8 Questions to Ask When Reviewing Travel and Expense Software

The right travel and expense (T&E) software can transform the effectiveness of how your organization manages travel booking, expense submission, policy enforcement, and financial reconciliation.

But evaluating T&E platforms requires more than comparing feature lists.

Finance teams, travel managers, and procurement professionals who ask the right questions during evaluation can end up with a platform that best meets their needs — and one that’s helpful in preventing fraud, enforcing policy at the point of booking, and integrating smoothly with existing systems.

This guide covers the 8 key questions to ask when evaluating T&E software.

Question 1: What Specific Controls Prevent Expense Fraud and Policy Violations?

The right T&E platform should transform fraud prevention from reactive detection to proactive control.

The best platforms use automated controls to address common fraud schemes, such as:

• Fake receipts
• Inflated expenses
• Personal purchases disguised as business costs
• Duplicate submissions
• Just-under-threshold expenses

When evaluating T&E software, inquire whether it uses multiple controls, such as pre-trip approvals that prevent non-compliant spend before it occurs. It also helps if the solution has automated systems that detect duplicate receipts, unusual spending patterns, and real-time compliance checks that catch violations before reimbursement.

Automated matching of corporate card transactions to expense reports also significantly reduces the risk of duplicate submissions or inflated amounts. Some T&E platforms, like Navan, use a traffic-light system for proactive expense management. Under this system, green-zone transactions auto-approve, orange-zone transactions are flagged for review, and red-zone transactions get declined at the point of swipe before money leaves the company.

When evaluating platforms, ask vendors to explain how their systems address these common fraud schemes with specific examples.

Question 2: Does the Platform Enforce Policy Compliance Before Expenses Occur or After Submission?

One fundamental difference between advanced T&E platforms and legacy systems lies in when policy enforcement happens. Advanced platforms can enforce travel policy compliance before expenses are incurred, through pre-trip approval workflows and real-time policy violation alerts at the point of purchase.

The most effective compliance programs enforce safety and legal requirements while remaining flexible on operational preferences. For instance, they’ll feature dynamic policies that let you adapt thresholds based on destination and travel dates — a $200/night hotel cap, for example, that automatically adjusts for New York vs. Nebraska.

When reviewing T&E software, ask vendors how their platform handles pre-trip approvals, what flexibility exists for legitimate exceptions, and how the system communicates policy guidance to travelers when needed.

Question 3: What Adoption Rates Does the Vendor Achieve, and How?

According to Skift and Navan’s 2026 State of Corporate Travel & Expense report, 80% of business travelers sometimes book off-platform. When that happens, you don’t have a chance to enforce policy compliance until after employees submit their expenses.

It’s not that employees purposely avoid using their company’s travel platform. But when they encounter complex booking tools, it’s easier to use the same consumer travel apps they use to book personal trips.

Ask about the T&E solution’s actual adoption rates among reference customers. If possible, request access to customers in your industry who can discuss their adoption rates. Navan, for example, achieves 82–90% adoption, compared to the industry average of 40–60%, through a consumer-grade user experience that employees actually enjoy using.

Question 4: How Does the System Integrate With Your Specific ERP and Accounting Stack?

Integration capabilities influence the value you get out of the T&E platform. According to a Forrester study commissioned by Navan, employees report spending 80% less time per expense report submission, and finance teams save 40% time on expense auditing and reconciliation when using a platform like Navan, which features integrations that eliminate manual data exports and reconciliation spreadsheets.

Expense transactions in your T&E platform should flow automatically to your ERP system with complete coding details, while employee data, cost centers, and approval hierarchies sync from your HRIS. Navan not only automates this flow, but also includes 110+ data points per booking and 130+ per expense transaction automatically. That allows finance leaders to make decisions on current information rather than stale reports delayed by 30–60 days.

Organizations with global operations also need multi-currency handling, multi-entity support, and consolidated reporting. Before committing to a platform, require vendors to demonstrate integration with your tech stack for your specific use case.

Question 5: What Security Certifications and Audit Protections Does the Platform Provide?

T&E platforms handle sensitive financial data, payment card information, and employee personal details, creating significant security and compliance obligations. When reviewing T&E software, ask about the vendors’ security certifications, like SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS compliance.

Your T&E platform should also automatically generate complete audit trails showing transaction history with timestamps and approval chains, along with policy compliance documentation and support for tax authority requirements, including VAT recovery automation and GST reporting capabilities.

When evaluating vendors, it’s also important to ask about their incident response procedures for breaches or vulnerabilities.

Question 6: What Does Implementation Actually Require?

Vendor claims about “simple implementation” often obscure the actual resources, timeline, and disruption your teams will experience. The fact is that implementation can become complex, due to data migration from existing systems, configuring integrations, and, most critically, change management for employees who must adopt new workflows.

For example, organizations can implement Navan in under 100 hours compared to 1,000+ hours for legacy systems. This implementation speed allows organizations to realize platform benefits sooner, and internal teams spend less time in deployment mode and more time driving adoption.

Request detailed information about the vendor’s implementation approach, their experience with similar-sized organizations, typical timelines, and how they support adoption through training and ongoing support.

Question 7: How Does the Platform Support Global Operations and Regional Compliance?

When evaluating vendors for international travel programs, ask about their inventory coverage in your specific travel markets, their approach to regional regulatory requirements, and their ability to configure different expense policies by country while delivering unified reporting.

T&E platforms built for global operations should also allow you to:

• Automate VAT recovery across multiple countries
• Generate GST reporting
• Handle real-time currency conversion
• Adapt to regional documentation requirements

Beyond compliance and reporting, global capability is most evident in day-to-day booking experiences. Travelers need access to regional airlines, low-cost carriers, and local hotel suppliers that may not appear in traditional distribution systems. T&E platforms that support global companies must provide access to this regional and local inventory.

Question 8: What Ongoing Support and Service Levels Will Your Organization Receive?

Platform selection doesn’t end with implementation. Ongoing support quality determines whether your T&E program runs smoothly or creates constant frustration. Service level agreements (SLAs) should specify response time commitments by severity level, moving beyond generic claims about “24/7 support.”

For example, critical issues affecting payment processing or traveler safety warrant an immediate response with rapid-resolution targets. Organizations should specify uptime guarantees, platform update deployment frequency, and data recovery specifications within SLA terms.

Evaluate support quality by speaking directly with reference customers about their experiences, average resolution times, and what SLAs exist by severity level.

Ask Questions That Reveal How The Platform Will Meet Your Needs

A gap between vendor marketing claims and operational reality can cost organizations time and money. It can also lead to dissatisfaction for employees who need to use a tool that doesn’t meet their needs.

The eight questions above allow you to cut through feature lists and truly understand how each T&E platform manages fraud prevention, policy enforcement, user adoption, and more.

And there’s a measurable financial upside to choosing the right T&E software. A Forrester study found that with Navan, customers can achieve 376% ROI over three years, with payback in less than 6 months, and $9.1M in total benefits. These results stem from Navan’s ability to deliver improvements in policy compliance, expense processing efficiency, travel cost reduction, and other factors.