6 Ways to Transform Your Business Travel Programme

How to work smarter (not harder) with travel expense policies

Managing business trips shouldn’t feel like chaos.

Yet for many companies, the business travel programme is still riddled with manual processes, disconnected systems, and time-consuming approvals.

And what's the result you get stuck with?

1. Higher travel costs
2. Increased travel risks
3. And a poor user experience for both travellers and the finance team.

By bringing structure, automation, and strategy into your travel planning and expense processes, you transform travel into a well-oiled part of your business operations.

Our partner AMEX GBT Egencia™ shares a great framework for corporate travel planning that goes beyond logistics. It focuses on risk reduction, cost control, and long-term success. Paired with the right expense management solution, it’s a powerful combination.

Here’s how to build a better business travel programme, step by step.

1. Make booking and expense tools work together

An effective business travel programme starts before take-off. Your travel booking tool and expense management system should work in sync to track travel expenses as they happen. That means no more juggling between platforms or manually copying over data—just a smooth, automated system that captures every booking, cancellation, or reschedule.

With automated expense workflows, each approved expense claim flows straight into your expense management process. This reduces errors, saves time, and improves your ability to monitor costs incurred at every stage.

"Integrated systems simplify your approval process and give you visibility from the outset—critical for ensuring accuracy and transparency."

- Egencia, "Corporate Travel Planning Essentials (Guide)," August 6, 2024. Egencia.

2. Empower employees with mobile-first tools

Whether travelling to a client site or attending a conference, today’s business travellers rely on mobile devices. Equipping team members with a mobile app for managing travel expenses allows them to submit receipts, categorise spend, and track employee spending in real time.

No more paper receipts getting lost in luggage or end-of-month expense chaos. Mobilexpense enables faster reimbursements, while helping employees stay compliant with your expense policy.

"A well-designed mobile app improves the user experience and ensures that employees can focus on the trip - not the admin."

- Egencia, "Corporate Travel Planning Essentials (Guide)," August 6, 2024. Egencia.

3. Automate expense reporting to boost compliance

Let’s face it, no one enjoys filing an expense claim. But with the right technology, it can become a breeze.

Mobilexpense uses automated systems to match receipts to trips, flag out-of-policy claims, and enforce the company’s travel policy without needing to micromanage.

This type of expense management automation doesn’t just make things easier—it helps reduce the risk of human errors, speeds up approvals, and makes your entire expense management process more compliant and efficient.

"Automation reduces delays and eliminates guesswork for your finance team, improving control and saving costs over time."

-Egencia, "Corporate Travel Planning Essentials (Guide)," August 6, 2024. Egencia.

4. Support travellers around the clock

Unexpected flight cancellations. Last-minute hotel changes. Even the best travel planning can’t prevent every disruption. But what you can do is provide 24/7 support and visibility for your travellers.

As AMEX GBT Egencia™ explains, a strong business travel program includes tracking expenses and traveller locations in real time. Mobilexpense complements this by surfacing spend data quickly—so finance can react fast if needed.

"Combining policy, support, and data is how you build trust and ensure business continuity during disruptions."

- Egencia, "Corporate Travel Planning Essentials (Guide)," August 6, 2024. Egencia.

5. Turn your travel data into strategy

What gets measured gets managed. The final piece of a modern expense management puzzle is data: on approved expenses, policy compliance, and overall travel costs.

Real-time insights allow you to uncover trends, spot non-compliance, and benchmark employee habits. Over time, this improves your management process, enhances planning, and strengthens the link between business operations and financial oversight.

     "Data-driven decisions help you continuously improve your programme—                                   and build a more resilient business."

      - Egencia, "Corporate Travel Planning Essentials (Guide)," August 6, 2024. Egencia.

6. Support international travel with global tools

Modern businesses don’t just operate locally—business trips increasingly take team members across borders. That’s why your business travel programme needs tools designed for international complexity.

With Mobilexpense, you can help save costs on international travel through features like 0% FX markup on business credit cards.

This ensures that the company is not penalised for paying in different currencies.

This delivers real value when managing cross-border travel expenses and supports employee spending consistency worldwide.

What’s more, multilingual support makes it easy for your team to submit foreign-language receipts. Whether it's German rail tickets or French café invoices, ensure documentation is correctly read, categorised, and added to your expense processes.

Don’t have a formal business travel programme yet?

You’re not alone. Many organisations still rely on informal booking, disconnected accounting software, or last-minute approvals. But as both AMEX GBT Egencia™ and Mobilexpense highlight, formalising your approach brings huge benefits—especially when it comes to:

• Enforcing your travel policy with clear, consistent guidelines
• Replacing manual processes with automated expense workflows
• Giving your finance team visibility into the costs incurred
• Improving your team's ability to plan, book, and manage business trips with confidence

3 benefits of modern corporate travel planning

As AMEX GBT Egencia™ outlines, and Mobilexpense enables, companies with structured travel programmes benefit in three key ways:

1. Lower travel costs

Consolidated bookings and automated expense workflows help reduce wasteful spend. This is critical for any business looking to gain more control over company expense and improve margins.

2. Better duty of care

With integrated tools, you can locate travellers instantly and respond to incidents quickly, reducing risk and ensuring employees feel supported.

3. Increased efficiency

Combining booking, policy, and expense processes into one ecosystem removes friction for travellers and frees up time for the finance team to focus on more strategic work.

Let’s modernise your travel and expense strategy

Looking to increase efficiency, improve compliance, and give your team members a better experience on the road?

Mobilexpense helps you connect your travel planning with your expense management for a unified, automated solution that scales with your business.

Discover our solution or speak to us today about building a smarter, faster, more connected business travel programme.