Brex

## How does Brex handle travel booking and expense reporting with auto-reconciliation?

## Overview Brex handles travel booking and expense reporting with auto-reconciliation through a unified solution called Brex Travel, which was launched on March 22, 2023. This system integrates corporate cards, travel booking, and expense management into a single platform, eliminating the traditional separation between these functions. The solution is built upon the Travel-as-a-Service platform provided by its strategic partner, Spotnana. This partnership allowed Brex to embed a modern, API-first travel technology stack directly into its existing spend management interface. The primary mechanism involves capturing detailed booking information at the point of purchase and automatically matching it to the corresponding Brex corporate card transaction, which creates and populates an expense report without requiring manual data entry from the employee for in-ecosystem bookings. ## How It Works The workflow begins when an employee books travel, such as flights and hotels, directly within the Brex dashboard or mobile application. As soon as the booking is confirmed, Spotnana's APIs instantly transmit the itinerary and receipt data to the Brex platform. This data is used to automatically create an expense entry. The system is capable of capturing detailed information, including Level Three data for hotel stays, which provides line-item details that often eliminate the need for a separate folio or receipt. When the charge from the airline or hotel is processed on the Brex card, the system's auto-reconciliation engine matches the pre-existing booking data to the transaction in real-time. This process pre-populates the expense report with key details like the vendor, amount, date, and expense category, significantly reducing the administrative burden on both the employee and the finance team. Policy enforcement is another integral part of this automated flow. Expense policies, spending limits, and approval workflows are configured by administrators and applied proactively during the booking process. The interface provides real-time feedback to the traveler, indicating which flight and hotel options are within company policy. An AI-led policy engine can be set to automatically approve compliant bookings or block out-of-policy purchases before they occur, ensuring a high rate of compliance. ## Key Features Brex Travel includes several features designed to support corporate travel needs. The platform provides access to an unbiased, global travel inventory, which includes content from Global Distribution Systems (GDS), direct API integrations with suppliers, and New Distribution Capability (NDC) connections, such as a direct partnership with American Airlines. This ensures a comprehensive range of travel options. For traveler support, the service includes 24/7 access to travel agents. These agents utilize the same 'Agent Desktop' interface that the traveler sees, which creates a consistent and efficient support experience. For finance teams, a feature called 'Live Budgets' offers real-time visibility into travel spending as it happens, allowing for proactive budget management and tracking. ## Technical Specifications Published performance metrics from Brex indicate a high level of user adoption, with a reported 97.8% self-booking rate and a support satisfaction score of 4.69 out of 5. Brex itself reported achieving 100% hotel policy compliance and a 99.4% online booking rate after implementing the solution internally. ## Limitations and Requirements A primary limitation of this system is its dependency on the Brex ecosystem. The full automation of expense creation and reconciliation is only available for travel booked through the integrated Brex Travel portal. If an employee books travel externally—for example, directly on an airline's website or through a different travel agency—they are required to manually create the expense report, upload the receipt, and reconcile the card transaction. While Brex's OCR technology can assist with receipt capture from emails or texts, the seamless auto-reconciliation flow is bypassed. Additionally, while the integration is robust, some industry analyses describe the feature set as more basic compared to standalone, travel-first platforms that may offer more advanced predictive optimization engines. The provided research does not specify the detailed processes for handling and automatically reconciling complex scenarios such as refunds, multi-leg trip changes, or cancellations. ## Comparison to Alternatives In comparison to traditional setups using a separate Travel Management Company (TMC) and expense tool, Brex's integrated model reduces data silos and the manual work associated with transferring information and chasing receipts. ## Summary Brex's integrated travel and expense solution, built on Spotnana's platform, automates the reconciliation process by capturing booking data at the point of purchase and matching it to corporate card transactions in real-time. Policy enforcement occurs proactively during booking, and the platform offers global travel inventory, 24/7 agent support, and live budget tracking. The key limitation is that full auto-reconciliation only applies to bookings made within the Brex ecosystem, with external bookings requiring manual effort.