5 ways to put real-time travel and expense data to use - CFO Dive

With 71% of U.S. companies expecting a full recovery of their travel spend to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024 — and 68% of European companies expecting the same — now is the time to ensure travel and expense budgets and decisions are backed by data.

When companies manage travel and expenses using Excel, or through individual point solutions that keep travel and expenses siloed from each other, the finance function can only spot over- or underspending, fraud and non-compliance at month's end — when it's too late to intervene.

Compared to companies that rely on more manual ways of managing travel and expenses, companies that use all-in-one solutions can flag trends and rectify issues faster because they have a holistic picture of spending.

“A travel and expense management solution that is able to track spending and expenses in real-time, such as TravelBank, can help administrators make course corrections as needed,” says Kalyan Vissa, Head of Product at TravelBank. “It also significantly reduces the time it takes for administrators to approve expenses and for employees to get reimbursed, and it minimizes errors. It’s a win for busy employees and finance teams alike.”

Those course corrections can help companies save time and money. By assessing the various reports and dashboards driven by real-time data, companies can also gain insights and achieve improvements in each of the following areas.

Optimize expense spend by category

When administrators and managers can quickly and easily review their total numbers of expenses and total percentages of expenses submitted across categories like mileage, airfare, hotel and lodging, conferences and others, they can set targets to reduce per-category spending or shift budgets from one category to another to reflect business goals.

In addition, viewing top expenses at a glance allows administrators to easily identify the high-spend items or activities that are costing the company the most — and empower decision-makers to scrutinize those items’ or activities’ ROI, or to negotiate deals at scale.

Drive up savings against budgets using incentives

Comparing real-time data on the total amount spent on bookings against the totals budgeted for those bookings gives administrators insight into the accuracy of their forecasts and the effectiveness of their savings incentives.

Those incentives often take the form of rewards offered to employees who book within budgets. Employees are more likely to choose less expensive hotel options, book earlier and select exclusive deal opportunities when they can earn rewards (such as percentages of the total amounts saved given back to them as reward points that can be redeemed through gift cards).

Improve booking times

Since last-minute bookings are unlikely to save companies money against budgets, monitoring how far in advance employees book rental cars, flights and hotels is essential to optimizing travel spending. An all-in-one travel and expense management solution like TravelBank can show average advance booking days at a glance — giving administrators the information they need to benchmark themselves and the tools necessary to improve their timelines through policy updates and guidance built right into the booking flow.

Speed up submission, approval and reimbursement

When administrators can access reporting on the timelines for every expense report approved by Finance — with a one-screen view of each report’s approver and the dates reports were submitted, approved and reimbursed — they can measure how long their processes take them and make progress in eliminating bottlenecks (such as spreading responsibilities across various approvers through automated workflows to lessen approval delays).

Accrue future travel and expenses by department

Keeping an eye on expense reports that have been created but not submitted helps administrators better prepare for upcoming expenses and compare them against their forecasted budgets.

Along with insights into how bookings spread across departments, reporting on which reports are drafted but not yet submitted can help administrators optimize spending and ensure that each department has an adequate budget supporting it. It also allows managers to proactively communicate expense submission reminders to employees (who may be running up against a deadline) rather than chase down missing data after the fact.

In conclusion: Making data-backed decisions

Ultimately, an all-in-one solution for travel and expenses can deliver a clearer, more complete picture of real-time spending — and companies can then maximize savings and shift resources to meet their needs.

TravelBank is the only expense and travel management company that can offer a complete, end-to-end solution that syncs with any card. Learn more at travelbank.com.

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