How to create a travel policy for my company and why have one.

Having a policy in your company makes the whole situation go smoothly, so why not develop a policy for your business trips?

The benefits of having a travel policy in a company.

A travel policy for a company helps to better manage the travel objectives and the expenses they have, which is considered a medium and long-term savings for a company’s finances. Basically it helps to keep a control on the expenses of the trips that are carried out in the organization and thus avoid cost overruns in them.

How to make a travel policy for my company.

To develop a corporate travel policy for my company, you must consider the current policy you use to manage the organization as a basis. From this document you must determine the following points that manage to find the balance between the optimization of available resources and the safety of the traveler – it should be remembered that depending on the country you are in, corporate or business trips are part of the work of a worker, so the labor laws on them also apply.

The resources you must have for corporate travel will depend on the economic activity carried out by your company.

Travel policy in 6 steps

Once the guidelines between optimization and security have been established, you can start establishing your travel policy with the following 6 steps:

1. Define the mainstreaming of the policy: Will this policy be the same for everyone or will there be a difference in positions and/or areas? For example, a transversal travel policy is used for those companies in which business travel is only carried out by a specific area or a specific charge, otherwise, you can establish limits for hotel categories or classes of seats on flights, for the different areas or charges that make trips.
2. Establish clearly and precisely the rules that will be contemplated in the travel policy: In this section, the scope of business expenses for corporate travel must be established, differentiating the personal expenses of travelers, which are basically those that are not contemplated within the activities of the company, and also stipulate the minimum security conditions for the business trip, such as contemplating travel insurance, guaranteeing flights with less fare restrictions, among other considerations.
3. Review of travel expenses after approval: This section should establish the process for requesting, approving and reviewing corporate travel, which documents will be necessary for the expenses that will be assumed as per diem or credit by the organization; what will be the form of payment, acquisition of services (cash, credit cards will be available), etc. It is recommended that the setting of amounts for travel expenses be made based on the objective and scope thereof, depending on the return on investment that we intend to obtain.
4. Advance purchase deadlines: It is important to establish a deadline for the purchase of flights, hotel reservations, transfers and all the necessary steps to carry out a trip. For this purpose, categories can be established depending on the types of travel (commercial activations, corporate events, etc.). It is also important to determine the exceptions that will not enter these deadlines, for example, based on a crisis plan that the company has and what is its flexibility in applying the travel policy.
5. Measurement and control of expenses: Here you must stipulate what the necessary documentation will be to support the trip once you have made it. For example, the writing of a travel report with attached expenses (vouchers, invoices and receipts) will make it easier to perceive if the objectives of the trip were achieved or not, what will be the expenses that the company will assume and what will the traveler have to cover. For travel reports you can make a template in a document, a spreadsheet of your choice. You can learn how to make a travel expense report here.
6. Adherence to commercial agreements with suppliers. Many times, and depending on the amount of money that your company invests in travel, you can generate commercial agreements with airlines or hotel chains that will help optimize the time and money invested. Depending on the benefits that your suppliers grant you, you can stipulate how travelers can be favored with them.

This way of approaching travel policy helps make it much more flexible and easy to update as the environment of your company changes according to its needs, business objectives and economic and social context.

Now comes the part where you should apply the travel policy to your organization. If you still do not know how to make an ideal policy for your company, you can request our advice, with experts in travel management and corporate events.