The hidden corporate travel tax: How companies lose thousands on fragmented payments

External pressures, such as inflation and political unrest, are driving up costs through fuel surcharges and last-minute rebookings. At the same time, another cost is rarely on the radar: the administrative burden of managing fragmented travel payments.

Finance leaders are under increasing pressure to reduce the hidden costs of operational complexity. The problem is that fragmented payment systems cost businesses far more than they realise, as the impact shows up operationally before showing up in the balance sheet.

Travel and expense management has become a top business priority

The issue has become a top priority as ‘Travel and Expense Management’ ranks as the number one concern for 76 per cent of corporate travel buyers, with Australia and New Zealand leading globally at 78 per cent. Nearly half say automated expense tracking and reporting has the most potential to transform their travel program in the next five years.

“There has been a fundamental shift in what finance leaders are asking for,” said Tom Walley, Global Managing Director, Corporate Traveller, the SME specialist of Flight Centre Travel Group.

“It's not just about getting the best airfare anymore. They want control over spending, visibility into where money is going, and systems that don't create more work for their teams.”

The challenge is particularly acute for small-to-medium-sized businesses, where finance teams are often lean, and travel spending can leak across personal credit cards, corporate cards, and direct billing arrangements. Each payment method creates its own reconciliation workflow, and every business trip generates another round of receipt chasing and manual data entry.

CT Pay: A corporate travel payments and expense solution for how businesses actually work

To help businesses streamline their finance processes, Corporate Traveller has now introduced CT Pay, a payments and expense solution that tackles this problem at the source. 

Instead of scattering transactions across multiple payment methods, CT Pay consolidates business travel spending into a single, dedicated credit account.

Key features of CT Pay

• Consolidated travel spend captured at the booking moment
• Itemised monthly statements with traveller details, cost centres, and booking data
• Direct integration ready for upload into accounting systems
• Eliminates employee reimbursement cycles and out-of-pocket expenses for travellers
• Simplifies reconciliation and reduces manual administration for finance teams
• Flexible payment terms to improve cash flow management

“We've been running this model successfully for years with a 90 per cent adoption rate in Australia, but now we're productising it because the market is ready for a dedicated travel payment and expense solution that finance teams actually control,” Walley said.

“CT Pay solves a problem our customers have been telling us about for years. The last thing they need is to waste hours every month chasing receipts, hotel portfolios, and reconciling credit card statements. It also streamlines the approval process to include both travel and spend.”

Companies can also book travel today and pay on fixed terms, which helps with cash flow timing and removes the need to tie up working capital for business travel.

Proven time and cost savings

A recent Corporate Traveller customer survey found

• Nearly 70% of finance professionals say CT Pay reduces the number of travel transactions they need to reconcile each month
• More than 71% report time savings on monthly reconciliation
• 39% save five or more hours per month on travel expense management.

Envest reports real business impact

For Envest, a Corporate Traveller client, the change has been dramatic. Before CT Pay, travel spending was scattered across personal credit cards and multiple payment systems, creating what they called "leakage" and a significant administrative burden.

The company has since consolidated 29 of its business entities into a single CT Pay account, now processing more than $500,000 in monthly travel spend.

“People were buying travel on their personal credit cards and submitting expense claims. There's a huge admin burden on that,” said Chris Wright, Head of Procurement at Envest.

“We've completely turned that around. We now have a single account covering 29 companies. That's probably 800 to 1,000 transactions a month, and the team is more effective because they're not stuck doing admin for travel and cost recovery.”

Corporate Traveller is the first Australian travel management company to launch a dedicated payment and expense solution. CT Pay is available now to Corporate Traveller clients across Australia and New Zealand.