Business travel analytics, for a company that has no travel manager and no platform, is what the trip record can tell you once it has a year of trips in it: the cost per trip and per day by destination, the estimate against what was actually booked, how many requests were approved after booking, how far ahead trips are booked, and who travels most. None of that needs a dashboard product; it needs the record kept per trip, which is what Perdiemo Pro does, and a short business travel report template that closes each trip with the figures the analytics are made of. This page is what to measure and how the trip report feeds it.
The five figures worth measuring
Cost per trip and per day by destination, from the estimate and the bookings; estimate against actual per trip, which shows whether the estimator's defaults are right; approval date against booking date, which shows how often the rule is broken; lead time from request to departure, which is the cheapest saving in the policy; and trips per traveler, which shows who the register should watch. Business travel analytics beyond those five are for a company with a travel manager to read them.
The trip report that closes each trip
A business travel report template at small-company scale is not the expense claim; it is the traveler's close of the trip: the meetings held and their outcome in a line each, the bookings as made against the plan, what changed and what it cost, and anything the next traveler to that destination should know. One page, filed against the trip in Pro. The figures in it (actual fare, actual nights, changes) are what the analytics compare with the estimate.
Reading estimate against actual
The estimator on this site costs a trip from the fare, the nights, the rate, the ground, the allowance and the incidentals. After the trip the record holds what was booked. Where actual runs consistently over estimate, the incidentals line is usually the gap; where lodging runs over, the nightly cap is being waived; where the fare runs over, the lead time is not being kept. Each of those is one clause of the policy to re-read, and that is the whole point of the analytics.
Lead time and approval order are the cheapest findings
Two figures the record gives that a card statement never does: how many days before departure the request was raised, and whether the approval came before the booking. Fares booked inside a week cost more, and a trip approved after booking is the trip that overspends. Perdiemo Pro shows both per trip and the register shows them per traveler; no analytics product is needed to read them.
Questions people ask about business travel analytics
What business travel analytics does a small company need?
Cost per trip and per day by destination, estimate against actual, approval before or after booking, lead time, and trips per traveler. All come from the trip record.
Is there a business travel report template?
The close of the trip: meetings and outcomes, bookings as made against the plan, changes and their cost, notes for the next traveler. One page filed against the trip; not the expense claim.
Do we need an analytics product?
No. Keep the record per trip and the five figures fall out of it. Perdiemo Pro shows them per trip and per traveler and exports the whole register.