The Complete Business Travel Checklist

Business travel is easy when you’re prepared and don’t forget anything at home. You can focus on meetings, networking, and strategic work.

To help you prepare for your next business trip, we’ve prepared a comprehensive business travel checklist that goes beyond packing and covers everything from verifying travel documents to post-trip action items.

Before You Book

• Review your company’s travel policy. Travel policies specify spending limits, preferred vendors, booking requirements, and approval thresholds. If your company uses a unified T&E platform like Navan, this step is easier, since the policy is baked into the booking flow. You only see compliant options, so there’s no need to cross-reference a policy document or justify expenses after the fact.
• Verify budget allocation. Confirm that your department has funds allocated for the trip, and that your travel aligns with approved projects. Finance teams track spending against departmental budgets, so knowing cost parameters up front prevents approval delays.
• Submit travel requests through official channels. Many organizations require trip authorization before booking, particularly for international travel or high-value itineraries. Submit requests early to give managers time for review (but without rushing your booking timeline).
• Verify travel documents. For domestic travel, confirm your driver’s license is current if you’ll be driving. For international trips, check that your passport remains valid for at least six months beyond your return date and research the visa requirements for your destination.
• Identify your booking method. Determine whether you’ll book through a corporate travel platform, work with a travel management company, or coordinate with an executive assistant. Unified T&E platforms work better than traditional TMCs because booking, policy enforcement, and expense capture happen in one place rather than across disconnected systems.
• Confirm insurance coverage. Verify that your company’s travel insurance covers your destination, planned activities, and the duration of your trip. Know how to access coverage in an emergency before you depart.

Pre-trip Preparation (One Week Out)

• Confirm all booking details. Review confirmation numbers, dates, times, and locations for flights, hotels, and rental cars. Verify that reservations reflect correct traveler information and match your calendar.
• Compile a complete itinerary. Create a single document containing all flight details, hotel addresses, meeting locations, and emergency contacts. Share this itinerary with your manager and colleagues who need to reach you. Platforms like Navan generate unified itineraries automatically as you book, so you don’t have to compile details from separate confirmation emails.
• Set up expense tracking. If your company uses a travel platform and/or expense management system, verify mobile app access and review the receipt capture workflow before you travel. With Navan, booked travel flows directly into your expense report, so flights, hotels, and rental cars are already documented. You’ll only need to capture receipts for meals and incidentals.
• Notify stakeholders. Inform your manager, team members, and any clients affected by your availability. Set calendar blocks, configure out-of-office messages, and establish communication protocols for urgent matters.
• Arrange ground transportation. Book airport transfers, research public transit options, or arrange rental car pickup.
• Review duty of care protocols. Your company should have systems to track your location and provide emergency assistance as part of its duty of care obligations when you’re on work trips.

Packing Essentials

• Travel documents and identification: Driver’s license or government ID, passport for international travel, boarding passes (digital or printed backups), hotel confirmations, rental car information, and any required visas
• Professional attire: Business-appropriate clothing matched to your meeting schedule and destination climate, including versatile, wrinkle-resistant pieces that coordinate well, plus an additional outfit for unexpected schedule changes
• Technology and electronics: Laptop and charger, phone and charging cable, portable battery pack, headphones, and any necessary adapters for international destinations
• Work materials: Notebooks, pens, business cards, and any physical materials needed for meetings
• Personal care items: Prescription medications (pack more than you need, just in case), toiletries in TSA-compliant sizes, and items you rely on for your daily routine
• Company payment cards: If your organization provides corporate cards, verify the correct card is activated for your travel dates and destinations. Some companies issue virtual card numbers for specific trips, so confirm what payment method your finance team expects to see on your expense reports.

Day of Travel

• Complete your departure check. Verify you have all travel documents, identification, payment methods, phone, charger, medications, and critical work materials before leaving for the airport.
• Arrive with appropriate buffer time. Plan to reach the airport with sufficient time for security and potential delays. For international travel, the rule of thumb is to get to the airport at least 3 hours before departure.
• Keep important documents accessible. Store ID, boarding pass, and payment cards in easily reached locations rather than buried in luggage.
• Actively monitor flight status. Airlines regularly change gates, adjust boarding times, or update status. Check your airline app throughout the day rather than assuming the initial information remains static.
• Stay connected. Keep your phone charged so colleagues or travel support can reach you if plans change. If your company uses Navan, you can reach in-house travel agents 24/7 through the app. They have full context on your itinerary, so you don’t have to explain your situation from scratch if something goes wrong.

During Your Trip

• Maintain your itinerary. Keep your schedule accessible, confirm meeting times as they approach, and document changes that affect travel plans.
• Track expenses in real time. If your company uses an integrated travel and expense platform like Navan, most airfare, hotel, and rental car charges are automatically captured during the booking process. If your company does not use a unified system, expense tracking is more manual. You’ll need to keep receipts for every purchase, record dates and amounts yourself, and reconcile transactions after the trip.
• Capture receipts immediately. Rather than collecting paper receipts to organize later, photograph or capture receipts as soon as expenses occur.
• Stay within policy guidelines. Your company’s travel policy specifies per diem limits, reimbursable expense categories, and spending thresholds.
• Prioritize well-being. Business travel can be physically demanding. Stay hydrated, maintain reasonable work hours, and pay attention to personal safety in unfamiliar locations.
• Use downtime productively. Airport delays, evening hours, and time between meetings often provide opportunities to handle routine work. Using this time keeps regular responsibilities from piling up.

After You Return

• Submit expense reports promptly. Many organizations specify submission deadlines, often within days of the trip's conclusion. Late submissions complicate month-end closing and may violate reimbursement policies. If your company uses Navan, most of your expense report is already assembled from your bookings and card transactions.
• Reconcile corporate card charges. If you used a company card, verify that all charges appear correctly and that you have documentation for each transaction.
• Address unused bookings. If you cancelled flights or didn’t use prepaid services, determine whether you’ll get credits or refunds.
• Follow up on trip outcomes. Send follow-up communications, fulfill commitments made on the trip, and document outcomes for stakeholders who approved the travel.

Make Business Travel Easy with One Platform for Travel and Expenses

Every item on this checklist represents a task business travelers perform repeatedly. The cumulative time spent on booking workflows, policy verification, receipt capture, and approval routing adds up across multiple trips per year.

Navan’s intuitive interface cuts business travel booking time from 45+ minutes to 6 minutes. But the real time savings come from what happens after booking: automatic expense capture, policy enforcement at the point of booking rather than post-trip review, and corporate card charges that reconcile with your itinerary.

If these checklists feel overwhelming, your company’s travel tools might be making business travel harder than it needs to be.