Travel & expense management for universities: Why automation matters

Introduction

Universities juggle hundreds of travel and expense (T&E) requests every year—from faculty attending international conferences to researchers going on fieldwork and athletes participating in competitions. Managing these travel bookings and expenses manually or through generic ERP or HR modules can lead to inefficiencies, compliance risks, and overspending.

This blog will explore:

• What makes university travel and expense management unique
• Challenges of T&E in academia
• Why universities need dedicated T&E automation
• How it impacts university operations
• Factors to consider when choosing a solution
   

What makes university travel & expense management unique?

Even though universities share some of the same aspects as large commercial organizations, there are a few unique elements that differentiate them from business organizations. First, most university travel expenses are funded by grants, government subsidies, and scholarships. Second, universities have multiple departments with varying expense policies and reporting structures based on the source of the funds and functions within the departments. Third, unlike a commercial organization, the travel requirements can also be unique, like group travel bookings, delegated bookings, and similar situations.
As a result, university expense reporting is often more demanding than in similarly sized companies, requiring specialized solutions to navigate complex grant requirements and the layers of state regulatory compliance public institutions face.

What are the common challenges in university travel & expense management?

Diverse travel booking requirements

University travel requirements are so diverse and vary according to the travelers. From group bookings, athletes' travel, and educational tourism to university functionary travel, every booking can have a different objective and be governed by varying policies. So, the travel admin needs the flexibility to choose the travel management company and travel technology solution that provides the best options that fit all their complex requirements.

Policy non-compliance

University travel is growing at a healthy pace. According to Grand View Research, the demand for educational tourism among postgraduates is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.7% from 2025 to 2030. Large universities with a sheer number of departments will have thousands of students and staff traveling every year, and every department will have varying T&E policies. So, with increased travel, adherence to travel policies becomes more complex and escalates travel costs, putting pressure on university budgets.

Lack of visibility

Lack of proper T&E automation leads to a lack of real-time data, making budget control difficult for finance teams. As the budgets of universities depend on grants and public funding, it is difficult to finance a team to plan and forecast travel expenses, causing severe stress on business travel. Lack of visibility also reduces the negotiating power of the university for travel and hotel inventories.

Diminished productivity and experience

Manual approval processes, traditional receipt management, and repetitive administrative tasks in T&E processes by admins often result in poor faculty and student experiences leading to low adoption of university policy thereby increasing non-compliance. This may also result in decreased productivity and fatigue in finance teams due to excessive administrative burdens due to mundane tasks.

Budget control

Controlling budgets in university travel and expense management is uniquely challenging due to decentralized departments, varied funding sources, and grant restrictions. The need for strict compliance with institutional and regulatory policies over and above the same is an added burden. Lack of automated systems leads to a lack of unified oversight, overspending, policy violations, and reimbursement delays.

Why universities need a dedicated T&E system—not just ERP or HR modules

While many higher education institutions lean on their ERP or HR platforms to manage T&E processes, these generic systems often fail to meet the unique and complex requirements of academic environments. Travel and expense in universities is not just another business function—it's a compliance-intensive, policy-sensitive operation that demands precision, flexibility, and ease of use.
Here's why a dedicated T&E platform is not just beneficial but essential.

Purpose-built functionality that goes beyond the basics

Generic ERP or HR modules lack features tailored to the nuances of university travel. A dedicated T&E system offers:

• Mobile-first expense capture for faculty and staff to manage expenses on the go.
• Automated receipt scanning with multi-language support OCR and other third-party integrations for reduced manual entry.
• Per diem policy automation based on location and funding type.
• Built-in travel policy enforcement to ensure compliance before the spend occurs.
• Automatic mileage tracking to ensure the accuracy of mileage reimbursement claims every time.
• Built-in AI features for expense capture, auditing, and analytics to replace mundane tasks and reduce administrative burden.
• These features drastically reduce errors and improve processing speeds—something ERPs simply weren't built to do.

Faculty-friendly interfaces drive higher adoption

Academic staff are not accountants or finance pros. They need a tool that's intuitive, quick, and accessible:

• Clean, user-friendly dashboards
• Guided claim submission in a few taps
• Smart suggestions and automated categorization
• This simplicity drives adoption and reduces helpdesk tickets or training overhead.

Real-time budget tracking of grant funds

As universities operate on shoestring budgets from grants and scholarships, it is wise to track budgets before the spend happens. Most automated T&E solutions have:

• Real-time budget tracking based on departments, projects, grants, and users
• AI-powered expense forecasting tools, built with smart intelligence

How to choose the right T&E solution for your university

Here are key factors universities should evaluate when selecting a T&E platform.

Higher education specific configuration

• Ability to handle faculty sabbaticals, research grants, student travel, and per diem rates.
• Ability to manage cost control by setting dynamic spend limits, enforcing budgets, connecting cards, and intelligent audits in accordance with grants and departments.

Support for varied travel requirements, live International/group bookings

• Ability to be flexible to accommodate various travel management companies (TMCs).
• Multi-currency expense management, OCR receipt capture in multiple languages, and local tax compliance (VAT/GST).

Integrated card programs with real-time feeds

• Configurability to accommodate multiple card programs, whether it is a P-card, one card, travel card, or any other corporate card.
• Ensure card transactions are fetched in real time as soon as the transaction occurs so employees can snap a picture and upload receipts on the spot.

Ease of use

• Intuitive UI to improve user experience and adoption with simple DIY enhancements for smoother processes.
  Minimal training requirements.

Approval workflows

• Customizable based on academic departments, grants, or projects.

Plug & integration with ERP or accounting systems

• Compatibility to seamlessly integrate with your existing stack of applications, either an ERP or HR system, and consolidate all data analysis in one place.

Compliance & audit trails

• Built-in policy rules and limits, automatic flagging of duplicate receipts, and AI-powered audit logs.