Travel Policy

When you set out on a business trip, our primary goal is to guarantee your safety and well-being, thus promoting a productive and pleasant journey. To achieve this, our corporate travel policy specifies the necessary rules and processes for company-funded trips.

Our company's travel policy clearly defines our provisions for business-related travel. We will detail the expenses eligible for reimbursement and provide guidance on the proper expense tracking procedures for our employees during their travels

Business Travel Definition

As our employee, you may need to travel for company purposes. This includes trips to:

Meet with clients or partners.
Attend events, like conferences, where you’ll represent our company.
Visit our company’s offices in other locations.
Data Gathering, meeting, showcases and deployment for projects
Business presentations on behalf of our company

Scope

This policy is inclusive of all our staff members. In the context of this policy, the term 'travel' pertains to business trips to destinations other than one's current location. Additionally, this definition encompasses journeys by car, train, or bus lasting more than one hour.

It's important to note that this policy does not cover daily commuting to and from the office for regular work activities. Commuting expenses are reimbursed in accordance with each employee's individual contract or agreement with our company.

General Guidelines

1) All travel must be approved in advance of booking by the Employee’s Manager.

2) Reimbursement requests must be submitted within thirty (30) days of the qualifying expense; receipt(s) should accompany the requests if applicable.

3) Employees may retain frequent flyer program benefits; however, participation in such programs must not influence flight selection that would result in an increased cost to the Company.

4) No more than five company employees or two company executives should fly on the same flight.

5) Whenever a personal automobile is used for travel requested by Simulanis (beyond travel to and from the employee’s place of employment), reimbursement will be made at a cost-per-km basis.

6) For extended-length trips consider renting a car if the rental and petrol/gas cost will be less expensive than the mileage reimbursement on your personal vehicle.

7) In case an employee wants to combine business stay with personal vacations, it must be duly approved by the director/HOD. It should be noted that no reimbursement would happen for any personal expense.

8) In case an employee gets ill while on business travel the expenses occurred while taking the treatment will be reimbursed on actual bill and doctor’s prescription. However, if the illness is for more than 3 days special approval needs to be taken from director / HOD.

9) No expense will be reimbursed for alcoholic beverages or cigarette etc.

10) If there is any change in the travel ( domestic or international) due to any reason and it is more costly then the approval that has already been taken, a fresh travel request need to be raised in this case.

11) Any Travel expense not been used by employee on travel, such amount shall be returned to accounts department with a confirmation mail.

12) All employees are required to have at least two hard copies or original versions of their photo identification proofs, in addition to their office ID card and business cards. For international travel, it is mandatory to carry a passport.

13) Travel which can be done overnight by road/rail should be done by road / rail. In case this is not possible, due to a justified reason and on urgent business exigencies, would air travel be allowed. Any deviation from the above shall require approval of the HOD’s.

14) The employee needs to submit his/her bills within 15 days of completing his tour. In case, he is not able to submit his bills within the given time-limit, he needs to attach a note to it by stating a reason for the same. Any tour bills not submitted against tour advances for more than 30 days shall be deducted from coming month’s salary. If employee pays bills himself, he needs to submit bill as well his credit/debit card statement in case of card payment. It is responsibility of employee to get authentic bills.

15) In case of cancellation of the ticket or someone missed the flight for any journey from the employees side without any proper reason, there will be a penalty imposed on the employee. The nature of the penalty will be decided based on the justification provided by the employee.

Travel Booking Platforms

MMT

Flight, Bus, Hotel and Train (IRCTC) Booking

Ola

Inter-city and Intra-city Travel

Company Cards

Food, Other Miscellaneous

Guideline to Boarding and Lodging

Meals & Incidental Expenses

1) Actual, reasonable costs will be reimbursable for meals and incidental expenses.

2) Personal alcohol is not a qualified expense for reimbursement under the company’s travel expense reimbursement policy.

3) Alcohol or bar tabs in association with business meetings or functions will not be reimbursed.

Lodging Policy

1) Actual, reasonable costs will be reimbursable for lodging expenses.

2) Hotels of moderate and reasonable comfort should be sought, rather than deluxe or luxury hotels.

3) Each traveler should use his or her best judgment in selecting a location and hotel, recognizing that his or her health and safety are of paramount importance.

4) Travelers may upgrade when it is at no extra cost to the company.

5) Travelers of the same gender will double-occupy hotel rooms unless an exception is granted by your manager.

Budget Approval Process For Travel

To get the approval on the travel plan shared by the employee, the employee should share the overall plan with approximate amount of taxi, food, air/train, hotel expenses, etc. in the ‘Ops-travel’ slack channel after getting the approval from the manager.

Please refer to the below process to get the budget approved for the trip:

Note: Make sure the budget approval and travel arrangements should be done 3 days prior to the trip. For emergency / urgent travel, one must provide the justification and take the approval from the CEO/COO before making the arrangements for the trip

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