Why ‘Cheap’ Could Be Expensive In Business Travel
The boss always had his secretary sort out his business travel. She’d find him a suitable flight and make the necessary arrangements – but she wasn’t allowed to book it until he’d looked over the plan first.
That was his first mistake. Aside from the wasteful micromanagement that was going on, he was wasting valuable time.
On this occasion he rejected the plan, saying he’d found a cheaper flight with another carrier from another airport.
That was his second mistake. She came right back at him with a sheet of paper with a list of figures. She’d proved that although his flight was cheaper, and involved similar flight times, the total cost was actually greater. She’d factored in the cost of travelling to a more distant airport, parking when he got there, and the time he’d spend driving to get there, and being paid, but making no contribution to the business. He rejected what she had to say.
That was his third mistake. By over-ruling his employee, he had committed his business to a greater spend than was necessary. (You might also say it was his fourth mistake too, because bosses in big organizations need their secretaries to be a trusted allies, so it’s best not to undermine them).
A better choice, every time
What he should have done was to acknowledge the ‘total cost’ approach to every trip and backed the secretary in using travel and expense management software, like Solo Expenses, to track and record every element involved.
Only in that way would he really know what the trip was costing, and it would be a perfect illustration of how the ‘cheaper’ flight was actually much more expensive.
And there’s the key. Careful recording of actual spending with the power of an app designed as travel and expense management software, rather than pen and paper or a spreadsheet, allows you to do much more with the data.
It can be collated, interrogated, and used to show patterns of spending – and since knowledge is power, those patterns will highlight opportunities to find efficiencies.
But that’s only part of the story. Solo Expenses offers more opportunities to save not only money, but also time. For example, credit cards can be integrated with the software, doing away for ever the need to copy receipts and arrange for payments to be made to a claimant’s own card – because the spending was never there in the first place.
GPS can be integrated too, which is perfect for making sure that mileage claims are accurate.
And when the trip is over, it’s the work of mere moments to download a report of the trip and send it off to the finance department or the company accountant.
See the pattern? Travel expense management software is about far more than managing expenses; the back story is about building a leaner, fitter, business, better able to compete in a cut-throat world.
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