10 Great Reasons to Audit in January

There is a similar pattern I’ve noticed as I’ve been working with clients in the early stages of their audit process. Many of them come to Topaz with a desire to audit but have many questions about the process. Once we have had a few phone calls with a client and they are comfortable with the process they usually talk it over with their team and then decide to audit. One thing that has always surprised me is that often times after our clients decide they want to audit they choose a random month to do so. They may start right away because the audit was motivated by mistakes they feel their agency is making, or it may be a time when employees have complained they can find lower fares on the internet. Or sometimes it’s a month when they have a lot of their employees traveling.
However, sometimes I think there are certain months to audit in the year that are better than others and these times fly below the radar. One of these months is January. Most clients will assume January is actually a poor time to audit because it is one of their slowest travel months. However, if you look closely there are at least ten great reasons to audit in January:

1. Let your agency know you are serious about their performance and developing a relationship with them from the beginning of the year.
2. Utilize benchmarking reports included in your audit to set a baseline for 2011
3. Renegotiate contracts early in the year if you are seeing problems
4. Address specific employees or agents early on who are not following policy or making errors
5. Quiet the noise of your employees stating they can find lower fares at the beginning of the first quarter.
6. Ensure you don’t run out of money in your budget to audit by the end of year.
7. Compare 2011 data to 2010 data right away to see how changes in your travel program, management, etc. have developed.
8. Review your agencies performance during a month where there are fewer bookings and errors are possibly more likely to occur.
9. Ensure a peace of mind of your agency’s performance and collect data to show management later in the year if issues arise.
10. Take part in a responsible business practice half of the fortune 1000 companies are also a part of!

So if you are considering an audit for next year and haven’t decided when would be the best time, consider January.