The worst of the pandemic is over. While the world is opening and getting back to normal, business travel is gaining momentum once again. As a result of globalization, mobility, and geopolitical conditions for business expansion there has been an increase in business travel. This is consequently posing corporate travel management challenges in every organization. While people travelling for work and business, travel expense management is gaining importance for successful business operations, keeping them streamlined is of utmost importance.
Need for a corporate travel management solution
Travel expense management typically covers travel, accommodations, meals, and other expenses that employees incur on their business trips. In manual travel expense management systems, employees submit receipts to the finance department. Approval or rejection of the reimbursement claim is done after reconciliations by the finance department. Once the expense claim is approved, the reimbursement amount is credited to the employee. As an inference, we can clearly say that manual business travel management processes are tedious and time-consuming.
However, traditional travel management systems are manually operated. Manual expense management systems are based on paper and spreadsheets used for paying and auditing their employees. While tracking employee spending patterns and determining ways of reimbursing expenses is the main aim of travel expense management systems, they are much acclaimed for streamlining the corporate travel services. Nevertheless, this is not possible with manual systems.
Challenges in travel and expense management
Have you ever faced problems in coordinating with your colleagues during travel? Has your team reported all travel expenses with receipts? Isnt the manual receipt reconciliation a tedious job?
Post-pandemic change in work conditions has consequently led to travel expense management challenges in every organization. Organizations across all industries are facing changes in travel and expense audit procedures. An understanding of the root cause of these challenges and a suitable corporate travel management strategy along with the right set of tools, can ensure seamless employee experience for your organization.
- Time consuming reporting
- Tedious Receipt Tracking Mechanism
- Lack of Insights into Spending Trends
- Unclear Travel and Expense Policies
- Delayed Reimbursement Cycles
- Outdated systems/technology
- Lack of system integrations
Automated travel and expense management solutions
An online corporate travel management solution can enrich your business trips and respond effectively to new requirements. Although travel, digital transformation, and business sustainability will continue to be important for companies, as they resume activity. With digital transformation at the top of business priorities, travel services will emerge more resilient, more sustainable, and more digital than ever before. Additionally, cloud technologies are playing a crucial role in integrating travel services, and it is sure to benefit travel management. With the right travel policy, the development and implementation of emerging technologies will accelerate to reduce risks, fraud and improve employee confidence.
Improved compliance
Business travel management software ensures that business policies and regulations are adhered to while submitting and processing a reimbursement claim.
Enhanced accountability
The accountability of employees improves by automating the expense management process, reducing the scope for expense fraud and duplication.
Reduced paperwork
Corporate travel management automation eliminates the need for paperwork and spreadsheets during processing of a reimbursement claim.
Compliance-based approvals
Automated expense management systems comply with organizational travel policies.
Higher productivity
Expense management workflows that are automated, streamline, and improve overall business productivity.
Faster and easier identification of bottlenecks
As a matter of fact, automated corporate travel management services provide real-time visibility into the status of expense claims. When you have better visibility and transparency into the claim processing, it is faster and easier to identify of errors and bottlenecks.
Conclusion
An efficient business travel management solution, like TESS360, handles all the essential corporate travel related tasks including submitting the plan for approval, to moving it back to the employee for review, to the management for approval, and to the payroll team for automatic reimbursement. Along with saving your time, TESS360 provides you with a complete audit trail and a full accounting of business expenses, enabling you to determine the compliance and operational metrics.
To know more about how travel expense management solutions can save your business’s time and money while making the system compliant with the organizational policies, connect with the TESS360 team now.
