With the help of travel management software, you can book trips, plan trips for the future, keep track of past trips, and report on them. Some important applications and features are the automation of company policies and the consolidation of vendors/invoices for business trips. This article talks about the best free travel management software that can help you on all your business trips.
Overview
With the help of travel management software, business trips can be planned and taken care of online. The software also keeps track of all business trips and makes reports about them. With the help of these programs, businesses can keep track of their workers’ trips, get reports on all of their spending, and punish those who don’t follow company travel rules.
This tool helps businesses keep track of how much they spend on travel by putting all of the expense reports from employees in one place. However, as an alternative to hiring individual travel agents or manually entering receipts into expense management software, free travel management systems give users a tool for booking travel and instantly reporting their travel purchases.
Travel management software can help businesses of all sizes, and that’s true. Without free travel management software, workers would usually book their own work trips through a website or travel agency and then submit an expense report to get paid back.
Employees of any size company can plan their own trips with the new method, which uses a system that is already set up with the company’s travel policy and approved steps. So that employees don’t have to wait for reimbursement, the program also has information about how the company pays, which makes it easy to keep track of spending for reporting reasons.
Business Travel Management Software
“Business Travel Management” is the process by which a company handles the logistics, costs, and duty of care requirements of its employees’ work trips. Recent studies have shown that business trips are one of a company’s costs that can change the most. Because of this, it is a very important strategic factor for any company that wants to grow. The following are some parts of software for the best free business travel management:
#1. Managing and Negotiating With Travel Service Providers
This process keeps going on so that workers can always get the best plans and prices. Managers of business trips can find trends in how their employees travel and meet their changing needs by collecting and analyzing data about the trips their employees take. However, teams can use websites that compare prices to make sure they are getting a good deal. They can also ask guests and customers for feedback to make sure that the places they are staying and the ways they are getting around are safe and reliable.
#2. Taking Care of the Safety of Tourists
Companies should take care of their workers while they are on business trips. In case of an emergency, it’s important to know where and when people are. For example, if there was a fire or an outbreak of a disease at the employee’s location, the company would have to tell the worker and tell them how to get home safely.
#3. Putting Rules Into Place
To approve employee travel and expense claims, you have to make sure that the forms filed are correct, that all required attachments are included, and that staff use legitimate service providers. This means that the people in charge of planning travel must get accurate and complete reports in a timely manner so that they can act quickly on any spending that goes against the rules. Modern digital travel management systems provide data that can be used to predict spending and track return on investment. Also, this lets top companies have flexible travel policies.
#4. Creating and Enforcing Rules and Plans for Business Travel
The organization’s travel management team will look at the company and its employees to figure out what kinds of travel are most likely to be needed to reach business goals. They will list rules like spending limits, preferred vendors, and suggested travel classes or ways to get around.
Best Travel Management Software
With the help of a travel management system, it’s easier to book, track, and analyze work trips. When most people hear the term “travel management system,” they think of a piece of software. However, the term can also mean the bigger process of planning work trips. The following are the best free travel management software apps for booking trips:
#1. Rezdy
Rezdy is a cloud-based reservation system and distribution platform made for the travel and tourism industries. You can easily add it to your own website by linking to it or copying and pasting some HTML code into your content management system.
#2. SureMileage
Companies can save time and money by using SureMileage, a safe tool for tracking mileage that automatically figures out costs and makes reimbursements easier. It works with industry-standard accounting and payment systems so that you can get paid reliably and in real-time.
#3. TravelWorks
TravelWorks is a web-based ERP system that makes it easier for travel businesses of all kinds to book trips and send out bills. Important parts include billing, customer relationship management, marketing analytics, insurance proposals, audience segmentation, and assigning roles.
#4. Happay
Happay is the first business travel platform of its kind that lets employees and managers book flights, hotels, taxis, and more on their own time and in full view. Information and analysis about flight times, flight cancellations, and other travel issues.
#5. TravelPerk
TravelPerk is the best way to take care of business trips. Plan your trips for work well, both at home and abroad.
Free Travel Management Software
Companies of all sizes can save time and money by using software that is made just for handling business travel. The following are the best free travel management software apps for booking trips:
#1. Point Progress
With Point Progress, you can streamline and automate everything from expense reports to license verification to document and timesheet tracking. MyExpenses makes it easy to keep track of spending limits, records, and reimbursements.
#2. Ahoy
Offers easy ways to book, change, or cancel trips right away, making life easier for helpers and people with busy schedules. Providing users with data that is current and useful. Support for Amadeus’s new flight times and ticket prices is built in. You can chat in the app at any time.
#3. Travelator
All of your business spending, travel, and cards can be handled on a single platform for a flat monthly fee. Getting better at managing business trips and expenses can help your company grow in a sustainable way. They are the only company that offers a full service for planning and paying for travel and expenses.
#4. YouLi
Find out how to add-ons to your invoices with just a click before or after a booking using their platform, which doesn’t require any coding.
#5. Via TRM
Via is the most cutting-edge service that university international offices can use to keep track of students and faculty who are traveling abroad. Their goal is to give their customers easy-to-use but powerful software that will make their lives better by making everyday tasks easier and giving them a broader view of the world. Via’s goal is to build relationships with its customers that last.
What Are the Things That All Travel Management Software Has in Common?
The best software for managing travel will handle everything, from planning a trip to getting paid back. The following are a few reasons why it’s good to use a travel management system:
#1. Reserving With an Interactive Interface
Through an easy-to-use interface, workers have access to competitive inventory and prices. One can book a trip for themselves or a coworker by using information that has already been saved, such as a credit card number, membership in a rewards program, and preferred airlines and hotels.
#2. Filters Based on the Rules of the Company
With this feature, businesses can limit their booking options to only those that fit within their budget. This makes it easier to stick to a budget and follow the rules.
#3. Plan Out Your Schedule and Events
Team members must be able to share and sync their schedules in order to make travel arrangements easier. Managers can now keep track of where their employees are and schedule phone calls and meetings around their travel plans.
#4. Receipt, Validation, and Monitoring of Outlays
The digital receipt import and submission features of many TMCs make it easy and quick for employees who travel a lot to get reimbursed for their expenses. With this feature, they can check the status of their claims and get an idea of when they can expect to get their money.
#5. Reporting
Employees can not only write and send in expense reports with this software, but they can also look at and analyze reports and expenses from the past. With the reports section, managers can keep track of how much their staff spends on business trips and make plans for the future.
What are the Benefits of Travel Management Software?
By putting all of the booking tasks in one place, travel management software may save its users time and effort. The following are the benefits of using travel management software:
#1. Allows for a Full-Featured Interface for Scheduling Interactions
Workers can look up available trips, compare prices, and book accommodations for themselves or for a coworker through a central interface. The ability to store payment and loyalty program information is a useful part of this user interface.
#2. Facilitates the Automation of Compliance With Company Travel Requirements
By making it easier to meet spending and budget goals, being able to integrate corporate travel policy into travel management software makes travel costs go down. With the help of these rules, travel managers can make sure that their teams are making the most of their budgets and following company policy. These rules explain the types of charges employees can claim and stop reimbursement for claims that don’t follow the rules. Because the company’s policies are enforced automatically, no fraudulent expenses will be sent in or accepted by accident.
#3. Tools for Keeping Costs Down
Managers and accountants might find expenditure management software useful because it helps them keep track of trip costs and organize them better. In addition to processing and reimbursing approved travel expenses, these solutions also analyze huge numbers of expense transactions to learn about spending trends and budgeting needs.
#4. Increases the Capacity for Reporting
Travel management software has features that help managers make better, more informed decisions. These programs make it easier to track out questionable expenditures or reservations, and some of them can even suggest tweaks to current procedures that would yield better long-term results. Keeping tabs on travelers and finding cost-cutting opportunities are two additional benefits of reporting when managing travel programs.
Difficulties in Using Travel Management Software
Problems with travel management software are not uncommon. Some of the difficulties of using travel management software are as follows.
#1. Integration
Transferring information between systems is impossible without integration with expense management and accounting. The accounting department must be able to consolidate and allocate travel costs to different cost centers based on the information provided by the booking system and the actual costs incurred. Money could be lost by the organization or by the employee if the data isn’t correct and consistent across all systems.
#2. Privacy
Employees’ personal information is at risk since they use their own credit cards to pay for travel services and supply banking information to be reimbursed. Furthermore, employees are allowed to use their credit cards for both business and personal expenses while traveling. Last but not least, some cost reports could include sensitive personal data like names and addresses. Only authorized workers and supervisors should have access to sensitive company information. The need for security from outside forces is also essential.
#3. Spread of “Bring Your Own Software”
The BYOS trend encourages workers to utilize programs not sanctioned by their employer. Employers typically supply employees with travel management software, but workers are free to use whatever tools and apps they like for making reservations, keeping track of expenses, and accruing loyalty points.
The Variety of Travel Management Software
The following are some examples of travel control systems:
#1. Enterprises
Enterprise travel management software may be bundled with a wider set of business applications or sold as a stand-alone product with the capability of syncing with other applications in the same category. In some ways, business software is like an updated online travel agency.
#2. Smbs, or Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
The booking process in particular is where small and medium-sized business travel management software shines in comparison to its larger enterprise counterparts. Small and medium-sized business (SMB) travel platforms, like large enterprise ones, typically interface with other business tools like expenditure management and mileage tracking programs.
Who Typically Uses Travel Management Software?
Any employee of any size business can use travel management software. It is most frequently used by the following categories of workers:
#1. Professionals in Sales and Consulting
Any salesman who needs to travel to meet with current or future clients is likely to use travel management software to plan and book their trip.
#2. Comptroller Groups
The accounting department takes advantage of the software’s reporting and forecasting features while planning work trips. This enables the monitoring of travel expenditures, the formulation of important policy choices for travel budgets, and the establishment of future spending limitations or restrictions.
#3. Managers
Managers can use this program to find out how much money is being spent on travel and then either say yes or no to each employee’s request for time off and money back. By looking at reports and other data, businesses can find trends that help them save money and talk to their preferred vendors more clearly about corporate prices. They can also use this program to view employee travel plans and track their locations.
What Are the Pillars of Travel Management?
The following are;
- Trust.
- Transparency.
- Simplicity.
- Impact.
- Duty of care.
- Sustainability.
Is Concur a Travel Management Company?
Yes, that’s the truth. Concur Travel & Expense is the standard in the business world for managing business travel and costs. IDC says that it has 51.5% of the market. As a piece of software for managing travel, Concur Travel works with most TMCs and GDSs.
What Are the Benefits of Using a Travel Management Company?
The following are;
- Less expensive lodging and air travel.
- Expert opinion and knowledge.
- Anytime, day or night, you can reach out for help.
- Help with vacation insurance plans.
- Comprehensive data analysis.
- Warnings and advisories for travelers.
- The application of cutting-edge technology.
- Having more calm is a result.
What Are the 5 Basic Functions of a Travel Management Agency?
The following are;
- Destination Research.
- Negotiation.
- Making a Reservation.
- Transportation.
- Conference Organization.
- Keep track of your travel costs.
What Is the Difference Between a Travel Agency and a Travel Management Company?
In contrast to the occasional leisure travel needs handled by a traditional travel agent, the ongoing services provided by a travel management company are designed to save money, maintain policy consistency, and free up the client’s time.
How Do Travel Management Companies Make Money?
Corporate travel companies make most of their money from service fees, net or private fares, and airline commissions. Corporate travel companies, or TMCs, depend a lot on airline tickets to stay in business.
How Does a Travel Management Company Work?
When it comes to work trips, any size company can benefit from the services of a travel management company (TMC). A TMC can help you save time, avoid stress, manage travel hazards, cut costs, better assist your travelers, and make consolidated reports.
How Do I Choose a Travel Management Company?
Make sure the company hires expert guides who live in the area. The best guide speaks the language well, has traveled a lot, knows what to do in an emergency, and knows how to do CPR. Call the customer support number and ask about the guides if you have any questions.
Determine the company’s experience working with big businesses. Inquire about the company’s experience in the field of travel management. And don’t forget to ask about references; a reputable TMC will have satisfied customers who are happy to recommend them to you.
Conclusion
The goal of travel management software is to make it easier to plan trips, buy tickets, and keep track of expenses. Businesses and other groups use this program to make the buying process easier, keep track of all business travel expenses in one place, and handle travel budgets. With the help of a professional travel manager who has connections and experience in the industry, you can usually find or negotiate the best travel prices.
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