The Best Ways To Manage Your Pre-Trip Approval Process
Scheduling and booking business travel can be stressful, time-consuming and costly. Add to that the many policies and travel guidelines managers and employees need to consider, and the travel approval process can be challenging to manage. Your team can benefit from automating certain aspects of pre-trip travel approval as you fine-tune things to make travel planning more efficient.
Pre-Trip Approval Common Problems
Many factors can impact a business trip since it comes with unique challenges. There are many things involved, including the airline companies, changing costs, client availability, traveler schedules and the manager’s capacity to review travel requests.
Here are some of the common problems you may encounter during the pre-trip approval process:
Fluctuating Costs: The ticket rates and other travel costs tend to fluctuate and can change at any time. It all depends on the airline and the available seats. In addition, room rates and rental car costs can change abruptly based on demand. A slow and inefficient pre-trip approval process won’t be able to cope with these fluctuating costs. Having your team use trip management software to better manage travel approvals is best.
Non-Integrated Trip Approval Systems: Some companies have a separate expense, booking and trip approval systems. This approach is laborious and time-consuming. This system allows employees to book their trips separately and submit their requests to managers. Managers will have to check if the cost of the travel request is within the approved expense range before they can approve it. They can approve the request based on estimates but may break specific policies. The solution is to streamline the pre-trip approval process and integrate it with other systems so managers can view the details and get notified if the booking request details are within policy. The trip can automatically get ticketed after the trip is approved, so travelers can secure the best rates as soon as possible.
Single-Channel Approach: Some businesses prefer to book trips through a live agent and to be approved by a manager. On the other hand, some companies prefer to do it all online. A multi-channel approach to booking and trip approval is best, so your employees will have other options in case one trip approval method isn’t available.
Availability of Managers: What happens when a manager is out-of-office and won’t be available for several days? You can implement auto-ticketing systems and make provisions so managers can delegate approvals to another staff member. This reduces the impact of the unavailability of trip approvers and reduces costs.
Organize Your Process in One Place
A trip management software system can help you streamline the process, making it easier to track all the business travel details. Having a confusing trip approval process can cause many troubles along the way. It can make scaling your operations more difficult and cause employee delays.
You can integrate trip approval technology with cost and travel control systems already in place in your company, which can simplify your process workflows. With a single workflow in place, your managers can make faster approvals, making booking and managing trips much more effortless.
A streamlined pre-trip approval process allows you to monitor bookings, customize travel workflows and manage travel requests using a single app. In addition, these tools can generate a business trip report so managers can review costs and performance quickly.
Know What You Need To Approve
Managers must review their company’s current travel policies. They should clearly know what they can and can't approve. With this in mind, travel approvers should review your organization’s travel policies and processes.
Understand the Purpose of the Trip
Traveler intent is also crucial to consider to better manage pre-trip approvals. Understanding the purpose of the trip is vital to grant approval and also to help streamline expenses. Consider the business objectives of the trip and see if they can be achieved through other channels, such as video conferencing or over-the-phone contacts.
Automate the Process Where Necessary
Automating business travel approvals can save you time and reduce costs. It also makes the pre-trip approval process easier and more accessible to employees and managers. According to a state of work report, 84 percent of businesses lose plenty of growth opportunities by avoiding modern solutions.
Using a tool like SAP concur to streamline and automate the pre-trip approval process offers several key benefits:
Reduces Management Errors: Managers can make mistakes when deciding on travel requests. Business leaders already have a lot on their plate, and including business travel approvals in their tasks can become an added burden. Automating trip approval allows managers to focus on critical and expensive trips that require their attention.
Provides More Traveler Autonomy: Going through several procedures and the long wait times can be frustrating for professionals who need to travel and meet clients. Routine trips, for instance, can be automated and won’t need direct intervention from managers. Providing employees with a certain degree of autonomy makes your workflows faster and more efficient. The process will be made faster and more straightforward, allowing employees to do their jobs more efficiently.
Better Control Over Travel Expenses: Automated systems allow employees to generate accurate business trip reports. With this information, your team can adjust travel plans and policies to reduce travel costs. In addition, managers can use automated approval systems to forecast travel expenses for a quarter or other period, which improves cost control.
Improved Visibility on Company Spending Patterns: Companies must identify where their travel budgets are spent. Travel approval software tools can enable managers to track spending in real-time. Your team can determine if travelers are overspending on airline tickets, accommodations or other costs.
Boosts Efficiency and Productivity: An automated business trip approval system improves employee productivity since they can submit and review travel requests faster while reducing errors.
Focus on Sustainability: Business travels create a huge carbon footprint that impacts the environment. With an automated pre-trip approval process, your team can manage trips and choose greener options so your company can do its part to care for the environment.
Businesses should consider automating their pre-trip approval processes to reduce costs, improve efficiency and boost employee productivity. Partnering with seasoned travel management experts allows you to reap these benefits. With over 30 years of industry experience, CI Azumano Business Travel can create custom methods to help you manage employee travel. Fill out our online contact form, and our specialists will gladly assist you.