SAP Offers Cyber Solution For Travel Planning

Improve cost management and increase employee flexibility when setting up business trips with the new Travel Planning application from SAP AG. Now generally available with SAP R/3 version 4.5, the application, in combination with SAP Travel Accounting, provides a solution that incorporates all processes of business travel from trip planning to travel accounting. With SAP Employee Self Service Intranet Application Components, employees can record all trip data and transfer it to SAP R/3 for approval and further processing, thereby reducing administrative costs and time. SAP Travel Planning provides companies with the following:

• Online, real-time travel reservations for air, car and hotel accommodations.
• Automatic adherence to the company's travel policy.
• Greater travel expense tracking and accounting management.
• More efficient internal communication in the travel planning process.
• A stronger contract negotiating position, resulting from more in-depth analyses of company travel activities.
• Data warehousing of all travel data within a company's SAP enterprise solution.

When trip data entry has been completed and approval received, the trip can be accounted for in SAP R/3, and incurred costs can be accounted for by a per diem or flat rate or by individual receipt. All expenses are posted to financial accounting, cost accounting and payroll, and employees can be reimbursed via payroll, direct deposit, or company check. SAP Travel Accounting takes country-specific features of travel expense accounting into consideration. Country versions are supported. They include Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States.