Best 9 travel management software for expense management

Managing corporate travel can be highly taxing, especially for small and mid-sized businesses. With so many moving parts, it’s a huge task to keep on top of booking the right travel at the right price, ensuring compliance with your travel and spend policies, reimbursing employees quickly, and maintaining accurate records for monitoring your overall spending. Mix in the chaotic nature of travel, and you’ve got an undertaking fraught with complexities. 

In today’s business environment, it’s critical for organizations to manage travel effectively. With manual methods, costly mistakes, out-of-policy spending, and fraud can occur. Lost receipts can mean missing out on tax deductions or trying to back up claims without a solid audit trail. And, without real-time oversight, your travel budget can balloon without your knowledge, leaving you with a big surprise at the end of the month. 

Travel management software is the answer. By automating the drudgery of corporate travel management, organizations of all sizes can easily book travel, manage expenses, and facilitate reimbursements, all while saving time and money. 

What is travel management software? 

Corporate travel management software is a collection of tools that enables businesses to streamline all aspects of corporate travel, from planning and booking flights and car rentals to managing and tracking expenses and reimbursements. Depending on the platform, travel management software can automatically apply company expense policies, simplify approvals, reduce errors, and provide insights into spending. Travel management software helps businesses manage their corporate travel activities and expenses effectively by including tools that simplify expense management, booking, and itinerary creation. Here’s what to look for: 

Expense management tools

Expense management tools automate many tasks relating to tracking, reporting, and reimbursing employee expenses related to business travel. They’re far more efficient and accurate than manual processes and can enforce company policies automatically. The key benefits of using expense management tools are: 

Automated expense tracking: Using mobile apps, employees can submit receipts and expenses from anywhere and in different currencies. The expenses are categorized and approved (or flagged) automatically. 

Reporting and analytics: With immediate access to spending data, businesses can monitor spending and gain insights to identify patterns and trends. 

Approval workflows: Businesses can set automatic approvals for minor expenses and create workflows to review and approve larger expenses to comply with corporate policies. This adds the benefit of reducing errors, duplicate expenses, and fraud. It also speeds up reimbursements. 

Booking tools

Online booking tools provide a user-friendly interface for arranging corporate travel. With these tools, employees can book their own travel itineraries on the platform. This includes booking flights, accommodations, car rentals, and any other business travel services they may require. Additional benefits include:

Ease of use: Online booking tools provide access to a large inventory of travel options in one place, reducing the burden of using multiple websites and making the booking process far less challenging. 

Data tracking: Businesses have real-time access to travel bookings and costs, which is essential for tracking travel spend.

Policy compliance: With corporate policy customization, non-compliant bookings or expenses are immediately flagged, helping you monitor and control travel costs. 

Itinerary tools 

Itinerary tools give employees the ability to manage their travel bookings. Itineraries are stored on the travel and expense ( T&E) platform and ready to be viewed, reviewed, and modified by authorized users within the organization. The system notifies users about any itinerary changes, cancellations, or delays. Other benefits include: 

Policy compliance: Workflows include checking itineraries against company policy to ensure compliance. 

Expense tracking: With real-time tracking of expenses, managers can monitor spend versus approved travel budgets to reduce surprises and keep within spending limits. 

Best 11 travel management software for businesses

1. Expensify 

Expensify Travel is a corporate travel booking and management solution that offers comprehensive tools for booking flights, hotels and other accommodations, car rentals, and other ground transportation in one place. It provides access to a wide inventory of travel options at competitive rates. By integrating with Expensify’s expense management system, you can create expense reports that help speed reimbursement. Expensify provides control over business travel booking, allowing organizations to set policies for spending limits, fare types, and accommodation costs. 

Key features:

• Centralized online booking and travel services
• Business travel policy and workflow customization
• Spend limits on travel costs 
• Dedicated employee chat rooms
• Flexible payment options
• Rewards program
• 24/7 support

2. Ramp

Ramp Travel is a leading business travel management software solution that incorporates booking, expense tracking, and travel policy compliance. Users can create custom travel policies to control spending, create approval workflows, and facilitate company-specific booking options. Ramp’s automated expense management feature eliminates the need for manual expense reporting by automatically collecting receipts, matching them to specific trips, and categorizing them. 

Key features:

• Automated policy compliance checks
• Real-time visibility into business travel expenses
• Streamlined reconciliation
• Customized workflows
• Flights and other business travel needs can be booked with any travel platform or provider

3. Brex

Brex’s corporate travel management platform integrates with its expense management and corporate card offerings. It offers booking capabilities on both the web and its mobile platform. Features include comprehensive travel search capabilities, instant booking, and real-time tracking and categorization of expenses. Brex also features automated receipt and approval workflows, customizable travel spending policy enforcement, and 24/7 support. 

Key features:

• Pre-negotiated travel discounts
• Access to a global inventory of business travel options
• Self-service booking options including hotel reservations 
• Unlimited itinerary changes
• Support for group events

4. SAP Concur

From booking to expense reporting, SAP Concur simplifies corporate travel management with its T&E system. Employees can search for and book business travel easily. Customizable travel policies keep employee bookings compliant. SAP Concur’s interface shows negotiated and published fares and rates and color codes them to indicate compliance with corporate travel policy rules. With SAP Concur TripLink, users can track travel booked outside the SAP Concur ecosystem. It was recently announced that Concur's booking system will be available through the Travelport platform.

Key features:

• Mobile app for T&E management on the go
• Cost control and visibility into business travel spend
• Corporate policy compliance and fraud reduction
• Sustainable travel tools
• Access to a wide network of travel suppliers and travel services
• Future availability through Travelport platform

5. Navan

Navan’s T&E software is a unified solution that combines business travel booking, corporate card management, and expense tracking on one platform. Navan helps businesses save time and boost efficiency by streamlining the T&E process from booking to reconciliation. Navan uses AI-powered technology to leverage user preferences and previous bookings to create personalized search results, helping managers and employees quickly find the best options and itineraries. Navan offers discounts and the ability to compare prices from multiple suppliers easily. 

Key features:

• AI-powered search results for corporate travel
• Loyalty program with preferred providers
• Real-time reporting and analytics
• 24/7 customer support

6. Spendesk

Spendesk is a platform for business travel management that enables organizations to book trips, monitor trip expenses, and automatically input receipts. Spendesk uses a system of virtual corporate cards for secure online travel booking. The system provides real-time monitoring of T&E spending. Employees using prepaid physical corporate cards with custom limits can use them while traveling instead of using their own funds and waiting to be reimbursed. Spendesk’s mobile app speeds up expense claims and reimbursements. 

Key features:

• Integration with major travel booking platforms
• Virtual and physical corporate cards for secure payments
• Custom corporate travel spending policies and approval workflows
• Automated expense claims and receipt capture
• Real-time travel expense tracking

7. Rydoo

Rydoo is a global T&E platform that helps companies control spending, ensure company and local policy compliance, and offers AI-powered mobile receipt scanning. Rydoo offers travel booking, paperless expense management, and spending oversight. 

Key features:

• Real-time corporate travel expense submission and approvals
• Automated policy compliance enforcement
• Centralized billing system for travel expenses 
• Mileage and per diem management

8. Certify

Certify is a T&E management software solution built for mid sized businesses. The software simplifies travel booking, expense submission, and approval and ensures compliance by enforcing corporate travel policy. Certify offers robust reporting and a mobile app for expense management on the road. 

Key features:

• Automated receipt capture and processing
• Automated corporate travel policy compliance 
• Customizable pre-trip approval workflows
• In-depth reporting and analytics 
• 24/7 support

9. TravelPerk 

TravelPerk is a comprehensive T&E management solution that helps businesses simplify travel booking, expense tracking, and reimbursement. TravelPerk offers an extensive inventory of travel options, and its FlexiPerk feature enables businesses to get an 80% refund on any canceled trip. TravelPerk automates company policy compliance, streamlines expense capture, and provides real-time expense reporting. 

Key features:

• Extensive travel inventory with negotiated rates
• TravelPerk integrates with popular expense management tools and corporate travel management companies
• Carbon offsetting options through GreenPerk
• VAT and sales tax recovery assistance

How to choose the right travel management software

Choosing the right corporate travel management software for your business can streamline your corporate travel and expense management, improve compliance, reduce errors, and save money. With so many options available, selecting the platform that best meets your business needs is essential. Let’s take a look at the most important areas to consider. 

Individual schedule management 

Individual schedule management lets employees act as their own travel agents to organize and manage their itineraries and bookings in real time. Employees and managers will find their trip details in one centralized location. The T&E platform automatically sends alerts and notifications of any changes or delays, and by integrating them with the traveler’s work calendar, scheduling conflicts are flagged immediately. With itinerary information synced to mobile devices, it’s easy to view and modify travel plans from anywhere. Individual schedule management boosts efficiency, improves organization, offers more flexibility, and ensures automatic compliance with your travel policies. 

Approval workflow

The best corporate travel management platforms include the ability to create approval workflows. These workflows are based on your current company policies and automatically flag events that require attention (like an employee going over budget). They give organizations more control over travel spending and ensure travel policy compliance while reducing errors and improving visibility into your travel expense management process. 

Mobile access

Mobile access enables employees to submit their expenses immediately and from anywhere easily. With automatic capture, they don’t have to worry about losing receipts or entering data incorrectly. The benefits of mobile access include timely reimbursement, corporate policy compliance, automated approvals, and the flagging of out-of-policy transactions, as well as improved efficiency. Employees will appreciate the reduction in paperwork and faster reimbursements. 

Expense tracking

Expense tracking is a critical feature of corporate travel management software. Look for a solution that offers automated expense input, expense tracking, policy compliance, and solid reporting and analytics. These elements work together to give your organization real-time monitoring of spending across different categories. You can break spending down by individual teams, departments, categories, and more. Expense reporting and analysis help you keep track of spending now, show you areas that need attention, and help you plan future budgets. 

Tax reporting 

Tax reporting is another must-have feature. Your software should track and document travel expenses for tax deduction purposes. Filing your taxes is a breeze when you have proper documentation. Keeping track of international spending is critical, too, as you may be able to claim back any VAT or sales taxes paid in other countries. An electronic record of travel expenses minimizes the risk of errors or omissions and provides an audit trail should the IRS ask.

Travel policy management

A corporate travel policy is great if it’s equally applied and followed. But that’s not always the case. Corporate travel management software can take your existing travel policy and automatically apply it across your entire organization. You can use predefined rules when booking so that employees automatically comply with your guidelines. By automating the process at the beginning of the travel booking process, there’s less need for manual oversight, policy violations are kept to a minimum, and it’s far easier to control costs. Updating your travel policy is a snap. Just make the changes, and they’ll automatically be applied across the organization. 

4 benefits of using travel management software for your business

• Planning and booking travel: All-in-one corporate travel management platforms turn the drudgery of manual T&E management into a simplified process by consolidating business travel planning, booking, approvals, and reimbursements in one central location. Travel planning tools assist with creating itineraries, and booking tools help users compare corporate travel options, helping them find better value flight, accommodation and car rental choices that comply with company policy. Automated workflows streamline the approval process, saving time and reducing errors. 
• Ensuring travel policy compliance: Corporate travel management software ensures compliance by enforcing company guidelines during booking. Out-of-policy options are either hidden from view or marked unavailable. Automated approval workflows ensure that selected itineraries meet company policy and flag non-compliant itineraries and expenses. The software can assist in selecting complaint options and alert approvers to review requests. 
  Automated expense tracking checks expenses against company policy and alerts managers to any issues. Mobile receipt capture enables employees to manage and submit expenses when traveling. 
• Automating reimbursements: Automated reimbursements are one of the most important features of good travel management software. Expenses are input into the T&E system, often via a mobile app that captures receipt information and then checks against company policy limits. Out-of-policy expenses are flagged for approval or removal. This ensures compliance with your organization's spending policies, simplifies the reimbursement process, and results in greater accuracy and less fraud. 
• Collecting crucial expense and travel data: One of the significant benefits of T&E management software is real-time travel data collection. With it, organizations can keep track of their travel spend and gain valuable insights into their travel budget, revealing expenditure trends that can help control future spending. 

FAQs on travel management software

Can T&E management software integrate with other systems?

It depends on the T&E management software. Many T&E solutions integrate easily with other systems or are part of an all-in-one platform. To be sure, check that the solution integrates with systems you already have or plan to use in the future. These include travel and insurance providers, accounting and finance software, HR platforms, and more.

Is T&E management software suitable for small businesses?

Absolutely. In fact, small businesses can really benefit from using T&E management software. Cost savings are just a start. Because small business employees and managers wear many hats, streamlining T&E can save them time and make corporate travel management less stressful. Automating manual tasks like receipt capture, policy application, approvals, and reimbursements reduces the administrative burden and speeds up the entire process. Not only that, T&E software gives small businesses real-time insights into their travel spend, which is key to better financial planning and decision-making. The electronic trail can help at tax time, ensuring your expenses comply with IRS regulations. 

How does the software handle different currencies and international travel?

It depends on the platform you choose, so your mileage will vary.  If your organization undertakes a lot of travel, especially international travel, choose travel management software that supports domestic and international travel booking. You’ll want a solution that performs currency conversions with constantly updated rates, offers multi-currency support for tracking and reporting, and generates reports in those currencies. Additionally, look for software that can manage country-specific tax and compliance rules, categorize business expenses by location, and flag expenses that qualify for tax recovery.

This blog is based on information available to Rippling as of September 17, 2024.

Disclaimer: Rippling and its affiliates do not provide tax, accounting, or legal advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide or be relied on for tax, accounting, or legal advice. You should consult your own tax, accounting, and legal advisors before engaging in any related activities or transactions.