1 in 5 employees regularly misrepresent expenses, 8% using AI to fake receipts

4 MIN READ

  • Nearly a third of workers still submit expenses manually by email or spreadsheet
  • Those using manual expense workflows are more likely to regularly misrepresent expenses (24%) than those using a dedicated tool
  • The average annual value of misrepresented expenses per employee is $330 in the U.S.
Boston and London, June 17, 2026: Perk , the intelligent AI-native platform for travel and spend management, reveals that one in five employees (20%) regularly misrepresent their expense claims, from inflated receipts to outright fabrication. More than half (56%) have done so at least once, and 72% know a colleague who has.The findings draw on research covering 8,000 employees across the US, UK, Spain, Germany and France, and point to a system failing at every level: from manual processes with almost no financial control, to digital tools that are still letting manipulated claims through.Nearly a third (31%) of employees still submit expenses manually by email or spreadsheet and those on manual systems are more likely to misrepresent expenses regularly (24%) than those using a dedicated tool. But formal tools are not solving the problem, as 18% of employees using structured expense software still submit fraudulent claims on a regular basis. The most commonly misrepresented categories are personal meals, beverages, car use including mileage and rentals, and client entertainment. The estimated annual value per employee who misrepresents regularly is around $330 in the US, £320 in the UK, €290 in Germany, and €250 in France and Spain. For many (32%), misrepresentation starts with a genuine mistake or misunderstanding, and 24% pointed to unclear expense policies. Among the most common methods, 40% of employees have submitted an AI-generated receipt at least once, and 8% do so regularly. Use of AI to fabricate receipts is highest in Germany (10%), followed by the US and Spain (8%), France (7%) and the UK (5%). A quarter (25%) of those who regularly misrepresent expenses know their company uses AI to detect it, and continue regardless.
"Most expense tools are built to review spend after it happens. By then, finance is in cleanup mode, chasing receipts and correcting claims that should never have been submitted. The smarter move is to shift the intervention point earlier. Build policy into the booking flow, match receipts against real-time card data, and make compliance the path of least resistance. When the system is built that way, there is less room for error, claims arrive cleaner, and finance gets back to work that actually moves the business," said Nikita Miller, Chief Product Officer at Perk.
For CFOs who want to move from the illusion of control to the real thing, there are three strategic priorities.
  1. Build a foundation that doesn't rely on the receipt: 66% of employees either have no corporate card, or work in organizations where cards are restricted by seniority or function. By expanding card access, the transaction becomes the record, and the receipt becomes confirmation of something that already exists.
  2. Remove the friction that creates the justification: 42% of employees don't claim small legitimate expenses mainly because the effort is not worth it. That unclaimed spend matters beyond cost recovery: it is one of the most common reasons employees give for misrepresenting expenses elsewhere, a way of evening things out. 
  3. Implement proactive guardrails: Integrating cards into the expense architecture enables catching inconsistencies even before the expense occurs. Spend limits cap what each card user can spend, and category controls restrict specific types of spend.
Later this year, Perk will bring its integrated travel and spend platform to the US market, combining travel management, events, corporate cards, expense automation, and invoice processing in a single solution. Offering finance leaders looking to close the control gap the full picture of company spend, from booking a flight to reconciling the receipt.MethodologyPerk commissioned Censuswide to conduct an online survey of 8,000 employed professionals who travel for work at least twice a year at companies and file expenses for work travel, with 250 or more employees, across five markets: United Kingdom (n=2,000), United States (n=2,000), Spain (n=1,000), Germany (n=2,000), and France (n=1,000). Fieldwork was conducted between 15 and 28 April 2026. The total value of misrepresented expenses is a mean for the estimates that the respondents provided in bands and the result has been rounded to the nearest ten. About PerkPerk (formerly TravelPerk) is an intelligent AI-native platform for travel and spend management, built to eliminate the hidden, manual tasks that drain productivity and morale - what Perk calls ‘Shadow Work’. By automating travel bookings, expenses, invoice processing and events, the platform gives teams back time to focus on real work, with real impact. Trusted by more than 12,000 companies worldwide - including On Running, Breitling and Fabletics - Perk is tackling the 7 hours of lost productivity per employee each week, a $1.7 trillion problem revealed in The Cost of Shadow Work report . Founded in 2015, the global company combines innovation, control, and simplicity to transform how businesses work today and in the future. Perk’s mission is to power real work by removing the invisible tasks that slow teams down. Perk is a proud partner of the Audi Revolut F1 Team.Visit www.perk.com for more information.