Companies are finally on track after a long time since business travel has resumed almost full throttle since last year. But making business travel arrangements is much more than booking fancy hotels and first-class tickets.
If you are a travel manager, you need to be skilled at multi-tasking travel budgets, adhering to company policies, and preparing itineraries. For this reason, companies must implement ideal travel management software to manage the workload.
Your corporate travel consultant will suggest software to improve job performance and save expenses. Here, we outline how travel management software can streamline and manage travel expenses.
What does travel and expense management software do?
With a centralized platform, travel and expenditure management software can automate expense reporting, streamline travel bookings and schedules, and manage travel budgets.
The features of travel management software for tracking and managing travel expenses
Expense automation for pre-trip
Travel expenses will begin the moment you plan for the trip. Usually, companies offer their employees money in advance for travel and accommodation bookings. Often, it is either the travel manager or the employee who makes the travel arrangements.
In such a situation, the approver, the travel manager, and the business traveler must have information about the preferred service provider, travel budgets, and company policies. Besides this, all communication between the concerned departments happens during office hours.
If you have travel management software, your employees can make short shrift of the process and either make the booking directly or send a request to the travel manager. After that, you can forward it to the travel consultant for booking.
Travel management software will provide 100% full-service travel details, authorize trips and create budgets for trip costs in a single report.
Business travel expense reporting
Most employees usually store and save all bills and invoices for expenses during their business trips. They will submit these receipts to their accounts team for reimbursement after the journey.
Frankly, employees already have many things to do. They don’t need the tedious tasks of keeping receipts and submitting reports. In addition, it is particularly challenging for your employees if travel itineraries change suddenly.
A simple solution is travel management software because your employees can easily manage their entire trip by tracking bills, scanning receipts, and storing all expenses without hassle. All this is timely and created in a single location, accessible to managers and approvers within the organization anytime, anywhere.
Your team can submit expenses after a business trip with the click of a button. This simplified system helps your company cut expenses, save time, and use stress-free reports.
Policy compliance
People forget things, even birthdays and anniversaries. So, why should you expect your employees to remember the corporate policies of your company?
Many business travelers may overlook or forget their travel budgets and limitations. Similarly, even travel managers can sometimes miss a policy violation. This can unwittingly lead to budget risks and tax consequences.
With travel and expense management software, the company can access automation. It can efficiently detect fraud and policy violations that humans could miss.
Suppose an employee provides an expense receipt that was automatically flagged for fraud. As a result, the report will be forwarded to a supervisor for a double check. In this way, your company can prevent fake submissions.
Your travel management software can be configured according to your company’s guidelines. You can also audit every business travel expense by tracking the employee’s digital footprint.
Travel reimbursement
After a business trip, the employee will submit all receipts to the accounts department. The accounts team is then tasked with manually checking each bill and making sure there are no policy breaches. The employee gets reimbursed only after rigorous checks.
Sometimes, if there is any policy non-compliance, the report may be forwarded back to the employee for revision or explanation. The team will then eliminate any fraudulent claims. Obviously, this delay in reimbursement is a blow to employee self-esteem.
With travel and expense management software, you can flag an expense that does not adhere to policies when it gets created. There is no time wasted since everything happens immediately. It allows travelers to have real-time policy compliance and fix errors without direct intervention from the accounts team. Overall the process helps your employees a lot and streamlines future mistakes.
Additionally, the travel and expense management software provides real-time compliance with expense policies, real-time audits, business travel research, and employee reimbursements for travel expenses.
Further, since the software is automated to be a centralized platform, it allows authorization managers to undertake many transactions to various bank accounts from the dashboard.
The software has features that will let company approvers and accounts teams track everything from the dashboard throughout the transaction process. With this information, finance teams can gain a better understanding of corporate spending as a whole.
Why does your company need travel management software?
Not every business travel is enjoyable. First, the team needs to start working and conducting research. All available travel booking choices must first be located by the travel managers or staff.
If an employee chooses to book their travel, they must obtain approval first. To be eligible for employee expense reimbursements, employees must keep all receipts for expenses incurred during these visits. Employees risk losing money on travel costs if they misplace their invoices or fail to disclose them within the timeframe.
Benefits of using travel and expense management software
- You can get seamless compatibility with any programs you already use.
- It has a centralized dashboard, customizable software, and storage for company expense receipts.
- You can easily make travel and accommodation arrangements for your corporate travel plans.
- You can access Google Maps for precise distance metrics.
- You get automated reconciliation and integration of business credit cards.
- It shows all trip statuses and charges are visible in real-time.
- It can identify non-compliant expenses during creation.
- You can get approvals and compliance tracking during planning.
- There is no time wasted on employee reimbursements.
- It provides security and privacy protections that adhere to industry standards.
Final thoughts
The business world is constantly evolving, but one theme that has clearly emerged is the rise in business travel. A growing number of companies are traveling long-distance and on international trips for business-related activities.
This is due to many reasons. The first trip could be to meet with a potential client, and the second could be to supervise production in another region.
No matter what your travel motivations are, you should consider partnering with reputable travel management companies and software.
