Resolving Corporate Travel Expense Reporting Headaches

Companies can take numerous approaches to resolve common expense reporting headaches. Though some approaches may cost money, it can save companies time and money in the long run. The following strategies are certainly useful for travel managers or accounting departments that handle corporate travel.

Expense Software to Resolve Your Expense Reporting Problems

To gain visibility into spending, travel managers should look for technologies that streamline the processes. Technology allows travelers to book their trip and managers get detailed analytics about employee spending.

Approval routing, policy enforcement, mileage calculation, per diem allowance, and mobile receipt capture are some technologies that take the hassle out of corporate travel. The key for travel managers is to figure out the most common problems they have in the process workflow and to identify how technology can fix these issues. Entering inaccurate information in the expense report would require travel managers to validate the data before processing in real-time.

Holistic Approach

Taking a holistic approach or rethinking current expense reporting process can help simplify your employee expense reporting. Automating the expense reporting process would reduce the cost of processing and correcting expense reports. Itemizing expenses can also help you determine which expense category is costing you more. This will give you a clear idea of spending and allow travel managers to collect data on traveler spending. Making this known to travelers will increase compliance and encourage them to use company’s preferred travel booking tools.

Clearly Defined Corporate Travel Policies

Organizations must have clear policies for what documentation should be submitted. Try to explain all the scenarios that employees encounter in real-time. For example, what if there is no receipt or how to submit the expenses that exceed limit set. Setting specific policies would help you handle incorrect expense reports at a later point in time. Creating policies and explaining the need for those policies will help travel managers reduce expense reporting hassles.