As businesses expand and operate on a global scale, the management of corporate travel becomes increasingly complex. Traveling employees often need to navigate diverse regulations and company-specific requirements. Travel management software as a solution plays a pivotal role in ensuring that global travel policies are not only adhered to but also seamlessly integrated into the travel process.
TMS allows you to tailor global corporate travel policy according to the unique needs of your company. This ensures that policies are relevant, which increases compliance rates.
Why Compliance with Global Travel Policies is Essential?
Compliance with global business travel policies is essential to ensure the safety and well-being of employees while also maintaining cost efficiency. Given below are some important reasons why employees should follow policies during business trips.
Risk Management
Global business travel policies help you identify and deal with risks when employees travel for work. These risks could be about safety, health, or security. This is usually a legal duty for many companies.
Cost Control
When everyone follows global corporate travel policies, companies can control how much money they spend on travel. This includes setting budgets, not spending on things that aren’t needed, and using resources wisely.
Legal and Regulatory Compliance
Global corporate Travel policies also include rules about following the law, like visa and immigration rules. Following these policies helps the company stay within the legal boundaries.
Consistency and Fairness
Global corporate travel policies make sure everyone is treated the same way. When everyone follows the same rules, there’s less chance of favoritism or unequal treatment.
Data Security
Some policies are about keeping company and personal information safe while traveling. Not following these guidelines could lead to leaks of important information.
Resource Allocation
Policy compliance helps companies use their resources carefully. This means using travel budgets wisely and not wasting time and money.
Audit and Reporting
Compliance with travel policies makes auditing and reporting easier. This is essential for maintaining accountability in the company’s financial and operational processes.
Insurance and Liability
If employees don’t follow the travel policies, it might affect the company’s ability to get insurance if something goes wrong during a trip. This could mean the company has to pay more.
Sustainability
Many organizations include guidelines for environmentally responsible travel in their policies. This may involve using eco-friendly transportation options or choosing sustainable accommodations. Compliance supports the organization’s commitment to sustainability.
Role of Travel Management SaaS in Policy Compliance
Travel Management Software as a Service (SaaS) is a cloud-based technology solution. It offers you a digital platform to manage, oversee, and control your employees’ travel activities efficiently.
The software automates policy compliance related to booking, approval, and expenses. As a result, it reduces the administrative workload for travel managers and finance teams. Here are 10 ways in which TMS helps you maintain policy compliance.
Policy Enforcement: Travel management software actively enforces company guidelines. It checks if all bookings and expenses align with the travel policies.
Real-time Alerts: The software sends quick messages to travelers, reminding them of the global business travel policy while they’re booking.
Automated Policy Recommendations: It can suggest travel options that are within the policy This makes it easier for employees to choose amongst compliant options.
Customized Approval Workflows: The software lets you set up a chain of approvals. This ensures that travel requests, bookings, and expenses go to the right people in the right order.
Expense Management: It makes reporting expenses easier by helping employees put expenses in the right categories and making sure they don’t go over the limits.
Budget Control: Travel management software helps maintain budget by providing real-time visibility into spending. It allows you to monitor and enforce expense policies more effectively.
Auditing and Reporting: The software can create detailed reports and checks to see if everyone is following global travel policies. This helps you find areas of non compliance and assess where you need to update the policy.
Duty of Care and Safety: Many platforms offer safety features. It includes real-time travel risk updates and location tracking. This helps ensure traveler safety and compliance with duty of care.
Mobile Accessibility: Mobile apps provide travelers with access to global travel policies, updates, and the ability to submit expenses from anywhere. This makes it easier for travelers to follow policies on the go.
Why is Automated Policy Compliance Better Than the Manual Method?
Automated policy compliance offers several advantages over manual methods. This makes it a more efficient and effective way to ensure that employees follow the policy properly. Here are five reasons why automated policy compliance is superior to manual approaches.
Real-Time Updates and Changes
With automated systems, whenever your company updates or changes its policies, these changes are instantly applied on the software. If you were doing this manually, keeping up with fast-changing policies would be challenging and could lead to outdated practices.
Consistency and Accuracy
Automated systems make sure everyone follows the policies consistently and accurately. If a global corporate travel policy changes, the system applies it in the same way for everyone. This helps avoid errors that can happen due to differences in human understanding.
Scalability and Complexity Handling
Automated systems are good at handling complex policies, and they can easily adapt as your company grows. The system can understand and deal with more complex policies without needing more people to do the work. Manual processes can get overwhelming as policies become more complex or as your company gets bigger.
Efficiency and Time Savings
Automated processes are much more efficient than manual methods. They can quickly process a large number of transactions saving you time and effort. This is especially useful when there are many policy checks to do, like those related to travel and expenses.
Audit Trails and Documentation
Automated systems keep structured records of all compliance related activities. These records are very important if someone needs to check that the policies were followed correctly, such as during an audit. Manual processes may not have such organized records, which can lead to problems later on.
Ensure 100% Policy Compliance with ITILITE
Experience travel management like never before with ITILITE! Our powerful software is your ultimate solution for hassle-free policy compliance. When your employees search for flights and hotels, they’re presented with in-policy options in a dedicated tab, enabling them to make smart, policy-compliant choices effortlessly.
But that’s not all – our software works tirelessly, automatically checking every booking and expense to ensure it complies with global travel policies. You can also make real-time policy changes, which instantly reflect in the system.
And the best part? ITILITE is right in your pocket! Whether your team is at the office or globetrotting, they can effortlessly manage their travel while staying perfectly compliant.
Redefine the way you handle business travel with ITILITE and book a free demo today!
