business travel management guide

Travel expenses can quickly spiral out of control with unmanaged bookings, inflated fares, and a lack of spending visibility.

Without the right business travel management tools, organizations risk driving costs instead of growth each time an employee goes on a corporate trip.

Some decision-makers have reported incurring unnecessary costs because of poorly managed and mostly manual travel and expense (T&E) programs.

On the flip side, forward-thinking companies like OKI Europe have found ways to leverage business travel management software to reduce their spend by 20 percent.

But what else can these modern solutions bring?

1. Significant cost savings

Modern travel and expense (T&E) solutions build upon the foundation of traditional corporate travel management software, adding features like automated policy enforcement to compare prices and track spending, prevent overspending, and maximize savings on every trip.

Here are two ways you can gain more savings with a robust travel management solution:

Negotiated rates with suppliers

Advanced corporate travel management platforms like Emburse do more than just store negotiated rates—they actively monitor bookings against contracts and market rates, including NDC content, ensuring suppliers honor their agreements. When better rates emerge, the system automatically alerts travelers and facilitates easy rebooking, turning potential savings into actual cost reductions.

Improved spend visibility

Tools from corporate travel management solutions can give you access to centralized T&E data for a comprehensive and unified view of organizational spending. A full view of expense, travel, and card data empowers decision-makers to find cost-saving opportunities with ease, improve inefficiencies, flag redundancies and out-of-policy expenses, and more.

2. Enhanced traveler safety and security

Duty of care is more than a legal obligation. It's about ensuring your employees feel supported wherever their business takes them. Tools like can continuously monitor employees’ location, status, and needs with features like:

Real-time traveler tracking

Travel management apps like Emburse Go monitor both safety and spending as your team moves across the globe. The platform tracks expense patterns and policy compliance in real-time, giving managers instant visibility into travel activity.

Risk management protocols

Emburse’s interactive maps display accurate traveler locations and full itinerary details, while integrated risk assessments incorporate US State Department advisories. Taking a multi-layered approach enables organizations to fulfill their duty of care obligations effectively and respond to emerging situations before they impact traveler safety.

3. Increased productivity

Hours spent on travel logistics take focus away from core business objectives. Manual tasks like booking trips, managing itineraries, and filing expense reports drain valuable time from both travelers and travel managers. Having a smart software solution that can automatically handle end-to-end T&E processes allows for:

Efficient booking processes

A centralized booking platform with built-in compliance controls empowers both employees and managers. Employees gain access to pre-negotiated rates and preferred vendors, making it easy to find the best travel options, while travel managers can step back from handling individual bookings and focus on higher-level tasks.

Time savings for employees

Automated rate review and reshopping mean travelers don't need to constantly check for better deals—the system does it for them and facilitates easy rebooking when opportunities arise. With clear visibility into travel options and costs, employees can quickly make informed decisions that align with company policies and budgets.

4. Improved policy compliance

Getting employees to follow travel policies doesn’t have to be complicated. Advanced travel management solutions transform compliance from a burden into a natural part of the booking process with:

Automated policy enforcement

Built-in guardrails to catch policy issues right when reservations are made, not days or weeks after the fact. Company travel guidelines translate into automated booking rules, giving employees instant approval for compliant choices while routing only true exceptions to travel managers.

Clear guidelines for travelers

Top travel management solutions like Emburse integrates policy guidance directly into the booking experience. Simple prompts and alerts guide employees toward compliant choices without constantly referencing policy documents, while timely updates keep them informed throughout their trip.

5. Better data management and reporting

Making informed travel decisions requires more than just historical data but actionable insights and proactive forecasting to give organizations full visibility into where their money is going when it comes to travel.

Comprehensive travel analytics

Smart business travel management software can track key metrics such as total travel spend by department, average trip costs, and the most frequently booked airlines and hotels. Having visibility over these data points can help travel decision-makers spot spending patterns, negotiate for better rates, and optimize the whole travel program with ease.

Data-driven decision making

Complete spend visibility and predictive analytics help organizations discover opportunities for policy improvement, contract negotiation, and savings. Comprehensive data, for instance, allowed tech firm Databricks to identify inefficiencies and save $1.2 million just by correcting meal expenses. Leading paint manufacturer Jotun, meanwhile, gained increased spend visibility that allowed them to optimize expenses and achieve ROI within a year.

6. Enhanced travel satisfaction

Happy travelers are productive employees, and a positive travel experience can contribute to overall job satisfaction with:

Personalized travel experiences

Modern business management software incorporates individual preferences, such as preferred airlines and hotels, in their systems. The best ones even integrate personalized travel options with company policies to ensure compliance while giving employees a sense of autonomy throughout the trip.

24/7 traveler support

Business travel can be unpredictable, and unexpected issues can arise at any time. Providing round-the-clock support means that travelers have access to assistance whenever they need it, even across time zones and outside of regular office hours. Emburse’s travel support, for instance, offers 24/7 assistance to traveling employees even when the internal travel manager is unavailable.

7. Streamlined expense management

When travel booking and expense reporting live on the same platform, the entire process becomes more efficient. One central system handles everything from initial reservations to final reimbursement, replacing fragmented tools and manual processes.

Automated expense reporting

A unified T&E management system captures and sorts all spending automatically—from flight bookings to taxi receipts to client meals. Employees simply snap photos of receipts, log their mileage, and submit reports with a few taps, eliminating manual data entry and costly mistakes.

Faster reimbursements

Direct integration between expense approval and payment systems accelerates the entire reimbursement cycle. Employees receive their money back sooner, while finance teams can process high volumes of claims without getting bogged down in paperwork.

8. Improved supplier relationships

Centralizing corporate travel management saves money and is key to transforming supplier relationships into strategic partnerships. When organizations have fragmented travel booking processes (i.e., different employees or departments booking their own travel through various channels), they miss out on several key advantages that come with consolidation, mainly:

Consolidated buying power

Modern business travel management platforms help you leverage your total travel spend for enhanced benefits like priority service, room upgrades, and exclusive offers. Having access to comprehensive data on travel bookings strengthens your position in future contract negotiations.

9. Support sustainability initiatives

To minimize environmental impact and support sustainability goals, businesses need to efficiently manage travel using tools and insights that allow:

Carbon footprint tracking

Despite a global push towards sustainable business practices, only 35 percent of organizations reported having a sustainability policy for business travel.

However, intelligent travel management systems like Emburse make sustainability actionable by calculating the carbon impact of different travel options. Organizations can then make informed decisions that support both growth and sustainability initiatives.

10. Scalability and flexibility

Managing travel and overall expenses can become complex as a company grows, creating new problems with an increased employee headcount, general compliance, and controlling spend.

If your business travel management systems fail to scale up, it can cause unnecessary spend. Modern solutions solve this problem by making T&E processes:

Adaptable to business growth

Whether you're a small startup or a large enterprise, modern travel management solutions can scale with your organizational growth, accommodating increased travel volume, evolving policies, and new destinations.

Emburse offers a suite of solutions that can be tailored to your specific needs no matter where you are on your journey of growth. Tailored T&E solutions allow companies to future-proof their operations even amid volatile market conditions.

Is it time to modernize your T&E?

Effective corporate travel management is essential for optimizing travel spend, ensuring compliance, and enhancing traveler satisfaction.

If your current travel and expense solution is creating more headaches than it solves, it might be time for an upgrade.

Emburse offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to ensure compliance through convenience and savings through automation.

Whether you're a small business just starting out or a large enterprise with complex needs, Emburse offers the flexibility and scalability to adapt to your unique requirements and grow with your organization.

Through extensive customization and configuration options, you can tailor Emburse's solutions to fit your specific workflows and policies, something most T&E providers don’t offer.

Leveraging new technologies can empower your organization to take control and maximize your business travel management. Find out more about working with Emburse today.