Managing travel payments can be a hassle, especially when dealing with multiple bookings and expenses. A Business Travel Account (BTA), more commonly known as a lodge card, simplifies this process by centralizing payments within your travel management platform. This means you no longer need to provide card details for each booking, saving time and reducing complexity.
What is a Business Travel Account (BTA)?
A BTA is a payment solution designed for businesses to manage travel expenses efficiently. Instead of handling payments for each trip separately, purchases are billed to a single account, known as the Business Travel Account. Payment via a BTA helps companies manage all their expenses incurred during the business travel booking process. It helps your business to better manage expenses, keep track of expenses via reporting within your travel platform. This also saves time, simplifies processes, and ensures compliance with your travel policy.
What is a lodge card?
You may have thought it was a travel card that is used to pay for lodging and accommodations as per the name, but in fact, a lodge card gets its name from the term “to lodge a payment.” The corporate card, virtual card or credit card is essentially “lodged” into the travel reservation platform you book with to help you easily manage your funds with your travel management platform. If you use a virtual card, it’s a unique card number that can be loaded with funds, which is helpful for budgeting.
Essentially you make the payment through your travel management platform and then they advance the payment for you. Your company is then billing is deferred, meaning that your company only has to manage one billing statement, helping to centralize expenses across your different suppliers. Through this centralized payment solution all of your travel purchases, whether they be for rail, hotels, trains or flights can be made with one single payment type.
5 Benefits of a BTA lodge card
Now that we’ve got the terminology out of the way, let’s look at the top 5 benefits of a lodge card.
1. Simplify travel spend management
Centralizing payment helps you control your travel spend more effectively. Youcan manage payments at the end of the month, which makes it easier to track how much you’re spending. And you can also ensure that all travel-related expenses are charged to a single account, which helps simplify the process of reconciliation and payment tracking. This ultimately reduces the burden on administrative and finance teams. Employees can book business trips without upfront payments, while centralized payments reduce unauthorized spending.
Plus, employees no longer need to front the money for their business trips and submit reimbursement claims, instead they can simply book their trips and companies can settle payment at the end of the month. Centralized payment also reduces the chances of unauthorized spending.
2. Improve cash flow
By extending payments to a predictable monthly cycle, you get more flexibility in handling your cash flow – a superpower for small businesses. Instead of paying upfront, businesses can settle payments at the end of the month, maintaining a steady cash flow.
3. Increased visibility and reporting
With all transactions consolidated in one place, you can access detailed travel reports, track spending trends, and identify cost-saving opportunities. This visibility also helps with budgeting and forecasting.
4. Ensure travel policy compliance
Adhering to your travel policy also helps you stay on budget. You can align lodge cards with your company’s travel policies, ensuring employees stay to pre-set budgets and only book with the approved travel management platform. This reduces the risk of overspending and simplifies policy enforcement.
5. Enhance security
Using lodge cards is a more secure way to pay. You don’t have to worry about missing credit cards and the likelihood of fraud is reduced. These advanced security features protect against unauthorized transactions, giving you peace of mind.
Ready to get started?
With a BTA, your business can simplify travel payments, save time for employees and finance teams, maintain better control of your travel budget, and reduce administrative burdens. Take the guesswork out of managing travel expenses and set your company up for success with a Business Travel Account.