How to prepare for a travel audit?

A travel audit is an essential step in managing business travel. It not only helps you control your costs but, more importantly, allows you to deeply analyze existing processes. Based on rigorous analysis and strategic recommendations, a travel audit offers a valuable opportunity for companies seeking to reduce expenses while optimizing the business traveler experience. In doing so, you can turn your Travel & Expense policy into a real performance driver.

At SD Global Consulting, we support you in this process by providing our expertise to carry out a comprehensive audit capable of uncovering concrete and sustainable optimization opportunities.

 

Why is a travel audit essential?

A travel audit is a thorough analysis of your company’s internal processes for managing business travel. It highlights inefficient practices, unoptimized bookings, expenses that don’t comply with your internal policies, or inconsistent use of suppliers.

By conducting an audit, you gain a clear view of your current operations. It’s also an opportunity to analyze the real practices of your employees in the field, assess the effectiveness of the tools being used, and identify sources of complexity or wasted time.

A well-executed audit can spot consumption trends and highlight overspending. It often uncovers hidden inefficiencies that, once addressed, lead to savings. It also improves policy compliance by strengthening tracking and alert mechanisms, and supports more reliable budget forecasting.

By relying on clear and structured data, you can also enhance your supplier negotiations. Finally, it allows you to continuously adjust your Travel & Expense strategy.

At SD Global Consulting, we view audits as performance levers. It’s not just a control tool—it’s a strategic starting point to lay the foundations for a travel policy that is more effective, more secure, and better aligned with your business goals.

 

What are the steps in a travel audit?

A successful travel audit relies on a structured approach built around your objectives.

The first step is to clearly define the results you want to achieve: cost reduction, improved compliance, streamlined processes, enhanced security… We build our analysis based on these goals.

Next, we collect all relevant data: booking history, expenses by category, supplier contracts, internal policies. At this stage, data quality and completeness are crucial.

We also help you select the right analysis tools and, if needed, develop customized reporting solutions tailored to your specific needs.

Once the data is integrated, we verify its accuracy. This quality control step is essential to ensure a meaningful analysis.

Finally, we work closely with your teams to interpret the results, highlight risks and dysfunctions, and identify areas for improvement. Every recommendation is made with your business challenges and overall strategy in mind.

 

What benefits for your company?

A well-conducted travel audit brings numerous benefits to your organization.

The first and most obvious advantage is cost reduction. By identifying inefficiencies, you improve the quality of services delivered to travelers, secure your processes, and gain agility and responsiveness.

You also strengthen compliance with your internal policies, which is crucial to maintaining control over expenses, mitigating risks, and meeting regulatory requirements.

At SD Global Consulting, we are committed to offering you a global, structured, and actionable vision.

If you have any questions about optimizing your business travel, feel free to contact our team of experts. We’ll be happy to help you improve your travel policy. You can reach us through our contact form on the website.

Follow us on LinkedIn as well to stay up to date with our latest Travel & Expense insights and news.

If you found this article helpful, check out other essential topics for your business on our blog, such as:

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