A professional approach to professional business travel
Business Travel Management for Professional Services
Here at Wayte Travel Management we bill every business trip against the right client or project, within the rules of your travel policy. We can also change it quickly when a hearing, audit or workshop runs over.
For a law firm, consultancy or accountancy practice, travel can be a cost that has to be recharged correctly. Book it against the pro, or send a partner and a trainee under the same rules, then Finance will spend time at month end unpicking it all.
Your fee-earners stay focused on the client, and the costs arrive ready to recharge.
Client-billable travel and project code booking
In professional services, the question isn’t only what a trip costs but who pays for it.
A partner’s visit to a client may be fully rechargeable, a team training day could be entirely an overhead and a pitch meeting lies somewhere in between.
So we capture the reference code you bill against when the trip is booked, whether that’s a project code, a client reference or an internal cost centre. You decide which fields are needed, and they’re picked up however the trip is booked: by phone, by email or through Wayte Travel Online.
The code then stays with the booking all the way to the invoice. The train out, the hotel, the flight home and any change along the way all sit against the same project codes, so spend can be reported the way your finance team needs it.
Nobody has to match receipts to clients after the event, helping to ensure that nothing is recharged to the wrong client.
Project travel and long client deployments
Some engagements put a team on a client’s premises for weeks or months, whether it’s an audit season, a systems installation or a long trial.
Booking a hotel night by night for that long soon adds up. We’ll find extended-stay hotels close to the client’s office, at rates agreed for the length of the project.
Trips home are planned from the start. If your team is on site Monday to Thursday, say, we’ll set the journeys out and back up as a regular pattern, by air or, where it’s quicker door to door, we offer rail services too.
As people rotate on and off the job, new team members slot into the same pattern: the same hotel, the same trains and the same billing reference. Where the hotel’s terms allow, we’ll update the name on an existing booking instead of cancelling and rebooking, so the agreed rate stays in place.
Travel policy across partner, associate and analyst grades
We set your travel policy up with different permissions for each grade. So, for example, partners might be allowed First or Business Class on longer flights, while associates travel in Premium Economy and analysts Economy, with hotel rate caps set by city. Whoever makes the booking, by phone or online, sees the options that fit the traveller’s grade and the appropriate travel policy.
Anything outside those limits goes by email to the approver you’ve named, before it’s booked. Every booking also feeds your reports, so you can see which trips were out of policy and who approved them.
Some client contracts specify their own travel terms. Tell us what they are and your dedicated travel consultant will book trips for that client within their guidelines.
Services our professional services clients use most
Our professional services clients use the entire range of what we offer, but these four come up most often.
Air Travel
Fares held, seats sorted and changes handled, plus unrivalled support, even out of hours.
Hotel Booking & Accommodation
Rates are negotiated in advance, so you’re not paying the walk-in price.
Rail Travel
UK and European rail booked alongside your air travel, on the same invoice, so nothing gets missed.
Reporting & Management Information
You’ll see exactly where your travel budget is going and these reports are offered completely free of charge.
Same-day and short-notice travel to client sites
A late-afternoon phone call might mean you suddenly have to be in a meeting on the other side of the country, for 09:00 the next day.
That might be an extraordinary event for you, but it’s just an ordinary day to our team.
Your Wayte business travel consultant will find the quickest same-day train route, or the first early-morning flight. Then the full itinerary goes straight to the Wayte Travel Companion App, so the traveller has it before they’ve left their desk.
Late bookings are where fares climb fastest. We’ll tell you what each option costs before you commit and we’ll point out when a slightly later train or a different airport saves real money without putting the meeting at risk.
Short-notice trips follow the same policy and billing rules as any other, so they still land against the right project.
Professional services travel support, 24/7
Professional work often runs to your clients’ timetables rather than your own. A judge extends a hearing into Friday, a client asks the team to stay for one more day of workshops or an implementation slips into the following month.
When that happens, call or email us. We’ll extend the hotel, move the journey home and keep the new costs against the same project. Outside office hours, our UK-based out-of-hours support team is on hand 24/7, with all your relevant information at their fingertips, so a change needed at 20:00 doesn’t have to wait until morning.
If something more serious happens while your people are away, every booking we make is logged in our Duty of Care Portal. We can quickly see who is in the area and help get them home, which can support your duty of care to people who may be travelling alone to unfamiliar sites.
Travel reporting for finance and practice management
Finance and practice management ask different questions of the same data. What did we spend on that client this quarter? Which office travels most? Are senior grades booking within policy?
Wayte Travel Analytix, our reporting suite, breaks travel spend down by client, project, office and grade, using the fields your firm defines. Reports show CO₂ for your travel, which helps when a client asks about the carbon footprint of the work you’ve done for them.
For recharging, you know exactly who travelled, when, where, what it cost and which project it belongs to.
Everything is included in your firm’s monthly statement, so fee-earners aren’t putting travel on their own cards and claiming it back.
Professional services travel FAQs
Can we book same-day travel?
Yes, once your firm has an account with us. Your policy, approvers and billing codes are set up first, so same-day bookings can be handled quickly and within your rules. If you’re new to Wayte, our Switching to Wayte Travel page explains how we get you set up.
Do you handle long project deployments?
Yes. For engagements lasting weeks or months, we’ll arrange extended-stay hotel rates near the client, set regular trips home up as a repeating pattern and move new team members onto the same bookings as people rotate. If the project runs on, the arrangements run on with it.
Can policy differ by grade?
Yes. One travel policy can carry different rules for partners, associates and analysts, covering cabin class, rail class, hotel rate caps and who approves what. Travel bookers only see the options that fit the traveller’s grade and anything outside it goes to the named approver first. See how this works for flights on our Air Travel page.
How is recharge reporting delivered?
Through Wayte Travel Analytix, which you log into securely online. We set your reports up around the way your firm bills, so you can filter travel spend by client, project, office or traveller and see exactly what each client should be charged. Find out more on our Reporting page.
Can travel be booked against a client or project code?
Yes. Tell us which references your firm uses, whether project numbers, client codes or cost centres, and we’ll capture them on every booking, by phone, email or online. Your firm decides which fields are required, so bookers are asked for them every time. The codes then carry through to your invoices and reports.
Talk to us about your professional services travel
Tell us how your fee-earners travel now, how you bill it back to clients and where it goes wrong. We’ll come back with a no-obligation plan built around your projects, grades and clients.