Storybook Success: Why Literati Chose Navan as Its All-In-One T&E Solution
Literati is a children’s book company making it easy to find books kids love through a unique mix of human expertise and data science.
First known for its monthly kids book clubs, Literati experienced rapid expansion after launching school book fairs across the U.S. in 2022.
Overnight, the Austin-based company extended operations to three new cities and saw a surge in travel. Literati’s former expense solution, Airbase, was ill-equipped to handle its newfound growth. The company was frustrated by a lack of visibility and control over travel and expense.
But this saga has a happy ending. Through its strategic partnership with Navan, Literati successfully transformed its travel and expense management from a challenging tale into a storybook success.
Challenges
- •Zero visibility or control into spend
- •No policy controls
- •Lengthy expense reimbursements
- •Intense manual work
- •Unmanaged travel
Results with Navan
- •Single, unified T&E solution
- •Real-time spend visibility
- •96% of virtual card transactions auto-approved
- •22% savings on hotels
- •14% savings on travel overall
- •Average daily hotel rate 31% below policy cap
Balancing the Books
Before partnering with Navan, Literati used Airbase for expense and spend management. All transactions had to be manually reviewed, including the cost of meals for each day an employee traveled to make sure the total didn't go over the daily limit. “Airbase does not have an online booking tool and did not have anything that could address our travel pain points,” explained Laura Martin, VP of Finance at Literati.
Experiencing the Navan Magic
Before adopting Navan, a big pain point for Literati employees was the reimbursement process. They had to front their own money to book travel and didn’t get the funds back until about two weeks after a trip took place.
With Navan, the entire travel booking process has been streamlined. Literati employees now book their own travel in less than 5 minutes with Navan cards. “The process is much cleaner. Now they have a travel card and they don’t have to go out of pocket. It's all in one system,” said Martin.
Cost Control and Savings
Another game-changer for Literati has been how Navan helps the company control costs and drive savings. Literati’s average daily rate for hotels is now 31% below its policy cap, and the company has saved 22% on hotels and 14% on its entire travel program.
“Using Navan is how traveling for work should be," said Martin.
“We really wanted a tool where we would have control over process and procedure from the outset, but that could also give us flexible process and procedure. Navan gave us all of those things.”
Laura Martin
VP of Finance