convention. They're hosting annually, probably most of you. And there was one in 2023 that I heard in Texas that really stuck with me. And the stat was this, that it costs $56 in soft costs to file, audit, and then pay an expense report, but it also said that 25% of expense reports on average had an error that took fifteen minutes or more to fix. So when you extrapolate the numbers out, that's a $14 mistake that was happening one out of every four times. So how can you eliminate that in one move? Well, in terms of Uber for Business, we have partnerships with all of the expense management platforms that you're familiar with, Ramp, Concur, Navon, Rex, etcetera. All of them will help eliminate the expense filing errors that are so costly. As the second bullet point there says receipt chasing. Those are those things are in the past. Receipts automatically flow over. Data automatically flows over. So the filer is pleased, the auditor is pleased, but there's no more $14 errors and the process takes a mere seconds. So policy enforcement is easy, makes people happy to comply because it benefits them in the process, and it eliminates those irritating corrections that are so costly along the way. So now Uber for Business has created a solution for you that makes your employees happy about filing an expense report and your auditors in terms of avoiding the headache that goes along with it. One of the real tangible benefits of partnering with us. Alright. So we've talked about how employee programs can drive our aligned and find savings. Right? We've touched on several of them, but let's talk about what programs you should be thinking about in 2026 that would help move the needle for you and your organization. Ali, what do you think? How could, we get started in that department? Yeah. Thanks, Bob. I think it's really important to remember that not all programs are created equal. And we should focus on high impact benefits. Something, you know, when we ask you to put your question or your answers in the chat for what excites you most, we are very excited about employee facing benefits. 85% of executives say retention's a top 10 issue. I'm surprised that's not 95%. 41% lower turnover with robust perks and packages, and that doesn't always mean money. So what's working? Programs that remove friction, provide value, and make your employees feel happy and appreciated. Bob is pretty familiar with a company that helps employees deliver on this exact sort of program. Aren't you, Bob? I'm afraid so. Except at the beginning, spoiler alert. Some of these solutions are gonna tie into Uber for Business recommendation. So there they are. There's the big reveal. So let me give you some specific tangible benefits that you can see by partnering with Uber for Business. So let me lead first with ease of implementation. If you were to select a new health insurance provider for your company next year, you find one that's a better fit for your work. That means webinars, sign forms, compliance seminars. It means a very costly implementation because it's difficult change tonight. With Uber for Business, we're in a unique position. How often can a vendor come to you and say that we have a solution for you that's free, that will save you time and money, and 80% of your employees are already doing it now. So they'd be happy to participate in the new partnership because it's something they've already been been doing. Implementation takes five minutes per user maximum. So in terms of putting it into promotion, save time there, save money as well. So I mentioned many times the integration component on the expense report. Some other benefits on how we can deliver for your team involving policy guardrails. You'll have the ability to set travel and expense transportation guardrails that will, in effect, specify for your user, travel, or employee where they can travel, when, how often, in what vehicle, and you can set up all these guardrails in moments, you can adjust them at any time, you can do so in moments, and best of all, it's not a one size fits all policy. You can create travel and expense guardrails for executives that are different than interns. Right? You might wanna have your executives travel in an Uber Black, business black car, but your interns might just be fine with an Uber Green. So these are specifications and guardrails that you can put on the fly that will save you money in hard costs, actual dollars, less dollars spent. And in addition, we have a concept, Uber One, it's the best kept secret to travel and we are trying our best to make it not such a secret. So here we go. You might be familiar with Costco or Sam's Club, where a small membership team buys you access to great deal of savings. Uber One is a program where your employees would receive 6% back on every ride that they take. It would flow directly into their wallet for the next spend, and they would receive 10% off of food for Uber meals while traveling and free delivery. We can put this program into motion for you for free for all of your staff for three to twelve months depending on your interest and then it's just pennies on the dollar after that. In addition, when we look at additional concepts and programs that we can put into motion for the relationship with Uber for Business on the next slide, you'll see built in policy enforcement. We touched on that. The tool is intuitive enough to be able to tell you the outliers of traveler behavior. So instead of setting up burdensome and draconian rules that everybody has to follow, you're able to get data that will show you the one or two proverbial bad apples, if you will, that are maybe operating outside of the the guidelines. Right? In terms of measurable ROI, we will provide you with the data on sustainability in terms of traveling, with electric or hybrid vehicles and give you that information for scope three emissions that you can use on an exportable basis at any time. So now you're saving money on consultants or even full time employees who would otherwise have to do it. So between saving hard costs, spending less money on excess rights that might not be necessary, saving time in terms of cobbling together information on sustainability or policy enforcement and how the expense component all ties in, it's a solution for free that we can put into motion for you in a very short time that makes an immediate impact with a measurable ROI for your boss and your stakeholders. So remove friction from work while showing employees that you truly value their time. So when we look at scalable programs, what does that look like to us, Ali? I mean, none of this matters if we can't scale it. So we are really wanting you to focus on what does onboarding employees look like. One platform, global reach, customization, policy adjustment in real time, and easy to expand or contract. I can share some ways Uber for Business is doing this just to get some ideas flowing. So we're able to get a company up and running very quickly. We are global, and that is in 70 countries and 11,000 cities, so we can truly meet your employee where they're at. We are able to set limits by person, team, time, or ride type, and even add expense codes in. We also have a self-service business hub because the one thing we're focused on is reducing that burden on our travel POC. Send them over to Uber or send them to the app. So whatever programs you're thinking about implementing in 2026, your time's running out. I mean, I'm I'm sort of joking, but not really because everybody's just watching that clock and waiting for that holiday shutdown. So I really wanna throw this to Bob and say, what do you think people should be thinking about as they're considering their programs for the new year? It's a it's a great question and one to focus on before the the holidays get to us, which are just around the corner. So we certainly hope, of course, that you partner with Uber for Business in the future if you haven't already done so by now. Seven out of every 10 Fortune 1,000 companies already work with us and we hope that you'll consider doing the same in 2026 as we help you reduce your costs and operate more efficiently. But independent of Uber for Business, what questions should you be asking in terms of budget planning for next year and implementation? In terms of what outcomes are you driving? They should have an impact on cost savings, satisfaction for your company and the users, and of course compliance, which we've touched on extensively. So those are three key subjects in determining which outcomes you're looking to drive. And then where are the hidden costs? Right? Ali, my colleague, talked about vendor sprawl and how costly that can be, and the goal there is to avoid that and consolidate. Administrative time, how can we spend less, do more, with less and then how can we avoid policy violations that are so costly along the way. And then in terms of the ROI case, you're looking to achieve direct savings through spending less, hard cost savings and then efficiency in terms of administrative or operational. How can you reduce those soft costs that are so hidden and so that add up so quickly? And then of course, retention, as Ali said, which is one of the larger hidden costs in replacing unsatisfied employees with top talent who depart because they're unhappy with the circumstances. So and then lastly, in this scale, can we take a good idea that saves us money, reduces admin time and is efficient? And can we make it big or small or back to big or back to how quickly can we scale it and make it operational? So, Ali, why don't you give us a brief rundown on the success timeline that you that we can plan on as we wrap up here? Yeah. So there's a lot going on with everyone in their day to day and their jobs. So as you think about 2026 and you're looking at your programs, don't forget to just build a simple timeline. So this can really be viewed how how your company views it. Uber views them a certain way, but we want to encourage you to look at the first thirty days. What are the immediate quick adoption action items that you can set in place? Then let's look at our KPIs for the first quarter. Have we had better compliance? Have we realized any time savings yet? Are employees happier? But don't stop there. You absolutely wanna take a twelve month look back and say, did we find savings? Have we reduced overhead? Have we had higher retention? And what data do we have for the year ahead? This success timeline will really provide you with actionable insights to help you look good and help your partners and your company be happy. It looks like we're ready for some q and a and we have some questions in the chat. So I am gonna just get right into this. We have from Kat, speaking of ROI, what's the upfront cost of Uber for Business? This is Bob's favorite question, so I'm gonna give this one to him. It's my favorite, catchphrase. Zero. It costs nothing. And people will often say, how can that be? What's the catch? There's no such thing as a free lunch. We'll tell you the secret. We would rather way rather give away part of our margin and have a smaller prop on you in hopes that you like our product enough that we organically have more lives and that it increases consumer behavior that mimics the business behaviors. Simply put, it's free to you. We'd rather make less money so that we can have more business. So it's a zero upfront cost for you to participate with us. That's the upfront cost. It's a great question. Thanks for asking, Kat. Thanks, Bob. Alright. I'll take one. Let's see. How can I increase leadership buy in for a program like Uber for business? Awesome. Great question. Sometimes we're talking to decision makers, and sometimes we're going up the ladder. What we pride ourselves at Uber is we really get in the weeds with you. So we have built cost analysis savings. So we can do city price comparisons. We can figure out how to extract savings from your rental cars, your, airport parking, your mileage reimbursements, but we can also help promote things that aren't related to savings. As I said, it's always not about the revenue, but we can focus on that story around duty of care and the safety, the sustainability. And we can really package this up in a way that you can present it internally yourself or we can co present with you. And we have a pretty high success rate of getting leadership buy in with Uber. Bob, I'm gonna give you this last one. This is tricky. This is my favorite question. Yep. How do we encourage using the Uber for business platform in the business profile versus just booking in your personal profile. I'm giving this to Bob since he used to book on his core personal card and not his corporate card. It's true. It's true. Alright. I mentioned to you before that I've spent a little time in the service, and we used to wonder when we had, sergeants that we answered to, would they would they operate with the carrot or the stick? They were both effective. Right? So this is the same concept here. So you can, if you want to, it's a blunt term, use the stick, you can create a policy upfront that's very effective and simply state that ground travel reimbursement will not be, permitted. In other words, you won't reimburse the employee for rides taken with Uber unless they're booked on the business platform. That that usually quickly, and efficiently speeds compliance. But if you wanna go the other way on this and offer them an incentive so that they'll want to comply instead of booking on their personal account. Two things. Priority pickup. If you've ever been to Disneyland and you've been to one of those internal lines, you know, those fast passes where you skip and you go right to the front? Well, that's what we offer with priority pickup. The business comfort car pass only available to business customers. So if they book on the personal app, that priority pickup doesn't exist. So if they wanna get on the road quicker and it's four degrees and they're coming out of Lo'Hera and they wanna get in a warm car, they're gonna be glad to have this feature and they won't have that on the personal side. And additionally, it's not a very exciting thing, but insurance. When you travel on the business side, we'll provide insurance to your organization for a ride, bringing you from 1,000,000 to 5,000,000. That's not in the same case on a personal basis. So one little fender bender and you're gonna wish to have her vote on the business platform rather than on your personal side. So several different tactics and and ways in which you can motivate your employees to comply with policy. Thanks, Bob. Alright. I'm watching the time, so we're gonna have to wrap up the questions now. But thanks again to Bob for helping us answer all of those questions, and thank you most importantly to everybody who joined us today. Following today's event, you will receive a link to the recording to revisit any of this content at a later date. And, again, if you'd like to learn more about any of today's material, please visit our website or contact one of our team members to request a custom demo. Thanks everyone for joining, and we hope to see you again here soon at Uber. Take care, everyone.