VW FS and Voya simplify travel expense accounting
Volkswagen Financial Services will soon enable its business customers to manage travel more efficiently. Bookings for flights, hotels, train connections, or rental cars can easily be consolidated via smartphone or internet application. The system for this comes from Voya, a Hamburg-based travel start-up that VW acquired in 2020, and makes digital travel expense accounting possible. According to the company, this significantly reduces both organizational and administrative effort, not just for business travelers themselves but also for mobility managers.
“Considering the ongoing pandemic, the timing for a digital travel management system may seem unusual. However, we firmly believe that the situation will normalize somewhat in the coming months, leading to an increase in business travel,” says Armin Villinger, general manager and head of sales for the German market at Volkswagen Leasing GmbH. “For several years now, we have observed that travel and fleet management are converging, and the total mobility costs of companies are becoming a central focus."
Payments via central company credit card
Booking via the smartphone or application allows a degree of customization, unlike traditional online booking portals, according to VW. This can be done through self-service or an interactive chat function, where system-integrated business travel agencies implement the travel service online according to stored travel policies and customer-specific approval processes. These policies are based on company standards that can be individually adjusted. Employee data import is done within a short time, and all travel payments are processed through a central company credit card, which is stored in the system. This means that business travelers do not have to pay for their booked transportation in advance and only have to cover additional costs. Companies, on the other hand, receive a central billing and cost control through the integrated reporting.
“Our long-term goal is to transfer all travel and fleet-related services into a digital transport ecosystem for the strategic management and administration of corporate mobility. VW | FS Business Travel is the first step in this direction,” comments Villinger.
Digitalized receipts
Digitalization also bypasses the ongoing manual reprocessing and entry of travel receipts into data analysis systems. Travelers can simply capture receipts via smartphone and directly assign them to individual trips. The submitted receipts are then automatically checked for payroll tax and travel policy compliance. The resulting billing can be exported as a file directly into the customer's own financial accounting system for further processing.
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