Corporate Travel Management: All You Need to Know!

Managing work-related travel can be complicated, with so many employees flying to different locations around the globe. There are flights and hotel bookings, as well as ground transfers to be arranged alongside many other miscellaneous tasks that can be hard to keep up with. Corporate tours management addresses all of these problems and more, and this article will shed more light on all that you need to know about business travel management to effortlessly administer the official travel needs of your company:

Corporate travel management helps to resolve all the business travel needs of an employee, business partner as well as travel admin.  Companies have traditionally relied on in-house travel management teams, online booking tools, travel agencies, or a combination of all these to support the different functions associated with work-related travel.   However, they are often met by roadblocks that can be hard to keep up with and manage. Let us start with the complexities associated with official travel, followed by why there’s a need for a robust company travel management program for your business below:

Business Travel Challenges

Achieving smooth business travel is never an easy task. Even if everything seems to be under control, there is still a dire need to dedicate both time and effort to ensure a stress-free business trip for your company’s employees. Hence, let us explore the most significant challenges faced in handling the official travel needs of a company:

1. Large number of requests- A travel admin or HR of the company is responsible for monitoring the company’s official travel. Overseeing a small number of travel needs can be efficiently managed. However, when company travel is a common practice then, it can be cumbersome due to multiple requests and customisations required.
2. Keeping track of approvals- Similar to requests, keeping track of approvals can be burdensome as it involves a lot of paperwork. The more touchpoints are involved, the more complicated this process gets.
3. Expense management- Corporate travel booking is necessary for growing a company, but it is also a costly affair. The travel budget can go awry if the expenditure is not properly overseen.
4. Travel policy compliance- Letting employees book their work travel can often cause them to stray from the company’s travel policy, especially if they were utilising the services of a B2B travel agent. On the other hand, the best way to ensure compliance and manage the budget is to book tickets through a travel admin. However, that can be once again burdensome, making it a double-edged sword.
5. Human errors- Tracking and correcting mistakes made by an employee in filing for reimbursement, submitting the invoices or recording the expenses can be another nightmare. This issue, however, resolves itself with the best corporate travel platforms that are fully automated.

These are among the primary challenges faced in booking business travel; however, there are many more. This is why corporate travel management is so important. Let us understand why, but first, let’s start with the basics:

What is Corporate Travel management?

Business travel management is a structure that any business sets up in order to oversee and facilitate their company’s official travel. This includes several different steps, like-

• •  Making business travel booking of  flights and hotels with preferred carriers and service providers.
• •  Issuing real-time reports.
• •  Expense management that is in alignment with the company’s travel policy.
• •  Approvals and documentation of business trip.
• •  Claims and Reimbursements.

…among others.

Why is Corporate Travel Management important?

A business travel management system can help elevate your travel program by enabling you to make the most of travel deals, have better visibility and control over the company’s travel budget, thus generating exceptional value and greater savings at every step of work-related travel. Let us explore reasons why business travel management is imperative for efficient travel that can help expand your business:

• Reduces Cost- Work travel management can help your company negotiate the best deals, ensuring manifold savings across hotels, flights, car rentals, and other related expenses.
• Increases Efficiency- With an increase in corporate travel, there is a need for dedicated support that can help resolve issues related to work travel 24*7. Moreover, corporate travel management ensures consolidated travel reporting at every step of the travel program, offering greater visibility, efficiency and control.
• Time Management- Planning and making corporate travel booking can be quite time-consuming. Large-scale businesses do not have the time to book their official travel requirements themselves. Furthermore, even SMEs and MSMEs can’t afford to spend their valuable time booking trips. This is where automated work-related travel management can be useful in saving time and effort.
• Policy and Cost Compliance- Setting cost thresholds and tracking employee compliance with your company’s travel policy can be easy with the Fare Republic which is the best corporate travel management platform. This can further facilitate approvals and reimbursements, owing to the real-time reports and data.
• Reporting and Data Analysis- Travel management involves reporting all the travel expenses incurred during a business trip to accounting. The finance department of a company then utilises this information to track travel expenditures. At the same time, they use this information to make costing forecasts to help allocate the budget in the next accounting year.

Why is automated Corporate Travel Management better than its alternatives?

Earlier, companies would outsource the management and support requirements for their official travel to a corporate travel agency. Such agencies would oversee all the aspects of corporate tours, followed by the accounts department enforcing travel policies for employee reimbursements. However, nowadays, companies have the alternative of automating the process of business travel management.

Such official travel managing platforms have features that set them apart, namely:

• •  Expense management tool
• •  Client management
• •  Analytics
• •  Real-time reports
• •  Project management

… and more.

These features together help in achieving an automated corporate travel portal that can simplify your business travel needs.

Furthermore, the biggest reason a fully automated corporate travel platform gains the upper hand on its alternatives is the fact that it helps save time and effort. Each step in the approval process takes a lot of time. Usually, this means that the more time-consuming these processes are, the less likely corporate travellers will be to partake in them, resulting in non-compliance. 

An automated system allows you to integrate your company’s travel policy into the travel management platform. The employees have to simply follow the steps, thus ensuring 100% compliance. Furthermore, it gives the employees a chance to book their corporate trips themselves, offering greater flexibility to them but still giving the admin control over the budget and the available service providers.

Why is Fare Republic the best for Corporate Travel Booking?

Fare Republic significantly minimises the cost and provides the best corporate travel management options in the industry, replacing B2B travel agency. On this platform, you can find the best deals and offers for a company's travel needs. Moreover, before the GST implementation, travel expenses were higher as most companies booked through offline travel agents, and it comprised most of the company's expenditure. However, corporate travellers, by booking flights and corporate hotels through myBiz, can benefit because of the GST implementation once their companies shift to our fully automated system. 

Fare Republic corporate travel services also maintain a thorough report on a company's financial controls that makes corporate tour packages convenient even for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The corporate travel portal simultaneously saves a lot of time on booking flights and hotels by providing automated approvals and quick reimbursement claims. With myBiz, travel managers can set up the travel policy and the spend limits as per employee designations. Employees can then book travel for themselves while all travel requests go to the admin for approval before the final booking of the business trip.

Corporate travellers can make use of the self-booking online tool myBiz, to travel conveniently for business purposes and save plenty on corporate travel. So, make the most of myBiz's corporate travel solutions by signing up for our lifetime free subscription.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. How does setting up a corporate travel policy help businesses?

Ans. Setting up a travel policy will enable companies to manage their travel and expense costs better. It will offer better visibility of the expenses and reduce the time taken for approvals.

Q2. How can business travel management help avail of the best prices on bookings?

Ans. Travel management companies can help businesses negotiate the best deals and make the most of corporate discounts on bookings of hotels and flights, ensuring higher savings.

Q3. What is a travel expense?

Ans. A travel expense implies the cost which is incurred by a corporate traveller who is travelling for work purposes. The company then reimburses these expenses once an employee makes a claim.

Q4. What are expense claims?

Ans. Expense claims are made by business travellers when they pay for a business trip on behalf of their employer. These claims can be made for all aspects of work-related travel namely, hotels and flight bookings, ground transfers, etc.