Travel and expense management software
What is travel and expense management software?
Travel and expense management software is an HR tool that facilitates comprehensive corporate travel management, from flight and hotel bookings to expense tracking, reporting, and reimbursements. It provides a centralized platform for automating expense submissions, approvals, and policy enforcement.
What are the advantages of using travel and expense management software?
Benefits of travel and expense management software include:
- Reduced manual and back-and-forth involved in travel and expense management
- Simplified, organized, and compliant business travel
- Faster reimbursements due to smoother expense submission and approval processes
- Better visibility into business travel expenses
- Reduced unauthorized spending with spending limits
What are the key features of travel and expense management software?
Here are some key features to look for in your travel and expense management software:
- Corporate travel management: Lets employees raise travel requests, including hotels and transportation
- Receipt upload and auto-scan: Helps upload receipts and auto-scans expenses from receipts seamlessly
- Policy enforcement: Manages business travel and expenses in a way that complies with your organization's travel policies
- Expense reporting and approvals: Supports workflows that help employees submit reimbursement requests and get them approved quickly
- Reimbursement: Facilitates the seamless disbursement of approved reimbursements to employees
- Mileage tracking: Tracks and calculates mileage expenses for business travel
- Corporate cards: Imports and tracks all the expenses made by employees through corporate cards
- Expense reporting: Offers insightful and detailed reports that help travel admins have greater visibility over business spending
- Mobile app support: Helps organizations and employees track expenses on the go with a mobile app
How does travel and expense management software work?
Here's a general flow of how travel and expense management software works:
Employee raises travel request
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Manager approves the request
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Travel admin team arranges travel bookings (flight / hotel / transport)
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Employee incurs expenses during travel
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Employee uploads or auto-scans their receipts
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Employee consolidates their expenses into a report and submits it
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Manager approves the expense report
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Finance team receives the report for verification
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Reimbursement is processed after approval
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Software generates reports and analytics
Can employees submit their expenses using a mobile app?
Yes, many expense tools offer mobile apps where employees can scan receipts, create and submit expense reports, send them for approval, and track approval status.
Can small businesses use travel and expense management software?
Yes, travel and expense management software is well-suited for small businesses. Automated processes help smaller teams control costs and accelerate reimbursements without requiring a full finance team.
How does travel and expense management software ensure policy compliance?
Travel admins configure their policy in the system with settings like the maximum expense amount, explanation requirements, category-level limits, mileage rates, per-diem rates, and flagging for duplicate expenses. For instance, if an employee books a hotel that exceeds the limit, the system automatically detects the policy violation, flags the expense, and sends it to the manager for approval. If approved, it's processed as an exception; if not, the expense is rejected.
Can travel and expense management software integrate with existing systems?
Yes, travel and expense management software can integrate with systems like accounting software so all approved expenses are imported automatically. It can integrate with online reimbursement, HR, project tracking, and travel applications.