Travel and Expense Management for Growing Businesses: A Stage-by-Stage Guide

Travel and expense management (T&E) is an important function for any business. But as a company grows, its needs will shift. Knowing how T&E changes during each stage of business growth—Startup, Growth, Scale, and Maturity—helps organizations improve visibility and maintain the control needed for long-term success.  

The four stages of business growth and T&E needs 

There are four key stages of business growth, each one requiring T&E management to evolve in order to enable added scale, complexity, and strategy:  

Stage 1: Startup (Founder-led T&E management) 

When a business is just getting started, there might not be much T&E to manage. There’s likely no official program or policy to guide employees, meaning any travel is booked ad hoc with airlines and hotels without negotiated rates. Any money that is spent is tracked manually, using error-prone processes like spreadsheets or paper receipts, limiting cash flow visibility. For Tungsten Automation, these methods made it difficult to get work done efficiently. “The manual process was very time consuming. We used spreadsheets and had to add receipts,” said Lori Ceccanese, manager of AP at Tungsten Automation.  

As a company grows, a formalized T&E policy will help define how money should be spent. A travel management system will also help automate the process and enforce the official policy, ultimately saving both time and money.  

Stage 2: Growth (Formalizing your T&E program) 

A small but growing team is starting to implement a more formalized process, with a specified T&E policy and a platform to help employees book trips and manage expenses. The challenge becomes identifying and implementing a solution that can scale alongside the company. An integrated solution can make a big difference, especially with more employees on the road. “As a traveler, I would love to have a centralized place,” said Payal Bhattacharya, senior manager of financial technology solutions at BeOne Medicines. “I don't want to go to a different tool to book my travel and then do my expenses somewhere else.” 

Any T&E technology a company invests in at this stage should automate receipt capture, conduct real-time policy checks, integrate with existing ERP, AP, and HR systems, and provide full spend visibility. It should also have a pricing structure that makes sense for a growing team, such as transaction-based pricing, which determines cost by how much the platform is used, as opposed to how many users need access.  

Stage 3: Scale (Managing T&E across teams, currencies, and countries) 

As an organization scales, T&E management becomes less about implementing a system and more about making that system work seamlessly across multiple teams, countries, and currencies. At this stage, reporting and compliance become increasingly more complex. “The world is constantly changing,” says Stefan Van Sliedregt, global T&E manager at JDE Peet’s. “Different countries introduce new requirements, the European Union rolls out new digital regulations, and we must continuously adapt to remain compliant.” 

Ensuring platforms are integrated will help T&E data stay synchronized and keep the company compliant with various regulatory requirements. To grow into maturity, T&E programs should operate globally, with duty of care embedded across all systems.  

Stage 4: Maturity (Process optimization and strategy) 

A company that has reached the maturation stage of growth has a fully integrated T&E system and automated processes. It uses AI to turn data into insights for improving user experience and increasing efficiency, as well as preventing policy issues before they occur. For Group 1001, AI solutions like Joule help employees easily understand and follow policy. “All they have to do is ask the question, ‘Hey, Joule, what's the policy for dinner?’,” said Stephanie Richards, T&E administrator at Group 1001. “And then it can just pop it out and say, ‘This is what you're allowed to do.’”  

At maturity, T&E management is more than just a process that organizes travel bookings and receipts. It’s a fully integrated function, utilizing intelligent software and AI that enables strategic decision making across the business.  

What SMBs should prioritize at each stage of the growth cycle 

Travel and expense management for small and medium-sized businesses will change throughout the growth cycle. Here’s what to consider at each stage:  

What to look for in a T&E management solution for growing businesses 

A connected T&E management tool is important no matter which stage of growth your business is in. The right system should:  

An expanding business needs intelligent technology that can scale, regardless of where it is in the growth cycle. Talk with an SAP Concur expert to learn how Concur solutions can help you manage travel and expense for your SMB and set your business up for continued success.  

FAQs: 

When should a small business invest in T&E management software?  

A small business should consider investing in T&E management software when manual processes like spreadsheets and paper receipts begin creating errors, delays, or limited visibility into spending. Common triggers include headcount growth, increasing travel volume, difficulty enforcing a consistent expense policy, or recurring issues with reimbursement accuracy and timing. 

How does T&E management change as a business grows?  

As a business grows, T&E management shifts from informal, manual processes to a greater need for standardized policies, automated workflows, and real-time spend visibility across a larger and more distributed workforce. Growing organizations also face increased pressure around compliance, audit readiness, and integration with broader financial systems which makes scalable, automated T&E tools increasingly important. 

What should be included in a small business travel and expense policy?  

A small business travel and expense policy should clearly define what expenses are reimbursable, set spending limits by category, and outline the process and timeline for submitting and approving expense reports. It should also address required documentation, consequences for non-compliance, and any preferred vendors or booking channels to help control costs and ensure consistency. 

Does Concur work for small and growing businesses?  

Yes. Concur offers solutions scaled to the needs of small and growing businesses, including simplified tools for expense reporting, invoice management, and travel booking that don't require large IT resources to implement or manage. As a business grows, Concur can scale alongside it, offering more advanced capabilities, integrations, and controls to meet increasingly complex financial management needs.