Mesh updated its travel dashboard and refined the process for tagging trip-related charges. The update impacts Admins, Travel Managers, and travelers and is designed to improve tagging accuracy and streamline budget management.

This article intends to help Admins and Travel Managers understand the factors influencing the travel dashboard’s displayed information and to assist them in communicating the changes in tagging trip-related charges and reimbursements to travelers.

The sections below detail the key components of the Mesh platform related to this update:

1. Spend Categories  

The way Spend Categories are set and function did not change. However, following the update, Spend Categories align more closely with travel policies and budgets. 

To access Spend Categories navigate to Company Settings >> Spend Categories >> Manage Spend Categories.  

Travel-related categories are marked accordingly and toggled ON for entities with the Travel module enabled. The relevant Spend Categories will appear on the travel dashboard if their associated policies are selected for a trip.

Note: Your Spend Categories setup may utilize different names or present additional categories since members of your finance team may have modified the names and added categories. 

2. Travel Policies 

Travel policy is a set of guidelines your company established to manage travel. The policy includes different sections (e.g., Flights, Accommodation, Meals, transportation, etc.) and each section defines budget constraints and availability.  

To access the Travel Policies navigate to Company Settings >> Travel >> Manage Travel Policy.  

Mesh presents several policies, and users with Admin/Travel Managers permissions can add more policies (e.g., Incidental expenses, Communication COVID tests, etc.). Each policy should be mapped to a spend category. This page includes additional configurations (e.g., budget allocation to different travel groups, PTO, etc.), but those have not changed and are therefore not discussed below. 

Note: Admin/Travel Managers can apply the same Spend Category to several policies (e.g., Local transportation and Car rental may 'share' the Spend Category Travel: Travel: Transportation). 

3. Travel Dashboard

The travel dashboard you are familiar with displays the approved policies for the trip. A trip may include several policies, and some may appear more than once (e.g., a trip with a budget for a flight to London and another to Paris). The main challenges with this view are clutter and budget management.  

Following the update, the dashboard will display Spend Categories instead of policies. This results in a 'cleaner' and organized view that is easier to manage.    

When a Spend Category is clicked, the associated budgets and policies are displayed.

In the example below, the Spend Category Travel: Travel Flights is associated with the policy Flights, and two budgets (i.e., flights to London and flights to Paris) were approved for the trip. 

In the following example, Travel Other is the Spend Category associated with two policies (i.e., Communication and Incidental Expenses).

Note: Charges are not displayed as those did not occur yet.

4. Tagging trip-related charges

As travelers transact, charges appear on the travel dashboard, and the Mesh matching engine tries to pair the charge with the relevant Spend Category. This automation happens behind the scenes and in most cases, Mesh finds a suitable match without the user's intervention.

Sometimes the engine struggles to find a match. For illustration purposes, the charge 'SIM Comm UK' is NOT associated with a spend Category and as a result, it is flagged as 'Out of policy'. In this case, the traveler is tasked with assigning the Spend Category. 

Note: The flagging mechanism (i.e., 'Out of policy') is configured under the reimbursement policy section in the Company Settings. 

When the charge 'SIM Comm UK' is clicked, the traveler must select a relevant Spend Category. 

In this case, the traveler selected Travel Other as the Spend Category. 

Since two policies were mapped to this Spend Category, both options are presented, and the traveler needs to select the appropriate budget. In this case, the Communication needs to be selected. 

Whether the engine successfully provided the match or the traveler assisted, the dashboard presents it and the relevant policy/budget is 'consumed'. 

Notes: 

1. If a single policy is associated with the Spend Category and the matching engine finds a match, the policy is assigned automatically. For example, the policy per diem is associated with the Spend Category named Travel Meals, and the matching engine associates the charge 'Pacific Coffeed UK' with the per diem budget. 

2. The policy Flights is associated with a Spend Category named Travel Flights, but for this trip, the traveler asked for and was provided with two flight budgets (e.g., flight to London and Flight to Paris).

In this case, two budgets will appear when a Spend Category named Travel Flights gets selected. 

3. The changes discussed in this article also apply to reimbursements submitted from the trip dashboard. This means that the customer will need to select the relevant Spend Category and then a budget in case there is more than one associated with that Spend Category. As explained before, the Mesh matching mechanism will try to predict the Spend Category, but sometimes the user will be tasked with assigning one. 

To learn more about this option, please contact our team at support@meshpayments.com