The Complete Guide to Managing Business Travel

Managing business travel can be hell. When employees fly all over the world, there are flights to book, accommodations to arrange, and an endless list of different costs and tasks to keep track of.

In most cases this is just drudgery.

And that's a shame. Business trips can be both very productive and enjoyable for employees. They should be a way to expand your network, increase company awareness and create lasting experiences.

So why is managing travel so annoying? And what can you do to solve the problem?

In this article we go into detail about the biggest problems with business travel. (They are actually quite simple, and so is the solution). We'll also introduce some tools that can help you and discuss how travel and expense management go hand in hand.

So let's get started.

What is business travel management?

In simple terms, travel management is the structure a company has in place to monitor and facilitate business travel. This includes planning a trip, booking and paying for all necessary services, and the permits and documents required for compliance.

Some companies outsource these tasks to specialized travel agencies. Others hire their own travel managers. In this post, we will focus more on the impact that software can have and how automating much of travel management is beneficial for everyone in the company.

First, let's identify what makes managing business travel so difficult.

The biggest challenges for business travel

Business travel is still an area where most companies struggle. Even when you think you have everything under control, it can take you a lot of time and effort just to complete simple tasks.

This is normal, but not ideal. Do the following problems affect your everyday work?

1.Managing a large number of applications

Most companies have someone responsible for overseeing travel. In large companies there is a special travel manager. But in smaller and growing companies, this task often falls to someone in the administration or finance teams. And that is just one of their tasks.

When business trips become commonplace, this becomes a real burden. You have requests from across the company that don't always follow proper procedures.

One team member writes you an email, another sends a Slack message. What's even worse is that employees visit you in person and distract you from your actual tasks.

It is the patchy and inconsistent nature of these interactions that make them a problem. This is one of the main benefits of automation, which we will discuss in a moment.

2.Tracking approvals

Just as administrative or finance staff need to track requests, they also need to ensure that trips have been approved by the right people. Typically this is a team leader or manager, but in some companies approval from the CEO is also required.

These are further touchpoints - further steps - in an already lengthy process. But since they are mandatory, there is no way around it.

This is where your travel management system can really help. The approval process can be integrated so that every manager is notified and can give approval without anyone having to leave their desk.

3.Keep expenses under control

Travel is a part of business operations and is considered essential to growth. But the associated costs can be difficult to absorb.

The topic of business trips has come to the fore again. Employees want this opportunity, and companies are often willing to oblige.

However, this can quickly lead to a bloated travel budget. And managers then have to start rejecting reasonable requests.

According to experts at TravelPerk, a key reason for this is that companies are not getting access to affordable deals. They rely on "business hotels" and book through travel agents, all of which can come at an additional cost.

In our personal lives, we search intensively for cheap deals on websites like AirBnb, Booking.com and Kayak. But out of convenience or because they want more “professional” options, companies usually ignore them.

4.Let the staff serve themselves

This is initially a challenge. For many companies, the easiest way to stay compliant and manage costs is to book travel for their employees.

But the more you give your employees the opportunity to organize their own travel, the less burden will be on your administrative and financial staff.

And employees actually want to manage their own travel plans. For some, a business trip is a fun experience and a chance to experience something new. If they feel forced to choose certain options, some of the charm is lost.

And the same often applies to experienced travelers. After all, they know what is good for them.

The goal is to provide this opportunity without the company having to spend any money. Good travel management systems make this entirely possible and even more likely.

5.Be flexible

As with most company policies, you need to stay in control without feeling like a nagging parent. Rules and restrictions are necessary, but employees are happiest when they have a little freedom.

To save money and keep team members happy, have a wide range of travel options available. Try not to limit yourself to just a handful of providers or itineraries.

This has the added advantage of being cheaper in many cases. More importantly, you give your employees the choice they want.

Because you don't have to constantly say no to get the best results.

6.Reducing errors

Mistakes can be costly. Every time your finance team has to correct an employee's work, it's wasted time. And that assumes that errors can actually be fixed.

Can't find out who approved a particular expense? This happens all the time, and it's a problem. The same goes for lost receipts, incomplete expense reports and incorrect expense types.

The resulting back and forth is annoying and distracts your team from their actual work. A good collaborative project management tool can help here too.

Make business trips less painful

The best way to ensure that team members don't follow the rules is to make the rules difficult to follow. For most employees, booking travel is not part of the core area of their job. And they try to find the easiest way so they can do their actual job.

So if your travel process is annoying, your teams will find a way around it.

What to avoid:

• Too many rules (especially when they are confusing)
• A high number of steps (including additional emails to managers for approval)
• Lots of manual steps (like filing printed documents and receipts)
• Unclear processes

Ideally, you want a travel booking process or system that guides employees through every step. The rules are built-in so you don't have to decipher them yourself.

We'll look at some good examples of this shortly. But what would such a system actually look like?

What is a travel management system?

As the name suggests, these systems help companies manage travel. These may be purpose-built third-party tools (see below), or some large companies may even build their own system.

In the days before SaaS (Software-as-a-Service), the latter option made sense. However, these days, business travel management tools are readily available and relatively inexpensive, and it simply doesn't make sense to develop something from scratch.

See below for tool suggestions.

The purpose of these systems is to "monitor, regulate and coordinate the travel activities and costs of a company's employees." These are largely manual tasks that are typically handled by office workers or perhaps a dedicated travel manager in a company.

With a travel management system, this work can be streamlined or even automated entirely. The goal is to free up employees to do more valuable work than monitoring other people's travel plans.

Why automation is so important

Many of the issues mentioned above touch on two issues: time and effort. Every additional step you ask your team members to take takes time. And the biggest time-waster is often the beginning, when employees have to figure out what the travel guidelines are.

Every question eats up time (for managers and employees), and every mistake multiplies it.

And that's what hurts the effort. The more time-consuming and tedious these tasks are, the less likely team members are to actually want to complete them. You skip steps, ignore certain rules, and your shiny travel policy becomes just a memory.

Unless you automate them. You can build your travel policies into a travel management system and then no one has to remember them or ask questions. Employees simply follow the process step by step, doing what is asked of them.

It's like a video game - you can't move on to the next level until you complete it.

The result is travel bookings with fewer errors (if any) and an administrative team that has more time for more important tasks. And when employees can book their own travel, they have the opportunity to plan the trip that works best for them.

You can still set any rules or restrictions. You can limit budgets to reasonable amounts (automatically) and even limit available providers if that's really important.

Basically, it's as flexible and user-friendly as you want it to be.

So if you don't want to build everything from scratch, what options do you have?

Travel costs and expense management

When we think of travel expenses, we usually think of the things you pay for along the way. Most workers have gotten this into their heads thanks to the painful expense report at the end of the trip.

But of course the travel costs start with the first booking. These usually involve flights, train rides or car trips - however you get from here to there. And when managed well, it's easy to reconcile these expenses with future costs.

But most companies fail because of “good management”. Each trip should be viewed as a whole, with any expenses incurred along the way added to flights and accommodation. This results in the actual cost of your trip, which can then be offset against the teams' budgets and the company's overall expenses.

Why is this so difficult?

Most companies have the same problems managing their expenses:

1.There is no clear spending policy that is followed

2.Each issue is considered unique and not part of the whole

3.They rely on a small handful of corporate cards

4.When the company card is unavailable (which is often the case), employees are forced to spend their own money.

3 and 4 are the reasons why it can be so difficult to track company expenses. If all employees use the same few company credit cards, it is immediately unclear who spent what and why. In this case, it is almost impossible to monitor approvals.

Only with an impeccable spending policy - and a very conscientious finance team - can this work in the long term.

And as we know, asking employees to pay out of pocket is a recipe for disaster. It saves you a bit of hassle initially (because you don't have to set up a better solution), but the price is that it's very hard to monitor, there's more paperwork every month, and employees hate it!

If you are able to solve the above problems, you have pretty much solved your travel management problems. The worst part is the costs and expenses. And that's usually because these processes weren't put in place intentionally.

As companies grow, they tend to add processes one piece at a time. At the beginning, if a company only has 5 employees, a company card is usually sufficient. The founder/CEO knows what needs to be spent and can make most of the payments themselves.

But as the team grows, more options emerge. One card becomes three, and there is constant confusion about who has which card.

If this is no longer possible, ask your employees to create expense reports. But half of payments are still processed through company cards, making listing all of these expenses a chore.

And then when you have your own finance team and CFO, there are so many different types of expenses in the workplace that the whole thing is a mess.

The solution to your travel-related headaches

As is hopefully clear, the best way to solve your travel problems is to regulate company expenses. The more ad hoc procedures you use, the harder it is to keep track.

Instead, you need expedient management.

The best option is to use payment methods designed for businesses. Because company cards and expense reports are really only a stopgap measure.

Prepaid cost cards are the better choice. These have individual spending limits and because they are not linked to the entire bank account, they are very low risk. Plus, you can have as many cards as you need - one for each traveling employee.

Combine prepaid cards with virtual credit cards for online payments. These are created every time you need to book a flight or accommodation. Each card is unique, so you don't have to use the same credit card information everywhere on the internet.

Both payment methods include pre-approvals (which are logged so you can always see who approved an expense), and each charge is assigned to the correct donor and their team.

This means you don't have to "track" the payments at all. That's already done.

If this is what your business is missing, now is the time to start. It's easy to get started and will make your travel management (and overall business spending) safe and hassle-free.

IceHrm's Travel Management module stands as a comprehensive solution for businesses seeking streamlined and efficient control over their travel processes. With its user-friendly interface and robust features, IceHrm empowers organizations to manage travel requests, approvals, and expenses seamlessly. By centralizing travel-related tasks and providing real-time visibility into travel activities, IceHrm contributes to enhanced efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and compliance. Whether it's simplifying travel request submissions or ensuring accurate expense tracking, IceHrm Travel Management emerges as a valuable tool for businesses aiming to optimize their travel management workflows. With the power of automation and intuitive design, IceHrm proves to be an indispensable asset in simplifying the complexities of travel management for businesses of all sizes.