Businesses have access to more travel data than ever, but getting a clear view of what is happening across a travel programme can still be difficult.
Bookings, expenses, invoices, meetings and events all generate information, often across different systems and teams. Bringing that information together is where things become more complicated, particularly for businesses operating across multiple offices, markets or currencies.
Without a consistent view, it can be difficult to understand where money is being spent, how people are booking and where changes could improve the way travel is managed.
Having the data is not the same as having visibility
To understand what is really happening across a travel programme, businesses need to look beyond total spend and see what is driving it, how it is distributed across teams, projects or markets, whether travellers are booking within policy and where costs or booking behaviours are changing. When those answers sit across several systems and reports need to be manually pieced together, getting a clear and consistent view becomes much harder.
Depending on who is using the information, what they need to see can also be very different, with finance teams focused on accurate cost allocation and straightforward reconciliation, while procurement and travel teams may be looking more closely at supplier performance, compliance, booking behaviour and traveller activity. Reporting needs to bring those requirements together in a way that reflects how the business itself is structured.
Creating consistency across a complex travel programme
For international businesses, getting a consistent view of travel can be even more challenging, particularly when different offices manage travel in different ways and costs need to be tracked across departments, funds or currencies.
That doesn’t mean every office or traveller needs to work in exactly the same way. What matters is having enough consistency behind the scenes to give the business the information it needs.
For one Business First client, this involved configuring 67 unique financial reference fields and integrating travel with its fund management systems, so fund information could be captured at the point of booking and allocated automatically. Travel management was also moved from individual offices to a centralised UK hub, with billing in GBP, EUR and USD to support the client’s international structure.
It meant the reporting reflected how the business operated, rather than asking the business to adapt to a standard reporting structure.
Building control into the process
The same principle applies to travel policy and approvals, greater control doesn’t need to mean adding more manual checks or making the booking process more complicated.
For another Business First client, a bespoke approval process incorporated more than five policy controls, including cost thresholds, cabin class, flight duration, traveller type and departmental rules, helping the business achieve 100% policy compliance. Alongside this, targeted workshops increased online booking adoption from 10% to 84%, with improved efficiency and adoption reducing transaction fees by 46%.
By building those requirements into the process, the business could maintain control while making it easier for travellers and bookers to manage travel within the agreed policy.
Using reporting to improve what happens next
Reporting is most useful when it helps teams understand where something could be working better. A change in online booking adoption might highlight an issue with the booking experience or the options available to travellers. Regular out-of-policy bookings could suggest that a policy needs reviewing, while changes in spend or booking patterns may highlight opportunities to manage costs differently.
Regular reporting gives businesses a clearer understanding of how their travel programme is working and where changes might be needed. It can also help bring together the wider picture, particularly when corporate travel sits alongside meetings, events, group travel and other specialist requirements that may be managed separately.
Across BFP Group, our specialist divisions cover corporate travel management, meetings and events, touring and production travel, and luxury personal travel, each with different requirements and priorities. The reporting needs to reflect that, giving every client clear, relevant information that helps them understand their travel activity and allows our teams to identify where we can continue to improve and add value.
Ultimately, good visibility gives businesses a clearer understanding of their travel activity, helping them make better decisions and giving our teams the insight to keep improving the service we provide.