Business trip checklist
- Items on the checklist
- 25
- Confirmations to file before departure
- 7
- Meeting preparation items (agenda, materials, address, contact)
- 16
- Items that fall on the day before departure
- 8
Every figure here comes from the figures you enter and the method stated beside it: your fares, your nights, your hotel rate, your ground transport, your company's own allowance and caps. Where a worksheet borrows a public figure as a default, the federal standard lodging and meals rates for instance, the page names the source and the date it was read.
The figures above are one trip worked as an example (25). Put your own fares, nights and caps in and the answer follows as you type.
Download the Business trip checklist worked example (CSV)
The business trip checklist is generated from the trip rather than copied from a generic list: the days, the meetings or sessions booked, the flight legs, the hotel stays, the ground transfers, the documents to carry and how many days before departure the checklist starts. It returns the items on the list, the confirmations to file before departure, the meeting preparation items, what falls on the day before, what waits until the traveler is home, and the items per lead day, so the office hands the traveler a checklist that matches this trip and closes it when the last item is done.
Why the checklist is built from the bookings
A generic business trip checklist tells the traveler to 'confirm your flights'. This one knows there are two legs, one hotel and four transfers, so it lists seven confirmations to file and shows the office which are missing. The eight fixed items (approval on file, policy read, allowance noted, emergency contacts current, and the four on the day) are the same for every trip; everything else is counted from the trip.
Meeting preparation is most of the list
Each meeting adds four items: the agenda, the materials, the address and the contact who is expected. On the worked example four meetings are sixteen items, more than the travel itself. That is by design: the trip exists for the meetings, and the checklist that forgets the client's phone number has failed at the one thing that mattered.
The day before, and the day after
The day-before items are the ones a traveler cannot recover from at the airport: the documents, the hotel confirmation, the chargers, the printed itinerary. The after-return items close the trip: receipts filed, the register updated, follow-ups sent to each meeting. Perdiemo Pro keeps the checklist against the trip and marks the trip home when the last item is ticked.
What the office manager asks before using the Business trip checklist
Which figures do I need before using the business trip checklist? The days, the meetings booked, the flight legs, the hotel stays, the ground transfers, the documents to carry and how many days out you want the checklist to start. All of them are already on the trip plan.
What should be on a business trip checklist? The approval and the policy, every confirmation, the preparation for every meeting, the documents, the chargers and the printed plan for the day before, and the receipts, register and follow-ups after return. The worksheet counts those from your trip.
Is this the packing list? No. Packing is the traveler's own list and has its own worksheet on this site. This checklist is the office's: what has to be booked, confirmed, prepared and filed for the trip to work.
Where the method in this worksheet comes from
US Department of Transportation, Fly Rights: the 24-hour reservation rule, refunds and what an airline owes a passenger. Why confirmations are filed before departure and the airline's rules are read: Fly Rights sets out what a passenger is owed on a delay, a cancellation or a bump, and the traveler with the reference to hand is the one who gets it.
TSA, Liquids rule: the 3-1-1 limit for carry-on bags. Why the day-before items include the carry-on check: the liquids rule and screening are the commonest reason a traveler is late through security.