What Your Company Travel Policy for Employees Should Include

The COVID-19 pandemic may have slowed travel down for a while, but the world is definitely on the move again—and business travel is no exception! Last year, the Global Business Travel Authority predicted that global business spending in 2024 would beat the 2019 high of $1.43 trillion, with business spending to exceed $2.0 trillion. And with business travel back on the rise, that means that, for companies with frequent travelers or mobile workers, your company travel policy for employees is more important than ever. 

A travel policy might not seem essential at first glance, but it plays a critical role in managing employee travel. Without clear guidelines for travel expenses and reimbursement, organizations open themselves up to confusion, delayed or incorrect payments, and even potential compliance issues or fraud. After all, without established rules, it’s nearly impossible to enforce them—or to hold employees accountable when they’re broken.

Don’t worry—creating a solid travel policy isn’t as daunting as it sounds. We’ll walk through the key benefits of having clear yet adaptable guidelines, what to keep in mind during the drafting process, and how to build a policy that truly works for your business.

What a Company Travel Policy Does for Employers

Having a well-constructed company travel policy for employees in place makes travel easier and better for your employees, and it also comes with a number of benefits for employers as well! A detailed travel policy helps companies with travel expense management by:

• Keeping travel and expense reporting organized, making it easier for companies to meet regulatory standards and prove audit trails.
• Streamlining processes for submitting expense reports and receiving reimbursement payments, safeguarding organized and up-to-date accounting and financial records.
• Laying out clear rules for expense reporting and employee travel, cutting down on noncompliant expense reports and saving the company money in the process.
• Reducing fraudulent activity through the establishment of detailed guidelines for expense reporting.
• Providing clearly outlined procedures that help promote employee safety.

Before You Write Your Travel Policy….

Before you get cracking on your organization’s company travel policy for employees, consider the following factors, which will help inform the creation of a policy tailor-made to the specific needs of your business and its workers. 

Set Clear Goals Based On Your Organization’s Travel Patterns

Decide exactly what you want from your company travel policy for employees based on the existing culture of the organization and its travel practices. If your company does business across the country, your policy might focus more on procedures around air travel. If your organization operates in the healthcare field, or is a non-profit covering a particular region, the travel policy you write may focus on car travel, instead. Taking a close look at current travel patterns and habits will help you set goals for what sections you’ll need to include in your policy, or what areas may require the most attention.

See What Other Companies Are Doing

Stealing isn’t always a bad thing. Take a look at other organizations that operate in similar fields or that have mobile employees on a similar scale to your business. The travel policies they use may provide some inspiration about what to include in your own company travel policy for employees—or even what not to include. 

Involve Multiple Departments

Creating a travel policy should be as much of a team effort as possible. The finished policy will apply to people and departments across your organization, so it’s a good idea to involve employees from those departments and any other relevant stakeholders in the brainstorming and drafting policy. Collecting input across multiple departments and perspectives will help guarantee a more thorough, well-rounded final document. 

What Should Be Included in a Company Travel Policy for Employees

To ensure your company’s travel policy is as detailed as possible, consider covering the following topics: 

Vehicle Use

If your agency employs mobile workers, clearly state guidelines concerning use of vehicles. For instance, do you supply your employees with company vehicles, or are they required to use their personal vehicles for work related travel? If you do have company vehicles, do you prohibit your employees from using their personal vehicles for work use? In either case, you must determine how mileage and expenses will be tracked and reported. Without a clear policy on the subject, it will be difficult for you and your employees to judge how vehicles for work can be used in specific situations and will expose your company to fraudulent or careless activity.

Authorized and Unauthorized Expenses

Depending on the goals of your company travel policy for employees, detailing authorized and unauthorized expenses may end up spanning several sections. How you choose to organize it is not as important as what you include, though.

Be clear about what travel and other expenses will be authorized and, therefore, reimbursed. Even if you think something goes without saying, your company travel policy is the place to state the obvious. List every travel and entertainment (T&E) item that your company will reimburse employees for as well as the items for which it won’t provide reimbursement. Authorized items may include fuel, food, or roadside assistance, while unauthorized items may include parking tickets, a car wash, or your morning coffee.

When outlining which T&E items are authorized or unauthorized, some things may need to come with restrictions or guidelines – for example, a per diem for meals. Make sure these guidelines are stated along with the items.

Method of Payment

Another issue that should be discussed along with authorized and unauthorized items is authorized and unauthorized payment methods. Do you provide a company credit card for expenses incurred during travel, or should employees use their personal funds and expect reimbursement later? These rules must be articulated, along with what documentation you require to prove expenses, such as credit card statements or itemized receipts.

There may also be special situations or emergencies that require employees to follow a different set of rules or get pre-approval before making a purchase. Perhaps an employee must book a hotel with their personal funds at a price above the per diem limit; will they be reimbursed? There may also be an issue with the company’s credit card, forcing employees to buy gas or meals out of their own pocket. In instances such as these, outline clearly in your company travel policy for employees how payment should be handled

Reimbursement Procedures

Provide employees with a step-by-step guide for the process of submitting expense reports for reimbursement. For employees, this process makes up a significant part of their workday and having a confusing system in place can greatly affect employees’ overall satisfaction and engagement with your company. It’s to your benefit to streamline this process.

Detail which documentation is required to submit an expense report, such as receipts or credit card statements, the timeframe in which employees are eligible to request a reimbursement for an expense, and what the consequences will be for noncompliance with reimbursement procedures. If travel needs to be pre-approved for employees to be eligible for reimbursement, be sure to explain how that approval process operates. If your company has an internal, multi-step expense reporting process, ensure that your company policy gives employees transparency on how this system looks, as well.

Expense Fraud

Expense fraud may not seem like a top concern for your company. After all, it’s usually only a few dollars at a time—pocket change, really. But small numbers add up fast, not to mention that letting fraudulent behavior persist among your employees is a dangerous precedent to set. Using your company travel policy to state what expense fraud is and how your company plans to handle it will save you money in the future and set a standard for employees to follow.

Define what actions are considered fraudulent; mischaracterizing reimbursements, submitting false or altered reimbursements, and submitting multiple reimbursements for the same expense are all considered fraudulent practices. For your employees’ benefit, list which activities you define as being fraudulent or prohibited and what the consequences will be for violations.

Employee Safety

With your employees on the move, it’s necessary to implement some safety procedures for their sake, as well as the company’s. In the event of an accident, you don’t want to be held liable for failing to adequately ensure your workers’ safety and well-being.

For trips, you can request that employees submit a trip itinerary so that you know where they plan to be on the way to their destination. You may also institute regular “check-ins” to ensure they’ve reached their destinations. In the company travel policy, include information and resources they may need, such as an emergency or on-call contact number and emergency protocols. Some companies even use employee tracking tools for travel. If your company chooses to use one of these tools, be sure to let your employees know in the policy.

Are You Using Travel Expense Software?

If your company hasn’t already adopted a travel expense management software, you’re missing out on the many benefits it brings businesses and their employees. SureMileage by CompanyMileage streamlines and simplifies reimbursement by managing all of your T&E needs, automating processes, and taking the onus of tracking mileage off your employees. 

By using point-to-point calculation to automatically determine the best route between work-related travel points for reimbursement, SureMileage takes the guesswork out of mileage calculation and eliminates instances of fraud. Using CompanyMileage’s mobile app, SureMobile, employees can view, edit, submit, delete and resubmit trips and expenses easily and on-the-go, resulting in a much more streamlined expense reporting process for everyone. 

Once submitted, those reports move through an automated approval workflow, which is easily customizable to meet the unique needs and structure of your business. After reports are approved, our software integrates with all major accounting and approval software, ensuring a fast and accurate reimbursement process, every step of the way. 

If you’re looking at your company travel policy for employees and wondering how to improve on business processes currently in place, a travel expense software is an excellent solution. Contact CompanyMileage today to request a demo and find out more about how we can help you improve employee safety, reduce expense fraud, revamp reimbursement, and even save you money in the process.