Corporate travel management software is the app in which employees book work trips within the company's travel rules, at rates the company has agreed, and then file the trip's expenses. It is also called a corporate booking tool, or travel and expense software. Navan and ITILITE are examples, and Cleartrip sells one for Indian companies.
A booking tool looks like a normal travel site, with three differences. First, it shows the company's own rules beside every option. These rules are set in travel policy management. Second, it shows the company's negotiated rates. These are special prices that the company, or its travel management company, has agreed with certain airlines and hotels. Third, the company pays, not the employee. The fare is charged to a central company account or to a corporate card. So the employee does not have to pay first and claim the money back later.
The tool gets its fares from the same sources as a travel site: a global distribution system (GDS) and the airlines' direct connections.
Consider a sales executive in Gurugram who must visit a distributor in Hyderabad on Thursday. She opens the app on Monday. It shows morning flights from Delhi, each marked as within the policy or outside it. She books a ₹6,800 flight that is within the policy. For the hotel, the app shows the company's negotiated rate at a business hotel near the distributor's office: ₹5,500 a night, with breakfast. Because both bookings are within the policy, no manager needs to approve them. The airline and the hotel issue GST invoices in the company's name, with its GST number. So the company can claim back the GST it paid, as input tax credit. On Thursday evening, she photographs the receipts for two taxi rides. The app reads the amounts and adds them to a claim. The claim goes to expense management for her manager's approval.
Without such a tool, employees book on any site and send scattered receipts to the finance team. The company cannot see its travel spending until weeks later. It also misses its negotiated rates and much of its GST credit.
The tool also gives reports to the travel manager, the person in charge of the company's travel. The reports show how much each team spent, which routes are most common and how far ahead people book. With them, the company can negotiate better rates the next year. Some companies connect the tool to their procure-to-pay software, so that travel is counted with all their other purchases.