First there was Travel; and then there were the Costs | Software | Computers

Travel is an inescapable part of any business. Business organizations across the world have spent countless hours poring over spreadsheets tracking their employees’ travel expenses and coming to a conclusion that the procedure takes more time and effort than the task warrants. But it cannot be done away with. The challenge is to obtain the data from the sales representatives, marketing executives, project managers, CXOs among others for the company expense report. They are always short on time and in their hurry, they tend to omit details they perceive to be unnecessary. Then we have the chance of human errors. This diminishes the accountability of the travel and hence reduces visibility in the expenses. But your task as a travel manager is to sift through the mistakes, fill up the blanks and present the company with accurate travel expense report. Seems impossible? Not quite. With the right tool, it’s actually quite possible.

Inconsistency steps in when we try to fuse people with maths. Here’s a thought—don’t. Rely more on the buying channels and payment channels to gather data. Revise your entire travel system and base it on data collection and analysis. Choose expense tracking systems that support the idea of extensive data collection, and allows better and faster data access. Switching to customised corporate cards will give you the option of extracting even the ancillary fees.

Some travel management solutions have additional fields such as ticket change fees, luggage fees, upgrades, club admissions, in-flight purchases etc. This will help the company gain a closer look into granular spending enabling a better chance at minimising employee related expenses. It is easier to monitor and enables greater rewards due to higher loyalty points. But this approach is possible only if the vendors accept the card. If the employee is unable to use his card for the services while travelling, it gives rise to data leak. Ensure that your corporate card is associated with a bank which is accepted worldwide.

Remember that if the travelling team is going abroad, taxes are bound to vary from country to country based on the local setting. Your travel management system should be flexible enough to accommodate the regulations of the foreign countries. Take time to understand foreign travel and decide on a strategy that will be beneficial for your company. Review technological capacities of the location. Revise travel policies based on your findings. Consider selection of a single travel agency to handle all the travel requirements for that local setting. With this move, you will be able to bargain and settle on a deal that could prove to be beneficial for you.

Fully automate your travel management system. Automation not only saves time and reduces human effort, it also eliminates paper wastage in the company. It has proved to be dramatically cost saving in organizations across the world. It is also efficient, consistent and customisable. This improves control and compliance of company policies and instantly improves visibility into the travel expenses. Processing costs for the expenses is also done away with. Since the entire process is streamlined, reimbursements can also be done faster.

With an ideal travel management system, you can expect numerous helpful features such as online booking and reservation system, complete global distribution systems to handle flight, hotel, and transportation reservation. It should also be capable of generating a detailed travel expense report with ease. It should possess currency conversion feature and should allow for easy tax calculation. The system should have an easy to follow graphical user interface for the technically challenged members of your team. If all this can be obtained at a cost that will not set your company back by a quarter’s revenue, you will soon be on your way to managing your company’s expenses efficiently.

 Enaviya provides Travel and Expense Management, Expense Management Solution and Travel & Expense Management Application

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