Clarcity Travel & Expense is a comprehensive, cloud-based solution designed to help businesses of all sizes manage and optimize their travel and expense processes. Here’s an overview of what the product does and its key features:
Purpose and Functionality
Clarcity is tailored to streamline the management of expenses incurred by employees on travel, hotels, and food. It provides a unified portal where employees can book trips, submit expense reports, and managers can review and approve these expenses in accordance with the company’s travel policy.
Key Features
Trip Planning and Booking
- Clarcity allows users to quickly find the lowest rates by comparing negotiated rates from preferred vendors alongside other market rates. It also offers deeply discounted wholesale rates, helping businesses save on travel costs.
- The platform incorporates dynamic travel policies that show employees which options are too costly, ensuring cost savings and alignment with business objectives.
Expense Reporting and Management
- Employees can submit expense reports directly through the platform or via the Clarcity mobile app. The app enables users to take photos of receipts, add expenses in real-time, and track mileage using their phone’s GPS.
- The system automatically imports and categorizes transactions from personal and business credit cards, simplifying the expense reporting process.
Approval and Compliance
- Managers are notified when reservations are made, and they can require explanations for out-of-policy bookings. The platform identifies out-of-policy travel before funds are spent, ensuring compliance with company policies.
- Custom limits for each type of expense can be set, and the system identifies which expenses require receipts based on company policy.
Communication and Approval Process
- The platform includes a digital message board for communication between travelers and approvers, creating a permanent audit trail for all discussions.
Reimbursement and Accounting
- Clarcity facilitates reimbursement through direct deposit using payroll providers, with batch files pre-formatted for major payroll systems. Employees can choose reimbursement via direct deposit, paper check, or PayPal.
- The system automatically generates general ledger codes based on expense types, projects, departments, or other accounting objects. Transactions can be exported to almost any accounting system with a simple drag and drop interface.
Analytics and Insights
- Clarcity provides detailed analytics to break down spending by type of expense, department, client, employee, or other metrics. This data can be combined with CRM and billing systems to measure the ROI on projects and client outreach.
- The platform helps businesses leverage their complete travel spend data to negotiate reduced rates with vendors.
Additional Benefits
- Clarcity rewards travelers for finding savings by offering miles, points, gift cards, or cash for booking low-cost travel options.
- The platform stores all travel information, including frequent traveler numbers, credit card details, and contact information, making it easy to book travel and access critical information.
Support and Accessibility
- Clarcity offers support via phone, email, and an online form. The platform is accessible 24/7, and users can take advantage of a free trial and a free version, with a starting price of $10 per month. The mobile app is available for iOS, making it easy to manage travel and expenses on the go.
In summary, Clarcity Travel & Expense is a robust solution that streamlines travel booking, expense reporting, and reimbursement processes, while providing valuable analytics and compliance tools to help businesses optimize their travel spending.