August 15, 2023

Best Travel and Expense Management Software in 2024

In the minds of a majority of people the term «business travel» evokes an attractive picture of business class flights, luxury hotels, and pleasant pastime at a corporate dinner with men in elegant business suits.

However, the reality is not exactly like this, business trips can nowadays be rather painful both for those who go on business trips and those who administrate them. Still, there is a solution which helps to avoid the outdated processes and ineffective expenditures as well as a waste of time and resources.

The answer to all those troubles can become a corporate travel and expense management software, customized to the business processes and peculiarities of your very company.

We should confess that at present the global market of corporate travel management is one of the largest segments, to disrupt in the modern digital world. A market research study from Custom Market Insights reveals that the demand analysis for the Global Corporate Travel Market indicated a revenue of about USD 251.1 billion in 2022. It is projected to reach USD 259.3 billion in 2023 and is anticipated to reach approximately USD 330.2 billion by 2032. This growth represents a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.1% between 2022 and 2032. That’s why it’s worth considering getting a piece of this huge and attractive pie and purchasing or developing a corporate travel management software, to help you actually choose where your means go.

To be substantial, let’s look into some figures. Business globalization along with the increased infrastructural investments result in the rapid travel market growth, particularly in the business travel market.

Depending on the services provided, the global market is segmented into food & lodging, transportation and recreation spheres. The highest growth rate is registered within the food & lodging sector, due to the affordable hotels and gaining popularity online booking trend which lowers the cost of the stay.

What is more, the IoT penetration into the sphere facilitates the management of various business travel related processes and brings benefits both to the travelers and agents.

What Problems Can Corporate Travel Management and Expense Software Solve?

In fact, travel management software can be a real catch for a company in the context of the problems it can solve. The most common of them are the following:

The time-consuming booking process

The best travel and expense management software will offer quick and simple booking procedure through direct and real-time access to various booking services. An employee can then reserve a flight, a hotel, and the necessary services in a single place. Besides, all the travel itineraries and booking details will be stored in one place, easy to access, manage, check and use.

Difficulties with corporate travel policy implementation

Employees do not often intend to violate corporate travel and expense regulations, but it happens at times. Some policies may be too long, too confusing or overly complicated. Looking for a reduced rate a worker can unintentionally book a hotel outside the company’s preferred provider list and face then a not approved travel report.

Special software can have the embedded functionality of alerts, adjusted to notify the user if the wrong provider is chosen or set cap or restriction infringed. Thus going out of the corporate policy will be prevented and both the employee and the accounting department will benefit from it.

Lack of insight into travel-related expenditures

Travel expense management software is able to provide you the visibility into each and every dollar spent during the business trips of your employees. Being aware of the leakages your precious means go to, you can reduce costs in a reasonable and painless way.

Booking tickets in advance, for instance, easily solves the problem of the high prices. You can also approach the hotel most preferred by your company the travelers for a better rate. Both the hotel and your business will benefit from such a deal.

Late expense report submissions

Setting the time limits and adjusting automatic reminders in the software your company use will allow you to forget about late expense reports. Besides, the accountants will be able to make pre-costing using the data for previous periods.

Chaos with workflows

Setting the dates, reducing costs, ensure policy compliance, and managing payments are just some of the difficulties linked to corporate business trips arrangements. Completely automated procedures can help you eliminate chaos and make all the necessary estimations through the software customized to your corporate needs.

What Features Should You Look at in Software for Travel Management?

It’s advisable that your business travel expense software cover certain functionality essential both for the traveler and for the company. However, the functionality often influences the cost. In case you are looking for a ready-made solution you’d better make the careful travel and expense management software comparison and choose the one corresponding your corporate needs most.

Still, there can be lots of unnecessary features, which neither you nor your employees will ever use. The answer to your problem, in this case, is the development of a customized corporate solution. That’s where Stfalcon can guarantee you the best quality-to-price ratio and the cutting-edge result. We implement only the functionality our customers need and do not create any unnecessary adds on.

Generally, the business travel management product should be able to make a booking, to create or apply company policy and regulations, to form automatic expense reports and to manage traveling worker data.

So the basic checklist of the critical features in your corporate software solution should look like this:

• the simplicity of booking for administrators;
• self reservation option for travelers;
• comprehensive access to all airline and accommodation inventory worldwide;
• automatic policy compliance.

The ideal solution will also:

• manage the business trip schedule of a single employee as well as a team;
• make sure that the workers have all the essential visas and travel-related documents;
• make the most of frequent traveler discounts;
• automate expense reporting.

Other useful features may include:

• automated timesheets of the employees working hours;
• travel agency support;
• political and social updates;
• weather forecasts at the places of destination;
• detailed road maps;
• detecting potential danger areas.

What are the Top 3 Business Travel Management and Expense Solutions for 2024?

The growing software market of travel management could not but have attracted already a great number of players. Obviously, the key of them are travel agencies, developing soft to bring their services to the new level, startups, which realize the perspectives of the niche, travel management platforms and corporate tools dedicated to specific companies.

It becomes quite clear today, that old tricks stop bringing the desired results, so to keep the ground in the market the modern travel agencies should become technology vendors, simple service providing is not anymore enough. While the travelers look for the opportunities of self-booking and mobile access to all the travel-related services the managing staff requires smart features which may help improve the professional performance.

StartUps in the sphere of the corporate travel market can expect success if they manage to solve a certain problem and find a proper decision to that. By the way one of the present-day top software for business travels Tripactions, emerged as the solution to the pitfalls of business travel, experienced firsthand by its founders Ariel Cohen and Ilan Twig.

Tripactions now brings the travelers the benefits of an easy and smooth booking, planning, policy management, however, lacks the features of expense reporting and approval workflow. The main advantage of this product is a free version.

Actually, the product has developed into a state-of-art corporate travel management platform, combining the mentality of a startup and tackling the problems of the industry as the whole Travelperks, known as the software which also tops the list of the most advanced solutions is ranked high by the companies, small and big due to a free version. They make the point of its perfect user-friendly interface and functionality along with fantastic customer service. It’s a perfect example of a corporate tool, which continues improving its functionality and offerings. However, by now, it still lacks financial functionality, mobile version, and integration possibilities.

Rydoo chosen by more than 500000 business travelers worldwide is the most popular travel and expense management solution nowadays. It helps make booking and itinerary management process simple and hassle-free, has notification functions and advanced integration possibilities to various travel systems. A single app comprising two modules, it also facilitates expense reports creation, allows payment cards integration, and reimbursement directly to the user’s bank account.

Besides, the software has the functions of mileage tracking, digital receipt capturing, invoice creation and delivery, and project accounting.

So at present, each travel software market player can offer a certain solution to the corporate travelers, to choose the software best matching your needs you should first make the careful analysis of the needs and pains, which your company has in the context of business travels and then carefully study each solution you consider.

With a certain solution in mind, you can then turn to the experienced developers, able to bring your idea to reality. Stfalcon is the company, which can really do it for you. In case you still have some hesitations, just read on.

How Does Your Business Benefit with a Customized Travel and Expense Management System?

The main benefit of the business travel and expense management system is balancing company needs and travelers’ wants. The tools, that are used by your traveling employees, can give you visibility, insights, and possibility to manage processes and costs.

So you can control travel expenses before they’re set up through various budgeting options integrated into the software. It may be setting of caps or requests, which require approval.

Automated processes help your staff work faster and smarter, so the precious time of your team is freed up to focus on more strategic business initiatives and it will definitely keep your business moving at an increased speed.

Besides, automated invoicing significantly reduces your processing costs, thus it not only saves corporate time but also money. The overall automation allows saving up to 70% on the processing costs and also eliminates manual errors.

However, the most important benefit, which should be mentioned, is the possibility of real-time insight into data both for the traveler and for the company. You can look into the necessary information whenever you need and regulate certain aspects for the benefit of your company and business processes.

Our Experience

Busfor

Busfor is an online ticket sales service that facilitates the acquisition of tickets for both domestic and international journeys. Operating in regions including Ukraine, Europe, and South-East Asia, it offers convenient travel solutions.

MeinFernbus

MeinFernbus is a prominent provider of passenger coach transportation services in Germany. In 2015, MeinFernbus made headlines by merging with another company, solidifying its position as the leading player in Germany's passenger transportation market.

Conclusions

Travel managing may seem rather straightforward, however, it’s far from simple due to multiple moving parts and individuals involved in it. With customized corporate travel management and expense software, your company will definitely get the financial and operational benefit, while Stfalcon is ready to develop such a solution for your business in the best possible time and manner. Just contact us.

In our latest whitepaper we analyze the main areas to consider for innovations within the travel industry in 2024 and aim to help you set the right investment priorities. Download our whitepaper “Travel Industry: Where to Invest” and make sure you can always expand and integrate your service, product or solution later.