Business travel is an absolute necessity to set up or expand a business.
But with the rising fuel prices and pent-up travel demand, companies must have control over their travel expenses with well-defined practices and policies that optimize the way employees’ book for business travel.
Making corporate travel savings might sound like a challenge – especially if you have more employees flying to different destinations.
However, with the right technology and management strategies, the business can simplify, systemize, and save on their business travel expenses.
Below are six ways to keep costs down without compromising employee safety or services.
• Set proactive travel policy
When setting out a corporate travel policy, there are many things to consider, from booking flights to meal allowances.
Take a closer look at your existing corporate travel policy and think about whether it is robust enough to cover your company’s entire area of travel spending.
An effective travel policy should provide clear information to your employees. It should include a proper approval process and guidelines on bookings and reservations. Setting out clear procedures helps your employees to make decisions that stay within your policy.
• Combat expense report fraud
Sometimes employees will take advantage of your reimbursement process, claiming expenses that are not in alignment with corporate travel policy.
Expense reimbursement fraud is easy to catch and prevent, especially with an automated system that can detect phony receipts, expenses that have been claimed repeatedly, and transactions that aren’t policy compliant.
Bringing down expense report fraud— and eliminating the countless hours it takes to identify it— by leveraging automation, can go a long way in reducing the resources it takes to handle your business travel needs.
• Save money on flights
Airlines can be expensive, especially if your employees fly frequently. You could save money by booking tickets at least one month before the travel date. If you choose economy flights, you can save hundreds of dollars per trip. Also, getting alerts for airfare promotions and discounts reduces your business travel costs.
• Have a pre-trip approval process
One of the simplest ways to reduce your business travel spends is by implementing an approval system for every booking. Assign approvers at multiple levels and ensure that every aspect of the trip is in alignment with company policy. Doing so will help avoid post-booking cancellations and save costs.
• Make use of discounts and reward programs
Most airlines/hotels/car rental companies offer discounts and reward programs to build customer loyalty. Make sure your finance department keeps track of bonus miles, discounts, and other special offers and uses them to reduce costs when possible.
• Reward your employees
Every time your traveller picks the most cost-effective option, they save the company money. Motivate them by giving gifts, vouchers, or extra time off. Use these ways to thank employees for reducing your travel costs and encourage them to keep doing it.
Conclusion
Manual expense reporting consumes more of your business hours. So, investing in a Travel and expense management solution can save time. A solution like ExpenseOut not just simplifies the whole T&E process, but it also comes with features, like expense reporting, automated approval, and policy compliance that make the finance team, management, and employees more productive.
With ExpenseOut, you can save up to 20% of your annual travel costs.
Want to know how automated travel and expense management can cut down costs? Schedule a demo with us today to check how much your organization can save.
