6 tips to help cut travel costs
Miscellaneous / / June 30, 2023
1. Develop a travel policy
Your travel schedule should include:
- A list of expenses that the company is willing to take on. For example, food and gifts for partners are paid for by the business, but the employee pays for mobile communications and taxis.
- Travel and accommodation limits for employees of various positions. Let's say four-star hotels are for department heads, three-star hotels are for ordinary employees.
- Document management rules. These are the terms for issuing a business trip, preparing tasks, the procedure for submitting applications and reports. It is also important to appoint an employee or department who will be responsible for compliance with the travel policy.
You can add templates for travel documents - it will be easier for employees to fill them out, and the number of incorrectly drawn up papers will noticeably decrease.
To make your travel policy even more profitable, break it down into several parts according to the importance of business trips. Think of different rules and limits for them. These trips can be:
- To maintain the image. Presentations at conferences, participation in forums or trainings. Such events will not bring immediate benefits, so the cost of tickets and accommodation can be reduced.
- For the development of the company. Working checks, meetings and negotiations. Such trips are aimed at increasing profits, so you can spend a little more on them. The priority here is employee comfort and speed of movement.
The code system will help you sort trips by tasks faster. Assign numbers to different travel formats, collect them in a single list and attach it to your travel policy.
Manage your expenses easily travel organization service OneTwoTrip for Business. With it, you can set up an organization's travel policy, set limits for each employee, and plan business trips on the calendar. The platform works with 800 airlines and offers, among other things, group flights. Transfer, tickets for trains, trains, buses and aeroexpress - all in one place. Hotels around the world are available to corporate clients with discounts of up to 35%, and under the loyalty program for purchases through the service, you can get up to 5% cashback.
Connection to the service is free. There is also no monthly subscription fee, so irregular business trips will not waste the company's money.
To learn more2. Consider different transportation and housing
The plane is not always the most convenient and profitable way to travel. If there are no direct flights to the desired city, connections may take longer than the train journey. In addition, it’s really possible to work in the car: many trains have Wi‑Fi, double compartments, and even compartments for intercoms. Another option is buses. A short trip on them will not hurt comfort, while saving enough time and money due to the lack of transfers.
Housing is the same story. A hotel is more expensive, but in the center it is sometimes more profitable than a budget option on the outskirts of the city: the cost of a taxi or public transport will cover the difference. It happens that daily rent of an apartment is cheaper than a hotel. And stable Wi-Fi and a washing machine at hand will make a long trip more comfortable.
3. Don't prolong your trip
The shorter the journey, the cheaper it is for the business. Every day of work is necessary compensate with per diems, and if the trip falls on weekends or holidays - also at a double rate.
Therefore, always carefully calculate the time required to complete tasks. For example, if an employee has to speak at a conference on Thursday afternoon, it is not necessary to take Wednesday and Friday on the road. You can fly in in the morning and fly out in the evening - instead of three days, a business trip will last only one.
This scheme works in most cases, but there are exceptions. Suppose all profitable tickets for the desired day are over and only business class remains. It can cost more than per diem and a night in a hotel. Here it is worth calculating the costs of several options, comparing the amounts and choosing the best one.
4. Get a corporate card
With it, business trips will become more comfortable for you and for your employees. You will be able to set limits so that employees do not go over budget when traveling. No more unaccounted expenses - you will see all transactions in your personal account. Plus, corporate cards usually have special bonuses, such as increased cashback or service discounts.
The main thing is that it will be possible to return VAT for purchases without unnecessary nerves. For tax refund required only an invoice, and if the employee pays for hotel accommodation and transport in cash or with his regular salary card, the paper may not be issued.
5. Give employees a choice
It seems that arranging flights and hotels on your own is the right decision to save money. But there is a risk that your choice will seem uncomfortable to the employee: comfort will suffer from this, and the desire to work while traveling is likely to decrease. In addition, the person responsible for planning will lose time that could be spent on solving other tasks that are more efficient for the business.
If the conditions of residence and movement will be chosen by the business traveler, you will not have to worry about these problems. The main thing is to indicate to him the limits and conditions of the travel policy. You can also entrust the purchases to a responsible person, such as an accountant: the traveler will give links to convenient options, the organizer will pay for them, and then share tickets and booking details.
6. Analyze reports from previous trips
Check the documents of different employees, see if the costs differ, and look for reasons for increased spending. For example, someone chose a flight that was inconvenient for the company or dined exclusively in expensive restaurants. Such data will help to adjust the travel policy and bring it to the best option for business.
To make it easier to analyze, it is worth having a pivot table. Break the document into columns by category: tickets, accommodation, meals, mobile communications, transportation while traveling, and so on. Please also indicate the date of travel and the name of the seconded employee. Only the amounts of expenses can be loaded into the table, and let the details be stored in reports. If you notice an anomaly, pull up the paperwork to see why spending has gone up.
It is not necessary to maintain a table yourself - you can use online services that already provide such tools. Reports and closing documents in "OneTwoTrip for business» are generated automatically, and you can get them via EDI. The analytics will display debits on a corporate card, expenses on deposits and post-payment on hotel and travel bills, including group tickets. The service integrates with 1C: Accounting. This allows employees to choose the appropriate options on their own, and the accountant to pay for them in a way convenient for the company.
For comfort and safety on business trips, "OneTwoTrip for business» there is a support service that works 24/7. You can contact her by phone, in messengers or in the chat of your personal account. Specialists will help you quickly deal with the problem and find alternative accommodation options or tickets.
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