Billable travel

Trips whose costs are re-billed to a client or project. Companies that do project- or client-based work often track which trips can be charged back, so those costs are recovered rather than absorbed internally. Marking travel as billable at the point of booking or expensing makes it easier to invoice clients accurately.

Billable travel is common in consulting, legal, engineering, audit, construction, IT services and other project-based businesses. The terms of the client contract usually define which travel costs can be recharged — for example, flights and hotels at cost, or a fixed daily rate — and whether any markup applies. Clients often require detailed documentation, such as invoices and receipts, to support the recharged amounts.

To recover billable costs accurately, companies need to identify them at the start rather than after the trip. When a trip is linked to the right client or project code when it is booked, all related costs — including changes, cancellations and on-trip expenses — can be collected automatically. Without this, costs may be missed, recharged late or disputed by clients, directly affecting project profitability. Clear coding also simplifies audits.

Tumodo helps companies keep billable travel organised. Costs can be allocated to cost centres and tracked throughout the entire trip cycle, and every booking is linked to its invoices and accounting documents, which can be downloaded in PDF or XLS. Report formats can be customised to match the company's internal standards, making it easier to prepare the documentation needed to recharge travel costs to clients or projects.