Travel and Expense Management Software Business Requirements

A requirements checklist for evaluating travel and expense (T&E) management software — booking, expense capture, policy enforcement, and reimbursement — with functional and non-functional criteria in an Excel evaluation workbook.

A generic list says "must integrate with corporate cards and enforce travel policy" — true, and useless without the detail that actually stalls implementations. It won't specify whether the tool consumes real-time or batch card feeds (Visa VCF, Amex GNS) and how it matches split or foreign-currency transactions to the right report line. It won't ask whether the platform automates VAT/GST recovery documentation on international travel — a real cash-recovery opportunity most companies leave on the table because their expense tool never tracked it. And it won't distinguish policy enforcement that happens at the point of booking, where an out-of-policy fare can actually be blocked, from after-the-fact audit, where all you can do is flag it once the money's already spent.

What's in the Template

• Functional Requirements — organized by travel booking, expense capture & receipt OCR, policy engine & approvals, card-feed reconciliation, reimbursement/payroll integration, and reporting.
• 100+ Non-Functional Requirements — performance, security, multi-currency/FX handling, scalability, and compliance (tax, audit trail).
• Evaluation Template — an Excel scoring workbook with weighted vendor comparison.

How to Use It

• Send with an RFP to shortlisted vendors and score responses against identical weighted criteria.
• Use the card-feed and VAT-recovery requirement rows to quantify hard-dollar savings vendors rarely lead with in a demo.
• Share the policy-enforcement rows with finance and travel management to agree on point-of-booking controls before vendor conversations start.

Best Suited For

Finance leaders, travel managers, procurement teams, and business analysts evaluating T&E platforms for mid-size to global organizations.