If your employees travel frequently for work, then a business travel request form is absolutely necessary for your company. Before going on a business trip, employees must fill out the form with their travel details and intended journey and seek approval.
They can also include an estimated travel budget in the business travel request form. This will give you and the finance managers an idea of the business trip and the travel expenses.
However, submitting the travel request form template and their approval does not have to be manual. Several other ways exist to streamline the corporate travel and expense submission and approval process.
Get a Free Business Travel Request Template
Having a neat travel request form with clearly demarcated sections with trip and expense details can make the submission and approval process easier. Here is a customizable business travel request form template you can share with your employees. They can add or remove fields as per their requirements.
Read the blog in detail to learn about travel request forms and a more efficient process of corporate travel approval. Also, we will share a customizable business travel request form that you can share with your employees. Read on!
What is a Business Travel Request Form?
Travel request templates are filled by employees who are traveling for business purposes. It gives the management an overview of their business trip, expenses, and strategy. It typically has the following fields or sections:
- Employee details – The employee’s information such as her name, contact number, department, etc.
- Purpose of the business trip – The employees should write about the purpose of the business trip such as conference, event, client meeting, etc. and how the company will benefit from it
- Travel dates – The dates when the employee will be traveling i.e. the departure and the return dates
- Destination details – The details of the destination i.e. domestic or international, and the name of the city, hotel, etc.
- Estimated travel costs – The estimated cost of the entire trip. The expenses can be broken down into categories such as transportation, meals, accommodation, and miscellaneous expenses. Read here to know what can or cannot be claimed as business travel expenses.
- Any other requirements, especially in the case of international travel – If traveling internationally, you may want to share your visa details with the company.
- Name of all authorized persons and space for their signatures – Name of all authorized persons and space for their signatures – Name, designation, and departments of all the people you seek authorization while traveling. It can be your immediate manager, finance manager, travel manager, etc. It also has to include the employee’s signature and date
Importance of Business Travel Request Form
The travel request form ensures that travel within a company is:
- Feasible: Sometimes, resources in a company can be limited. Travel request forms give the finance managers a clear idea of the overall travel expenses and create a budget for them. It helps maintain the company’s finances.
- Authorized: All travel expenses must be authorized by the management for the proper use of resources and funds in a company. The management should be aware of all the expenses being incurred on travel and accordingly plan budgets and funds. Also, it helps prevent employees from making out-of-budget bookings.
- Organized: All business trips must be documented with the appropriate paperwork for invoicing and accounting purposes. Also, the business travel request forms can be stored for future reference to avoid confusion or clutter regarding trips or expenses.
- Properly managed: Since the employees add all the details about the trip, from accommodations to transport, there will no last-minute chaos regarding the travel or expenses.This also helps in faster reimbursements as it meets one of the accountable reimbursement plan criteria for business-related expenses.
Automate & Streamline Corporate Travel Approvals with itilite
A business travel request form needs to be submitted, reviewed, approved, or rejected on time. If you want a paperless office and well-organized records of all your employees, the best way to manage the travel and expense approvals process is by automating it.
Automation helps in saving time and increases efficiency. The travel request can be raised via an automated system and can be approved or declined instantly. Plus, the finance teams save money by preventing any out-of-policy expenses.
You can also set some essential features for the travel request form to be automatically approved. For example, the conditions can be:
- If the estimated travel cost is less than the maximum travel cost allowed
- If the advance asked by an employee is less than what is permissible
If both conditions are met, the business travel request form can be approved automatically and sent to finance managers to provide the trip advance. itilite is a corporate travel management platform that seamlessly automates your travel and expense processes. Get a free product demo today to experience all its features.
