The Margin's "new survey" department reports that British firms are losing nearly eight million working days a year as a result of the time it takes people to fill in expenses forms, according to a survey today. Individuals estimated they spent an average of one hour and 45 minutes a month - or three working days each a year - completing forms to get back the money they had spent, said credit card giant, Visa. Yet despite all this time and effort, many people were still losing out.

More than a third of business travellers felt they were regularly left out of pocket when claiming back expenses, said a spokesman.

Losing or forgetting to ask for receipts and failing to keep a proper tally of how much had been spent were making the situation worse, said Visa. On average, business people lost out by about £20 a month, Visa calculated.