Top 10 travel management software for businesses: Features, tools & evaluation criteria

Managing corporate travel can be highly taxing, especially for small and mid-sized businesses. With so many moving parts, it’s a huge task to keep on top of booking the right travel at the right price, ensuring compliance with your travel and spend policies, reimbursing employees quickly, and maintaining accurate records for monitoring your overall spending. Mix in the chaotic nature of travel, and you’ve got an undertaking fraught with complexities. 

In today’s business environment, it’s critical for organizations to manage travel effectively. With manual methods, costly mistakes, out-of-policy spending, and fraud can occur. Lost receipts can mean missing out on tax deductions or trying to back up claims without a solid audit trail. And, without real-time oversight, your travel budget can balloon without your knowledge, leaving you with a big surprise at the end of the month. 

Travel management software is the answer. By automating the drudgery of corporate travel management, organizations of all sizes can easily book travel, manage expenses, and facilitate reimbursements, all while saving time and money. 

What is travel management software, and how does it work? 

Corporate travel management software is a collection of tools that enables businesses to streamline all aspects of corporate travel, from planning and booking flights and car rentals to managing and tracking expenses and reimbursements. Depending on the platform, travel management software can automatically apply company expense policies, simplify approvals, reduce errors, and provide insights into spending. Travel management software helps businesses manage their corporate travel activities and expenses effectively by including tools that simplify expense management, booking, and itinerary creation. Here’s what to look for: 

Expense management tools

Expense management tools automate many tasks relating to tracking, reporting, and reimbursing employee expenses related to business travel. They’re far more efficient and accurate than manual processes and can enforce company policies automatically. The key benefits of using expense management tools are: 

Automated expense tracking: Using mobile apps, employees can submit receipts and expenses from anywhere and in different currencies. The expenses are categorized and approved (or flagged) automatically. 

Reporting and analytics: With immediate access to spending data, businesses can monitor spending and gain insights to identify patterns and trends. 

Approval workflows: Businesses can set automatic approvals for minor expenses and create workflows to review and approve larger expenses to comply with corporate policies. This adds the benefit of reducing errors, duplicate expenses, and fraud. It also speeds up reimbursements. 

Booking tools

Online booking tools provide a user-friendly interface for arranging corporate travel. With these tools, employees can book their own travel itineraries on the platform. This includes booking flights, accommodations, car rentals, and any other business travel services they may require. Additional benefits include:

Ease of use: Online booking tools provide access to a large inventory of travel options in one place, reducing the burden of using multiple websites and making the booking process far less challenging. 

Data tracking: Businesses have real-time access to travel bookings and costs, which is essential for tracking travel spend.

Policy compliance: With corporate policy customization, non-compliant bookings or expenses are immediately flagged, helping you monitor and control travel costs. 

Itinerary tools 

Itinerary tools give employees the ability to manage their travel bookings. Itineraries are stored on the travel and expense (T&E) platform and ready to be viewed, reviewed, and modified by authorized users within the organization. The system notifies users about any itinerary changes, cancellations, or delays. Other benefits include: 

Policy compliance: Workflows include checking itineraries against company policy to ensure compliance. 

Expense tracking: With real-time tracking of expenses, managers can monitor spend versus approved travel budgets to reduce surprises and keep within spending limits.

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Which features matter most in T&E software (and why)?

In a recent Rippling survey, nearly 54% of business leaders reported that expense processing eats up too much of their time. The solution is modern travel and expense management software that simplifies and streamlines corporate travel. If you’re considering this type of platform for your business, these are the key features to look for:

Integration with payroll, HR, and accounting systems

Integration is key with T&E software. Connected systems eliminate manual data entry, improve accuracy, and automate compliance workflows. That means smoother reimbursements, stronger policy enforcement, and real-time reporting. Finance and HR stay audit-ready with complete visibility into travel spend, while employees get paid back faster and enjoy a more reliable travel experience.

Mobile accessibility and user experience

T&E software makes it easy for employees to book and modify trips, file expenses, and capture receipts with their phones. Built-in OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and AI can pull expense details straight from photos, so nothing gets lost. Approvals are completed more quickly, data remains accurate, and expenses are recorded in reports in real time.

Policy enforcement and compliance tracking

Automated compliance checks flag out-of-policy expenses before they become a headache. This helps prevent unauthorized spending and fraud, while giving your finance team confidence that every expense report aligns with company policy.

Real-time spend visibility and reporting

Relying on spreadsheets is like looking in a rearview mirror. You’re seeing old numbers instead of what’s happening right now. With real-time reporting, you get a current view of travel and expense spend, allowing you to spot issues early, double-check policy enforcement, and tweak budgets before costs spiral.

Scalability for growing teams

The best platforms scale as your business grows. They support more users, locations, and expense policies without getting bogged down. Software updates are handled automatically in the cloud, freeing you from painful manual upgrades. That means you can scale confidently while keeping travel and expense management simple, regardless of your team’s size.

Customer support and onboarding quality

Strong support and onboarding make a huge difference when rolling out new software. Clear product tours, training resources, and guided workflows enable teams to get up and running fast. Responsive 24/7 customer service, through live chat and other channels, helps keep any issues from slowing adoption and ensures a smooth deployment.

What’s the best travel management software for small businesses?

1. Rippling

Rippling gives businesses of all sizes a unified way to manage travel. The Rippling Spend Management suite combines travel, expense management, corporate cards, and bill pay in one powerful platform, with the option to consolidate even further by centralizing payroll, HR, and IT. 

Rippling Travel, a new addition to the suite, can be used as a standalone corporate travel solution or as part of the platform, delivering cost controls, competitive rates, company-wide visibility, and a streamlined booking experience. Rippling is well-suited for businesses of any size, from startups to large enterprises. 

Key features:

• Route expenses with custom approval chains

• Automate duplicate detection, GL syncing, and receipt matching

• Gain clear spend insights with analytics and reporting

• Build hyper-custom travel policies for flights, hotels, and car rentals

• Enforce travel policies in real time

• Set dynamic price caps that adjust with airline and hotel fluctuations

• Simplify rideshare management with Lyft integration

Pricing: 

Rippling bills most products on a simple per-employee, per-month basis.

2. Expensify

Expensify Travel is a corporate travel booking and management solution that offers tools for booking flights, accommodations, and car rentals all in one place. It provides access to a wide inventory of travel options. 

By integrating with Expensify’s expense management system, you can create expense reports that help speed reimbursement. Expensify provides basic controls over business travel booking, allowing organizations to set policies for spending limits, fare types, and accommodation costs. 

Expensify is a good choice for freelancers, entrepreneurs, and smaller teams that need straightforward expense tracking without heavy customization. 

Key features:

• Centralized online booking and travel services

• Spend limits on travel costs 

• Flexible payment options

• Rewards program

• 24/7 support

Pricing:

For smaller businesses, Expensify starts at $5 per user per month for basic expense tracking. Larger teams needing advanced features pay from about $9 per user per month. Individuals can use limited tools like receipt scanning and money transfers for free.

3. Ramp 

Ramp Travel is a leading business travel management software solution that incorporates booking, expense tracking, and travel policy compliance. Users can create custom travel policies to control spending, create approval workflows, and facilitate company-specific booking options. 

Ramp’s automated expense management feature eliminates the need for manual expense reporting by automatically collecting receipts, matching them to specific trips, and categorizing them. 

Ramp is best suited to small and mid-sized businesses. 

Key features:

• Automated policy compliance checks

• Real-time visibility into business travel expenses

• Streamlined expense reconciliation

• Customized approval workflows

Pricing:

Ramp offers a free tier for basic travel and expense management, a Plus plan at $15 per user monthly with advanced features, and an Enterprise option with custom pricing. A 30-day free trial is available.

4. Brex 

Brex’s corporate travel management platform integrates with its expense management and corporate card offerings. It offers booking capabilities on both its web platform and mobile app, but the underlying service is powered by Spotnana, a third-party tool. Features include comprehensive travel search capabilities, instant booking, and real-time tracking and categorization of expenses. Brex also offers automated receipt and approval workflows, customizable travel spending policy enforcement, and 24/7 support. Brex is a good option for startups and mid-sized businesses. 

Key features:

• Pre-negotiated travel discounts

• Global inventory of business travel options

• Self-service booking tools for hotels and other travel

• Unlimited itinerary changes

• Group event support

Pricing: 

Brex offers a free Essentials plan, a $12 per user per month Premium plan with advanced features, and custom enterprise pricing for high-growth businesses.

5. SAP Concur

From booking to expense reporting, SAP Concur simplifies corporate travel management with its T&E system. Employees can search for and book business travel easily. Customizable travel policies keep employee bookings compliant.

SAP Concur’s interface displays negotiated and published fares and rates, color-coding them to indicate compliance with corporate travel policy rules. With SAP Concur TripLink, users can track travel booked outside the SAP Concur ecosystem. 

SAP Concur is a good option for larger enterprises and multinationals.

Key features:

• Cost controls and visibility into travel spend

• Mobile app for on-the-go T&E management

• Policy compliance and fraud prevention

• Sustainable travel tools

• Access to a global network of travel suppliers and services

Pricing: 

Custom pricing is available by request.

6. Navan 

Navan’s T&E software is a unified solution that combines business travel booking, corporate card management, and expense tracking on one platform. Navan helps businesses save time and boost efficiency by streamlining the T&E process from booking to reconciliation. 

Navan uses AI-powered technology to leverage user preferences and previous bookings to create personalized search results, helping managers and employees quickly find the best options and itineraries. The platform offers discounts and the ability to compare prices from multiple suppliers easily. 

Navan is a good solution for businesses of all sizes. 

Key features:

• AI-powered search for corporate travel

• Loyalty programs with preferred providers

• Real-time compliance alerts

• 24/7 support for business travelers

Pricing: 

Navan offers a free plan (up to 300 employees) and customized plans for large enterprises. 

7. Spendesk 

Spendesk is a business travel management solution that enables organizations to book trips, monitor trip expenses, and automatically input receipts. Spendesk uses a system of virtual corporate cards for secure online travel booking. 

The platform provides real-time monitoring of T&E spending. Employees can use prepaid corporate cards with custom limits while traveling, avoiding the need to spend personal funds and wait for reimbursement. Spendesk’s mobile app speeds up expense claims and reimbursements. 

Spendesk is well-suited for small and mid-sized businesses looking to manage travel and expenses more effectively.

Key features:

• Integration with major travel booking platforms

• Virtual and physical corporate cards

• Custom travel spend policies and approval workflows

• Automated expense claims and receipt capture

• Real-time travel expense tracking

Pricing:

Spendesk uses a hybrid pricing model, combining a fixed monthly subscription with variable fees based on usage.

8. Rydoo

Rydoo is a global T&E platform that helps companies control spending, ensure company and local policy compliance, and offers AI-powered mobile receipt scanning. Rydoo offers travel booking, paperless expense management, and spending oversight. 

Rydoo is best suited for mid-sized and large companies with frequent travel and complex expense needs, especially those operating internationally.

Key features:

• Real-time travel expense submissions and approvals

• Automated policy compliance enforcement

• Centralized travel expense billing

• Mileage and per diem management

Pricing:

Rydoo prices on a per-user, per-month basis. Plans start at around $10 for the Essentials tier and $12 for the Pro tier, with custom pricing for Business and Enterprise tiers. 

9. Emburse Professional (formerly Certify) 

Emburse Professional (formerly Certify) is a travel and expense management software solution built for mid-sized businesses. The platform simplifies travel booking, expense submission, and approval while ensuring compliance by enforcing corporate travel policy. Emburse offers robust reporting and a mobile app for expense management on the road. 

Key features:

• Automated receipt capture and processing

• Customizable pre-trip approval workflows

• Automated travel policy compliance

• In-depth reporting and analytics

• 24/7 customer support

Pricing: 

Pricing plans are available upon request. A 14-day free trial is available. 

10. TravelPerk

TravelPerk is a comprehensive T&E management solution that simplifies booking, expense tracking, and reimbursement. It’s a good option for small and mid-sized businesses, including mid-market companies. 

TravelPerk offers a wide travel inventory and its FlexiPerk feature that refunds 80% on canceled trips. TravelPerk also automates policy compliance, streamlines expense capture, and delivers real-time reporting.

Key features:

• In-platform travel and expense policies

• Expense approvals and admin dashboards

• Savings from negotiated booking rates

• Easy cancellations with 80% refunds 

• 24/7 support for business travelers 

Pricing: 

TravelPerk uses tiered pricing from $0 to $299 per month, plus a 3–5% booking fee.

Spend less time and money on business travel

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How do I choose the right platform for my team size and travel profile?

Choosing the right corporate travel management software for your business can streamline your corporate travel and expense management, improve compliance, reduce errors, and save money. With so many options available, selecting the platform that best meets your business needs is essential. Let’s take a look at the most important areas to consider. 

Individual schedule management 

Individual schedule management lets employees act as their own travel agents to organize and manage their itineraries and bookings in real time. Employees and managers will find their trip details in one centralized location. The T&E platform automatically sends alerts and notifications of any changes or delays, and by integrating them with the traveler’s work calendar, scheduling conflicts are flagged immediately. With itinerary information synced to mobile devices, it’s easy to view and modify travel plans from anywhere. Individual schedule management boosts efficiency, improves organization, offers more flexibility, and ensures automatic compliance with your travel policies. 

Approval workflow

The best corporate travel management platforms include the ability to create approval workflows. These workflows are based on your current company policies and automatically flag events that require attention (like an employee going over budget). They give organizations more control over travel spending and ensure travel policy compliance while reducing errors and improving visibility into your travel expense management process. 

Mobile access

Mobile access enables employees to submit their expenses immediately and from anywhere easily. With automatic capture, they don’t have to worry about losing receipts or entering data incorrectly. The benefits of mobile access include timely reimbursement, corporate policy compliance, automated approvals, and the flagging of out-of-policy transactions, as well as improved efficiency. Employees will appreciate the reduction in paperwork and faster reimbursements. 

Expense tracking

Expense tracking is a critical feature of corporate travel management software. Look for a solution that offers automated expense input, expense tracking, policy compliance, and solid reporting and analytics. These elements work together to give your organization real-time monitoring of spending across different categories. You can break spending down by individual teams, departments, categories, and more. Expense reporting and analysis help you keep track of spending now, show you areas that need attention, and help you plan future budgets. 

Tax reporting 

Tax reporting is another must-have feature. Your software should track and document travel expenses for tax deduction purposes. Filing your taxes is a breeze when you have proper documentation. Keeping track of international spending is critical, too, as you may be able to claim back any VAT or sales taxes paid in other countries. An electronic record of travel expenses minimizes the risk of errors or omissions and provides an audit trail should the IRS ask.

Travel policy management

A corporate travel policy is great if it’s equally applied and followed. But that’s not always the case. Corporate travel management software can take your existing travel policy and automatically apply it across your entire organization. You can use predefined rules when booking so that employees automatically comply with your guidelines. By automating the process at the beginning of the travel booking process, there’s less need for manual oversight, policy violations are kept to a minimum, and it’s far easier to control costs. Updating your travel policy is a snap. Just make the changes, and they’ll automatically be applied across the organization. 

4 benefits of using travel management software for your business 

• Planning and booking travel: All-in-one corporate travel management platforms turn the drudgery of manual T&E management into a simplified process by consolidating business travel planning, booking, approvals, and reimbursements in one central location. Travel planning tools assist with creating itineraries, and booking tools help users compare corporate travel options, helping them find better value flight, accommodation and car rental choices that comply with company policy. Automated workflows streamline the approval process, saving time and reducing errors. 

• Ensuring travel policy compliance: Corporate travel management software ensures compliance by enforcing company guidelines during booking. Out-of-policy options are either hidden from view or marked unavailable. Automated approval workflows ensure that selected itineraries meet company policy and flag non-compliant itineraries and expenses. The software can assist in selecting complaint options and alert approvers to review requests. Automated expense tracking checks expenses against company policy and alerts managers to any issues. Mobile receipt capture enables employees to manage and submit expenses when traveling. 

• Automating reimbursements: Automated reimbursements are one of the most important features of good travel management software. Expenses are input into the T&E system, often via a mobile app that captures receipt information and then checks against company policy limits. Out-of-policy expenses are flagged for approval or removal. This ensures compliance with your organization's spending policies, simplifies the reimbursement process, and results in greater accuracy and less fraud. 

• Collecting crucial expense and travel data: One of the significant benefits of T&E management software is real-time travel data collection. With it, organizations can keep track of their travel spend and gain valuable insights into their travel budget, revealing expenditure trends that can help control future spending. 

Streamline travel and expense management with Rippling

Travel and expense management is already a challenge. But when you add reimbursements, spend policy enforcement, and travel bookings, it becomes a far more complex and time-consuming undertaking. Especially if you’re doing things manually or with siloed software and disconnected systems. Isn’t it time to upgrade your travel and expense management? Sit back, relax, and let Rippling take the stress out of T&E.

Rippling’s travel and expense management software has everything you need to manage business trips and keep your travel spend in check. Rippling is a comprehensive solution that offers travel booking, corporate cards, bill pay, and expense management all in the same platform. And that’s not all. With Rippling, you can also unify your HR, IT, and Finance workflows, giving you unprecedented control of company spend (and data). 

Rippling Travel is part of Rippling’s spend management software. It enables businesses of any size to simplify bookings, enforce travel policies in real time, and keep travel expenses under control—all within a single platform. 

Rippling gives you the power to: 

Set pricing limits

Set dynamic price caps that auto-adjust as flight and hotel prices fluctuate due to market conditions, like a big sporting event in town. This way, you always get the best value without anyone needing to guess what's in policy. 

Build granular spending controls

Use real-time transaction monitoring and proactive spend rules to stop unauthorized or out-of-policy purchases before they happen. With complete visibility into company-wide spend, you can reconcile expenses throughout the month and close the books faster.

Automate approvals

Set up automated workflows to help you control spend. Route out-of-policy requests to the right people for one-click approval based on amount, role, GL code, and more. Set alerts for specific triggers, like sudden increases in departmental expenses.

Create travel policies

Rippling’s advanced policy engine connects directly to your HRIS software, so you can build and auto-enforce almost any travel policy, based on any criteria you choose. 

Let Rippling help you take control of your company spend and create a more efficient, compliant, and cost-effective financial workflow.

FAQs on travel management software

This blog is based on information available to Rippling as of September 15, 2025.