ComBTAS - IT Business Travel Solutions

General Description of the TAS
This advanced system handles all the activities associated with the travel process, beginning with the employee request for travel, the rounds of approvals within the company, management of the trip, interfacing with systems of travel agents and various GDS to synchronize information, accounting and approval of the travel expense report.
The system has a user interface for the main components of the field of travel:

The employee – the passenger, the end user.
The approving manager – according to company hierarchy.
Manager of the travel file or the administrator responsible for the field of travel in the organization.
The finance department that compares and analyses the requested budget against the existing budget.
The accounting department, which handles expenses before and after the trip.
Delegates with special authorization to handle a group of employees.

In addition to being a necessary tool for the management and control of transparency, the system also constitutes a first degree financial tool for the management of travel budget, for defining work relationships with external suppliers (travel agents, airline companies, hotel chains) and for crossing reports and data into financial conclusions that concern the activities of the entire organization.

TAS Advantages
TAS is a management, control, saving and budget monitoring system for the travel process of business clients. The system features a built-in capacity to uniquely adapt to the needs of any organization.

Encourages the entire organization to improve performance and to save a minimum of 15% of travel expenditure.
TAS gives real time processed updates of the travel.
Reduces human error by automating processes.
Focuses on optimization of purchasing.
TAS gives actual online budget control.
TAS allows you to operate in Multi Language, Multi Currency & Multi Company.
Flexible Approval Rotation that saves management time.
All correspondence is recorded and filed in an individual travel file.
Access to prices and availability.
Monitors agents' performance.
Controls Refund.
Real time monitoring and controlling of financial targets with airlines.
Monitors staff locations on real time.
Produces an official redundancy report for the Tax Authorities.
Interfaces with the organizational ERP, Travel Agent System, and various GDS.
User friendly.
Secure internet platform.
Automatically generates Email & cellular text messages.

Rapid return on investment (ROI) for the company with significant savings in time and travel expenses

Travel Request
An employee orders the travel request through the TAS system in a user friendly and simple to operate manner.

The request includes several screens in which the passenger fills in the requested details with simple passage from screen to screen:

User profile - centralizes all personal data of the employee taken directly from the HR system and other special data that can be entered manually, such as: passport, visa, credit card, emergency details, etc.

Travel plan – requested flight dates, transfers, hotels, car rentals, trip budget, expenses allowance, selected vacation days, details of additional travelers joining the trip, etc. After filling in the details, the employee sends the document to the person responsible for travel in the organization, according to company procedures.

Rounds of approvals
ComBTAS has developed a sophisticated and flexible system for the rounds of travel approvals at all company hierarchies and ranks. The system includes a screen that details the company's array of approvals so that the employee is updated at all times during the rounds phase.

The TAS system identifies the absence of an approving factor and in such case, automatically transfers the request to the factor above, thereby saving employee and organization time.

The approving manager is able, at this stage, to see the estimated financial cost of the trip compared against the budgetary requirements of the company.

The Flow process

After approval (or non-approval) of the travel request by the manager in charge, the query returns to the employee and to the travel file manager.
The travel manager sends an RFP – Request for Proposal to the various tourism suppliers: agents, hotels, airline companies and car rental companies.
He receives the returning proposals (by XML file) and selects the optimal proposal or the optimal segments of each proposal.
The selected proposal is displayed on a separate screen – Final Proposal, and is sent for approval of the appropriate factors in the company.

Follow Up Approval - approval rounds
The follow up approval has several entities as defined by the organization:

Cash Advance and payment processes
Each approved trip is examined by the system against the company procedures, and must be covered in terms of budget. The budget itself is actually produced after receiving approval of the passenger and superior managers.
The finance department – payment section, is being informed by the system, to prepare the budget required for the trip, according to the approval of the travel request.
A reminder that the system automatically calculated the travel allowance per diem according to company procedures, follows up and calculates with the employee all matters pertaining to the Cash Advance and payment method: cash, account credit or company card and the date of payment.
At the end of the process the travel material is released to the employee.

Private expense report, as fed into the My Expense screen by the passenger includes: type of expense, amount in local currency, date, place and invoice number.
The amounts are converted into the managed currency according to the official rates.
Expense report for services purchased for the employee by all of the tourism suppliers.

The private expense report is being sent for approval by manager and the finance department.

The system allows the manager to approve each expense or part thereof at his discretion.

All of the approvals or rejections are processed by the system and saved in the travel file.

Unique modules
Interfaces to GDS & Low Cost Carriers:
TAS offers various interfaces to GDS and Low Cost carriers according to the company's definition. The system can display eight alternative flights to the same destination, arranged by cost from the lowest to the highest – in real time. This screen needs a predetermined authorization for viewing.
Calendar:
This tool provides the manager an overview of the location of each of the organization's employees in real time on a daily basis, including travel details.
Alerts:
TAS has various types of alerts. For example:

Validity alerts – agreements with suppliers, passport, visa and international driver's license validity, etc., that have expired or are about to expire.
Alert on deviation from procedures – an alert when the details of the travel request do not match the company procedures. For example an airline that contradicts the organization agreement with another, preferred airline.
Alert against duplicate travel – usually an alert on double dates.

Analyst Reports
The TAS system enables the user to produce an array of reports and even create ad hoc reports as required.
It provides management reports for various destinations (manager rank, purchasing and accounting) and reports at various resolutions, including graphic reports.
The reports module produced by the TAS system is divided into several superior-categories:

Standard reports – that include immediate summaries of the data by various sections.
Financial reports – that include detailed summaries of all types of expenses.
Analyst reports – that include data comparisons, data analysis and forecasts.