Juggling Compliance and Flexibility

6 ways travel managers are getting things ready to take off again

As business hits the road after a lengthy hiatus, everyone is looking at your travel program: Where will it succeed? Where might it stagnate? How is it going to work? Re-establishing travel is critical to confidence in your company, as well as in your organization’s ability to build and sustain momentum.

Travel policy compliance, therefore, is going to play a crucial role – because at the end of the day, increased adoption is how you deliver savings to your business’s bottom line. And the best way to increase adoption is to have adaptive policies that give employees the flexibility to book how they like.

Here are six tips to take to heart:

• Use preapprovals to your advantage. Adding pre-spend approval to your process helps you control costs before the money goes out the door.
• Capture direct bookings. With the right system in place, you can fulfill your duty of care responsibility and provide the flexibility to put your negotiated rates on all supplier direct – and even mobile – bookings.
• Track mileage instantly, accurately, and automatically. Consider an app that does the work automatically – so tracking distance and dollars is instant, accurate, and out of the hands of business travelers.
• Make sure reporting can keep up. Make sure you have both the data and analytic horsepower to assess compliance and spending patterns.
• Get cozy with your finance team. Your expense reporting system should support your travel policies. So, check with your finance team, and see if they are using AI and machine learning to ensure critical charges get the right scrutiny.

Download the tipsheet to learn more.