We are pleased to inform you that Traveldoo Autumn release will be installed and made available to you between January 11th and 18th 2017, evening.

These Release Notes cover what’s new in the Traveldoo platform. They describe the new features in this update, the impact on the user interface and explain any configuration needed.

We have tried to publish as much useful information as we can in these notes and would appreciate it if you could consider this document as confidential.

Feature availability or suitability might depend on your contract or configuration. If you have any further questions regarding any of the new functionality in this release, or suggestions about how we can make our Release process better, please do not hesitate to contact your Traveldoo account manager or the customer service team.

TRAVEL: Journey duration in policy rules can be set up in minutes

Travel Management | Policy

Products: Traveldoo Enterprise and Portal
Markets: All
Communication to Users Recommended? No
Communication to Agencies? Yes, for clients with a Journey Duration rule set up
Requires Traveldoo Services Assistance? No
Optional? No

Overview

Policy rules allow us to specify which options under which conditions are presented to the traveller as compliant or non-compliant. Journey duration is still the most popular parameter to determine when options such as a higher cabin class should become compliant. Previously Traveler Managers could define a Journey Duration parameter only in hours only (Hours and Day for Air service). Now we offer the Ability to define a Journey Duration in minutes on AIR & RAIL services.

Benefits

Better accuracy of the Journey Duration criteria definition in the travel policy for AIR & RAIL services. For example, for some trains making basically the same journey, the duration and hence the compliancy can be different based on the routing and number of stops. E.g. from Paris - Gare de Lyon to Lyon - Part Dieu, trains are sometimes taking 1h57 and other times 2h03. Traveler Manager is now able to define a more precise value to achieve a sensible consistency in such cases (and similarly for airports).

What’s New for users (Travelers / Arrangers)

Enjoy a more consistent and accurate travel policy defined by their company regarding the Journey Duration.

What’s New for Administrators

The previous field (using hours as unit) has been updated to manage minutes as the unit. If more than sixty minutes (one hour) is defined, a friendly and dynamic display converts the display to hour + minutes, as shown below.

TRAVEL: Trip sharing is now available for RAIL service

Booking | Trip Sharing | Rail service

Products: Traveldoo Enterprise and Portal
Markets: All
Communication to Users Recommended? Yes, for companies that have enabled the feature
Communication to Agencies? Yes
Requires Traveldoo Services Assistance? No
Optional? No, it’s part of the whole Trip Sharing feature

Overview

“Trip Sharing” is the Traveldoo initiative, including multiple functions, to help travelers understand who else from their company is taking a similar trip and potentially collaborate on the logistics of the trip (e.g. sharing a taxi or hire car) or perhaps just to take the opportunity to socialize during the trip (Business trips don’t only have to be about business!)

Our first capability in this area was to highlight to travelers booking a hire car when someone else from their company was also taking a hire car from the same location on the same day.

With our new version, we will bring this approach to Rail search:

Benefits

The benefits of trip sharing are intended to be two-fold:

Save money by promoting carpooling or other mutualized costs
Increase the opportunity for business socializing. Otherwise “dead” time travelling can be used to strengthen ties within and across departments.

What’s New for users (Travelers / Arrangers)

Rail service is now eligible.

Air Rail and Car are all now eligible for “Trip Sharing”.

What’s New for Administrators

No specific configuration needed.

TRAVEL: Car result page improvements

Shopping | Car service

Products: Traveldoo Enterprise and Portal
Markets: All
Communication to Users Recommended? No
Communication to Agencies? No
Requires Traveldoo Services Assistance? No
Optional? No

Overview

We refreshed the Car result page, adding additional information to improve the user experience and consistency with other services.

Benefits

More clarity on the Car display page for the users.

What’s New for users (Travelers / Arrangers)

icons indicating the travel policy compliance status have been added for each fare / proposal.

The design of the proposal display has been slightly improved.

We also compute and display the Car category for options coming from the supplier SIXT, who does not provide this value by default.

What’s New for Administrators

No changes needed.

TRAVEL: APIS management update

Booking | Advance Passenger Information System Ease

Products: Traveldoo Enterprise and Portal
Markets: All
Communication to Users Recommended? Yes, for frequent travellers with several active passports
Communication to Agencies? Yes
Requires Traveldoo Services Assistance? No
Optional? No

Overview

APIS enhances border security for several countries by providing security officers with pre-arrival and departure manifest data on all passengers and crew members.

Benefits

The benefit of good management of APIS in the booking tool is to save time when doing the booking, adding the relevant data in only one click and moreover to avoid wasting time at the airport filling out forms and potentially delaying the flight itself.

In Traveldoo, APIS info is automatically prefilled on the booking confirmation page using information from the traveller profile.

The new version of Traveldoo improves the APIS system for travellers who have more than one passport eligible in their profile. They can now decide/switch Passport APIS information to be added to the booking (PNR)

APIS route eligibility (Passport, Destination, ...) has been also updated following the last carrier and government requirements that have been published.

What’s New for users (Travelers / Arrangers)

Capacity to select and apply easily passport details to insert in the booking when the traveler has more than one passport in their profile.

What’s New for Administrators

No changes needed.

TRAVEL: Air France Branded Fares

Booking | Air France | New Fare structure in Economy Class – medium haul network

Products: Traveldoo Enterprise and Portal
Markets: All
Communication to Users Recommended? No
Communication to Agencies? No, Air France does it
Requires Traveldoo Services Assistance? No
Optional? No

Overview

A new, simpler, and more attractive fare offer in economy class, giving permanent choice between three fare types: Light, Standard and Flex (Service onboard does not change: on board refreshments, meals and snacks remain free of charge). The three products are available in all booking classes.

Benefits

See at the proposal level which product the price refers to.

What’s New for users (Travelers / Arrangers)

Display updated with the new names: Light, Standard or Flex in Economy Class – medium haul network.

What’s New for Administrators

No changes needed.

TRAVEL: Air France Youth Fares

Booking | Air France | Tarif Jeune

Products: Traveldoo Enterprise and Portal
Markets: All
Communication to Users Recommended? No
Communication to Agencies? Yes
Requires Traveldoo Services Assistance? No
Optional? No

Overview

For certain routes, Air France offers reduced rates for young people between 12 and 24 years of age inclusive.

Benefits

Inserts a confirmation step when a youth fare is selected:

Makes sure the traveler is informed that a specific card is required at the check-in, at the gate and during the journey.

What’s New for users (Travelers / Arrangers)

Warning message to inform the traveler/arranger during the booking process.

EXPENSE: Validation of VAT amount for an expense

Expense | VAT

Products: Expense
Markets: All
Communication to Users Recommended? Yes
Requires Traveldoo Services Assistance? No
Optional? No

Overview

Management of VAT is an important part of all Expense management systems and especially important for companies who wish to try to reclaim VAT on eligible expenses.

Benefits

The accountant manager or approvers won’t have to worry any more, as we will ensure a valid, cohesive VAT amount field for an expense.

What’s New for Expense Users

While the user is completing their expense claim, validation of the VAT amount is done when the expense line is filled out. The validation is done for each case and each applicable VAT rate (sometimes there can be more than one). In the case of an invalid amount field, a message is displayed explaining the calculation made to validate the amount:

What’s New for Administrators

No changes needed.

EXPENSE: Daily frequency for expected payment date in automatic reimbursement validation

Expense | Reimbursement

Products: Expense
Markets: All
Communication to Users Recommended? No
Requires Traveldoo Services Assistance? No
Optional? Yes

Overview

From a certain point of view an expense management system exists in order to help employees get their money back. The process and setup of this part of the system is critical to most companies.

Benefits

The new functionality supports companies who wish to reimburse their employees at a daily frequency.

What’s New for Expense Users

Once the automated reimbursement has been enabled, the expected payment date will be set to the reimbursement approval date.

What’s New for Administrators

No changes needed.

EXPENSE: Validation of bank details

Expense | SEPA

Products: Expense
Markets: All
Communication to Users Recommended? No
Requires Traveldoo Services Assistance? No
Optional? No

Benefits

Optimize the reimbursement of expenses by avoiding back and forth exchanges in the case of erroneous data entered by the user.

What’s New for Expense Users

Bank account detail page is verified before saving to ensure IBAN and BIC compliance:

What’s New for Administrators

No changes needed.

EXPENSE: Warning in case of modified reference exchange rate

Expense | Exchange rate

Products: Expense
Markets: All
Communication to Users Recommended? No
Requires Traveldoo Services Assistance? No
Optional? No

Overview

Exchange rates can be challenging. Base rates change and traveller often get less than optimal exchange rates based on how they pay for things or get their money changed.
In Traveldoo the user can modify the provided exchange rate if needed.

Benefits

A change of exchange rates is one of the things which accountants like to check. With the new version, we highlight clearly where that has happened with a warning message.

What’s New for Expense Accountants / Users

A warning has been added advising of the exchange rate update:

What’s New for Administrators

No changes needed.

INVOICE: Display of trip details for regulated invoices

Trip | Invoice

Products: Invoice
Markets: All
Communication to Users Recommended? Yes
Requires Traveldoo Services Assistance? No
Optional? No

Benefits

Invoice managers can easily identify the services associated with the invoice.
Use the print version as a receipt for billing purposes.

What’s New for Invoice Managers

For each travel service, the dates, the destination and the ticket reference is displayed in the detail of the regulated invoice:

What’s New for Administrators

No changes needed.

INVOICE: Adjustment of line data at invoice level

Invoice | Adjustment

Products: Invoice
Markets: All
Communication to Users Recommended? Yes
Requires Traveldoo Services Assistance? No
Optional? No

Benefits

The adjustment of data elements such as Traveller Name or Order Reference is now done at the invoice level to improve the success rate of automatic invoice adjustments and to avoid the duplicated action of adjustment at each invoice line.

What’s New for Invoice managers

The adjustment functionality will be displayed at the invoice detail header, and the chosen adjustment data will apply for all the invoice lines.

What’s New for Administrators

No changes needed.