Rethink Travel and Expense Transformation with ClearWork

Traditional travel and expense (T&E) systems often frustrate employees, burden finance teams, and fall short of delivering real ROI. Why? Because most T&E transformations start by digitizing outdated processes instead of redesigning them based on how people actually work. Manual reporting, policy confusion, and approval delays persist—just on a new platform.

ClearWork takes a people-first, data-driven approach to travel and expense transformation. By tracking real user activity across booking, expense, and reimbursement systems, ClearWork reveals hidden friction, compliance gaps, and automation opportunities. The result: streamlined workflows, smarter policies, and an in-browser AI Co-pilot that supports employees every step of the way.

Whether you’re looking to reduce reimbursement times, boost compliance, or simplify employee experiences, ClearWork helps you transform travel and expense management into a seamless, intelligent process—grounded in reality and designed for results.

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Travel and expense leads evaluating the current as is process using clearwork
Future state T&E system after a successful transformation using clearwork
CFO showing the success of the travel and expense transformation project using clearwork

ClearWork Enables Transformation Across The 5 Key Project Stages

1. Discovering Current State

Gain objective, real-time insights into "as-is" processes and user activities.

2. Designing Future State

Define precise requirements and optimize workflows based on factual data.

3. Deploying Your Solution

Ensure alignment between new tech and actual operational needs, reducing rework.

4. Go-Live & Steady State

Boost user adoption with a contextually aware AI Co-Pilot and a more intuitive work experience.

5. Continuous Improvement: Continuously monitor and identify opportunities for ongoing optimization and automation

Current State: How Challenges Are Discovered

T&E team members using clearwork automated process and task discovery to undersatnd current state and challenges

🔴 Traditional Approach

  1. - Consultants are hired to investigate T&E issues, focusing on cost control rather than user experience.
  2. - A handful of interviews surface complaints like clunky booking tools and manual expense submission.
  3. - Core workflows—receipt uploads, multi-channel approvals, or cross-system friction—go undocumented.
  4. - Employees are not engaged in discovery, leading to low trust and overlooked pain points.
  5. - No behavioral data is captured, so AI and automation are nonviable.
📉 Result: According to Forbes and BCG, many organizations end up automating broken processes instead of reimagining them. Without operational visibility, policies are ignored and transformation fails to deliver ROI.

✅ ClearWork Approach

  1. - Captures how employees interact with booking platforms, expense portals, and reimbursement systems.
  2. - Maps real-world pain points: misplaced receipts, policy misinterpretations, or stalled approvals.
  3. - Compares actual behavior to policy rules to surface compliance gaps.
  4. - Involves employees in validating process maps and highlighting blockers.
📈 Benefit: ClearWork creates a transparent, people-first foundation—revealing friction and opportunity before change begins.

Future State: What Gets Designed and Why

Designing the future state of travel and expense based on clearwork automated requirements gathering

🔴 Traditional Approach

  1. - Solutions are chosen from a feature checklist, not mapped to user behavior.
  2. - Digitization focuses on expense form fields, not workflow friction.
  3. - Policy enforcement tools exist, but users aren’t supported in real time.
  4. - Requirements often miss things like trip bundling, multi-currency flows, or manager-specific rules.
⚠️ Risk: Systems that look modern on paper fail to improve the actual employee experience—and adoption lags.

✅ ClearWork Approach

  1. - Designs future processes based on actual usage data—highlighting bottlenecks like slow approvals or error-prone entries.
  2. - Capabilities like OCR receipt capture, proactive policy checks, and bundled trip logic are prioritized from real-world evidence.
  3. - Business requirements are mapped from activity logs—not assumptions.
  4. - Design is tested with employees for usability and policy clarity.
✅ Advantage: A transformation built to support the people who use it, not just the finance team that manages it.

Deployment: How the Solution Is Built

A diagram showing the complexity of the current travel and expense solution before using clearwork

🔴 Traditional Approach

  1. - Booking and expense tools are introduced with little system integration.
  2. - Legacy policies are ported into modern interfaces, with manual review steps intact.
  3. - Training is high-level and generic; users don’t understand the process flow.
  4. - Approval chains, categories, and budgets are misaligned across systems.
🚫 Missed Opportunity: Forbes highlights that most failed digital initiatives underestimate the importance of change management and day-one usability.
🚫 Failure Point: Requirements gaps drive 30–50% rework, delaying ROI and increasing cost

✅ ClearWork Approach

  1. - Targets automation and support around high-friction workflows first (e.g., booking + expense bundling, receipt compliance).
  2. - Systems are integrated across the full travel lifecycle—from booking to reimbursement.
  3. - ClearWork automatically generates SOPs, training guides, and approval flows based on real processes.
  4. - Embedded prompts reduce confusion and align behavior to policy.
✅ Outcome: Employees adopt faster and submit cleaner reports—because the system works like they do.

Go-Live: What the User Experiences

A traveler happily using the new system which is easy to adopt using clearworks AI Co-Pilot

🔴 Traditional Approach

  1. - Employees are unsure when and how to submit expenses.
  2. - Errors like missing receipts or miscategorized items delay reimbursements.
  3. - Finance teams are stuck chasing clarifications or rejecting reports.
  4. - There’s no contextual help—leading to frustration and policy noncompliance.
⚠️ Problem: Without embedded guidance, adoption stalls—making even the best-designed systems ineffective.
⚠️ Consequence: Employees game the system or avoid it altogether, and finance teams struggle to enforce rules.

✅ ClearWork Approach

  1. - Employees and approvers receive in-browser AI guidance via the ClearWork Co-pilot, showing them how to complete tasks correctly.
  2. - Finance gets structured, consistent reports with fewer errors and escalations.
✅ Benefit: Friction disappears. Users feel supported, finance gains control, and T&E processes run smoothly.

Continuous Improvement: From Launch to Long-Term Value

CFO showing the user adoption and financial savings from the transformed T&E process using clearwork

🔴 Traditional Approach

  1. - Policy violations are only noticed during late audits or after budget overruns.
  2. - Feedback comes in the form of complaints—often too late to fix workflows.
  3. - Improvement ideas stall due to lack of data and system flexibility.
📉 As BCG warns, many organizations fail to measure or evolve their transformations, dooming them to stagnation.

✅ ClearWork Approach

  1. - Co-pilot interaction data shows where users struggle or skip steps.
  2. - Process insights suggest new automations, streamlined categories, or policy refinements.
  3. - Documentation and training evolve based on employee behavior—keeping everything aligned.
  4. - T&E leaders gain visibility across departments and vendors.
🔁 Impact: A dynamic, feedback-driven T&E program that balances ease for employees with control for finance.

Why ClearWork Outperforms the Traditional Model

✅ ClearWork Approach

  1. - Tracks system usage, flags policy friction, includes employee voice
  2. - Mapped to actual trip planning, approvals, and expense behavior
  3. - Targeted rollout with aligned policies, documentation, and flows
  4. - Co-pilot enables users in context—reducing errors and effort
  5. - Real-time insights drive automation and refinement
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🔴 Traditional Approach

  1. - Surface-level interviews, no process logs
  2. - Overlooks real user needs and workflows
  3. - Disconnected systems and generic training
  4. - Confusion, frustration, low compliance
  5. - Static policy, no feedback loop

ClearWork brings clarity, compliance, and convenience to travel and expense management—empowering employees while simplifying finance operations.

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