The shoebox of receipts. The dean who booked outside the tool again. The auditor's email. It doesn't have to be this way. Higher education travel and expense, done right.
SAP Concur, Workday, Emburse, Oracle. The contract is signed or close to it, and you know from the last system that go-live is the easy part. Adoption is the hard part. You want it configured for how your campus actually works, by someone who's done it 65 times.
Implementation →The policy was last revised before half your staff arrived. Faculty book outside the tool. Reimbursements take three weeks. Nobody's job is to fix it, so nobody has. You want someone to look at the whole thing and tell you what's worth fixing and what isn't.
Optimization & health check →A policy rewrite, a platform selection, an audit rule that's causing more exceptions than it catches. You want senior judgment on a specific question, not an eight-month engagement. Some of these run eight hours.
Advisory →Scoped to the problem, not to a staffing model. Some engagements run eight months. Some run eight hours. You'll know which yours is before you sign anything, and the price will look like it was written for an institution, not for one with deep pockets.
Built for every kind of campus. Research universities, regional publics, community colleges, private colleges and academic medical centers. The smaller the finance office, the more this work was designed with you in mind.
Every line on this receipt is a real diagnosis. If more than two of them sting, you're in the right place.
Start a conversationBecause the approval chain has three steps, not nine, and every one of them knows why they're in it.
Because the policy is written in plain language, built into the tool, and enforced by the system instead of by email.
Because card spend runs through the program instead of around it.
Because the controls were designed by someone who used to answer to the auditor.
I'm Elizabeth Downs. I spent 13 years leading the higher education T&E practice at a national consulting firm, and 15 years before that as the accountant who had to close the books on whatever the consultants left behind. I've led 65+ full-cycle implementations across 85+ colleges, universities and academic medical centers, and I started Clay Downs because the institutions that needed this work most were the ones being priced out of it.
When you hire Clay Downs there's no principal at the kickoff and an analyst for the eight months after. Every working session, every deliverable, every difficult conversation with the department that doesn't want to change. That's me.
I don't resell software and I don't take referral fees. My recommendation is the one I'd give sitting on your side of the table, because there's nothing on my side of it.
More about Elizabeth →SAP Concur Certified Implementation Partner (2012–2023) · SCTEM Board Member 2025–2026 · SCTEM Education Committee · A regular presenter at SAP Concur Fusion since 2017, and at SCTEM, CHELF and EACUBO
Liz brought a strong understanding of travel and expense processes and helped identify opportunities to improve efficiency, strengthen controls, and enhance the overall employee experience. She was thoughtful in her approach, highly collaborative, and effective at working with stakeholders across the university to develop practical solutions. I would readily recommend Liz to any organization looking for a knowledgeable, dependable, and results-oriented consultant.
Liz works closely with all stakeholders and isn't afraid to challenge customers to do what is right, even when it's not the easiest or most comfortable path. As a result, our shared customers achieve stronger adoption, more efficient processes, and long-term, scalable solutions.
PlatformsSAP Concur · Emburse · Workday · Oracle Cloud · Banner · PeopleSoft
Tell me what isn't working. If I'm the right person to help, I'll say so. If I'm not, I'll say that too, and usually point you somewhere better.
