A company travel policy is followed in proportion to how easy it is to follow, and the policies that fail are the ones that ask the traveler to remember paragraphs. A company travel policy for employees that fits on a page, states its caps as numbers, names the lead time and says who approves at what threshold will be followed by a team that never reads it in full, because the caps are the only part they need. This page is how to write travel policy for companies of two to a hundred travelers so that it is short, specific and enforced by the request form rather than by the office manager's memory.
Lead with the numbers
The first thing on a company travel policy should be the caps: the fare cap, the nightly cap, the daily allowance and the estimated trip cost above which a named approver signs. Everything else is explanation. The free travel policy worksheet on this site works those into the two-night ceiling they imply and the headroom to the threshold, so the numbers are chosen together rather than argued about separately. Many companies borrow the federal standard rates the GSA publishes as the nightly cap and the allowance; the policy states whichever the company chose.
Make the request form do the enforcing
Company travel policies fail when the office manager is the enforcement. Route every trip through the travel request form instead: it costs the trip per traveler from the fare, the nights, the rate, the ground and the days at the allowance, and the total is read against the threshold. A request under the caps needs no discussion; one over them needs the exception clause. Perdiemo Pro keeps the approved request as the first entry on the trip, with the approver's name and the date.
Say where to book and how far ahead
A lead time is the cheapest clause in any travel policy for companies: fourteen days for a domestic trip is common, and a fare booked at least seven days out is also inside the Department of Transportation's 24-hour cancellation rule, which gives the office a day to check the booking against the approval. Name the sites or the platform the company books on, and the suppliers it prefers where it has a reason.
Keep the rest to a sentence each
Duty of care: the check-ins and contacts, with a pointer to the risk policy for elevated-risk destinations. Exceptions: who to ask and who decides. Expenses: a pointer to the claims process, which is a different document. Insurance: what cover the company holds. Review: a date. A company travel policy for employees that does those in a sentence each is complete, and it is one page.
Questions people ask about company travel policy
How long should a company travel policy be?
One page if the caps are numbers. The clauses that need more than a sentence are booking and approval; everything else points at another document.
What figures go in a company travel policy?
The fare cap, the nightly cap, the daily allowance, the lead time and the approval threshold. The travel policy worksheet works them into the ceiling and headroom they imply.
How is a company travel policy enforced?
By the request form: every trip is costed and read against the caps and the threshold before it is booked. The policy is the reference; the form is the enforcement.