Between scheduling appointments, maintaining meticulous filing systems, and keeping a steady flow of office supplies, office administrators are masters at multitasking. Depending on the size of your organization, office administrators may also manage travel arrangements, oversee bookkeeping, and support human resources with employee onboarding.
The best office managers make it look so easy, but we know how challenging it can be to run the day-to-day operations of a fast-paced work environment. So, what’s the secret to keeping everything running so smoothly? Office administrators’ detail-oriented nature, problem-solving prowess, and exceptional organizational skills are certainly key factors, but also important is using the right tech solutions to streamline administrative tasks.
One such indispensable resource is an online travel and expense management tool, which can significantly ease the day-to-day duties of office administrators – whether they’re involved in arranging business trips for other employees or not. Let’s explore how one solution – Amex GBT Neo (Neo) – can benefit office administrators and the team members they support.
Five key advantages of Neo
1. Neo is a tool the entire office will find useful.
With travel and expense management combined in one solution, Neo streamlines the entire process for all involved. Traveling employees and administrative staff booking trips will value the platform’s ability to centralize itinerary details, provide real-time travel updates, and offer 24/7 live customer support.
Travel managers can benefit from the automated approval workflows and configurable policy-promoting settings that drive compliance. Meanwhile, finance teams will love Neo’s expense tracking features that enable timely review of travel expenditures and virtually error-free expense reports. With Neo’s robust reporting capabilities consolidating travel and expense data, company leaders can gain the insights needed to make informed business decisions. All of this can help create a happier team and office environment – which means fewer headaches for office administrators.
2. With Neo, office managers can become even better at time management.
When you’re up to your eyeballs in spreadsheets and the phone calls just keep coming in, the last thing you want is to waste time logging into and working on multiple systems. With its integrated platform, single sign-on, and a seamless user experience, Neo can simplify and optimize travel and expense management workflows, leaving office administrators with more time to focus on higher-priority administrative duties.
Forget tracking travel arrangements and expenses with Excel and endless manual data entry. With Neo, all that information is automatically entered into the tool and readily at your fingertips.
Is bookkeeping a part of your office administrator role? You’ll love Neo’s automatic expense report creation and business rules engine that can take care of sorting receipts, labeling line items, and calculating reimbursement amounts for you. With optical character recognition technology, information from scanned receipts automatically populates expense reports, freeing up your energy for other office functions.
3. Neo can enhance the traveler experience.
An aisle seat on a carbon-efficient aircraft? Priority boarding and lounge access? A boutique hotel close to headquarters? No matter what preferences your travelers have, the diverse range of options available within Neo will make it easy to find and book flights and accommodations tailored to their tastes.
With over 2 million properties to choose from, travelers won’t run out of accommodation options, many available at unbeatable rates. Booking through the tool also means they can gain access to our Preferred Extras program, which offers perks like complimentary breakfast, high-speed Wi-Fi, and flexible cancellation policies.
Beyond accommodations, Neo delivers a smooth journey, even as things get bumpy. When plans to meet in person are disrupted by a flight cancellation, travelers won’t face the problem alone. Whether it’s morning, noon, or night, our proactive flight-monitoring technology automatically notifies potentially impacted travelers and offers immediate rebooking assistance.
Whatever the issue is, our global team of travel counselors is just a phone call or chat away, ready to provide instant help with travelers’ profiles already pulled up. It’s like having your own executive assistant ready to save the day.
4. Neo can reduce your company’s travel costs.
In your office administrator job, you may find yourself tasked with trimming travel costs – a daunting challenge when airfares and hotel prices are at record highs. However, that outlook is bound to change when you see the substantial discounts available through Neo.
Because you’ll gain access to American Express Global Business Travel’s negotiated rates, you can save significantly on travel expenses – sometimes up to 25% to 50%, depending on the options your travelers book. And if you’ve arranged special prices with your preferred suppliers, Neo can make sure those hard-won rates are fully utilized by featuring that content at the top of search results, making it easy to spot.
Implementing a travel policy can be an effective strategy to manage rising travel costs, and Neo is an ideal candidate for boosting compliance. Upon logging in, travelers and arrangers are immediately presented with clear travel policy reminders. Noncompliant trip options are prominently highlighted to prompt travelers to consider alternatives. If a traveler selects an out-of-policy choice, you can configure the tool to require a justification, further nudging them to adhere to travel guidelines. For out-of-policy bookings that slip through, Neo’s automated approval processes can facilitate timely trip approvals to prevent costly last-minute bookings.
5. Neo creates a seamless experience.
Booking multiple sites to piece together and manage a trip can be a massive productivity drain. From the moment a trip is planned to the final expense report, Neo’s unified platform makes booking travel and claiming reimbursements fast and simple.
With an intuitive search experience that automatically curates itinerary suggestions based on travelers’ preferences and past trips, planning becomes a painless process. In a few clicks, they can build and book an entire itinerary, from flights, hotels, rail, and ground transportation, in a matter of minutes. Combine that with a system that automatically pulls in expenses and generates reports, and you have a comprehensive solution that frees travelers up so they can concentrate on responsibilities related to their job title.
With the solution’s omnichannel platform, employees can manage their itineraries anytime, anywhere. Whether they’re in front of their laptop, stuck in a taxi, or 30,000 feet up in the air, travelers can book, modify, and cancel their reservations – without any additional administrative support from you required. Now that is valuable!
Running office operations is a huge undertaking. When you add travel and expense management to the mix, it can feel like a second full-time job. By streamlining these tasks with Neo, you can become more efficient and reclaim your workday.
It’s time to lessen your load and boost your skill set! Discover more about how Neo can improve your travel and expense management processes.
