The data the audit needs, and what each source reveals
A summary invoice and a TMC dashboard cannot be audited. The work needs transaction-level files covering the same 12 months, so a single trip can be traced across every system that recorded it.
| Source | Required fields | What it reveals |
|---|---|---|
| ARC/BSP settlement files | Ticket number, fare, taxes, carrier, issue and refund dates | What the airline actually settled, versus what was invoiced |
| TMC invoice lines | PNR, ticket number, fee code, booking channel, agent ID | Fee coding errors, offline coding, fee stacking |
| TMC call and OBT logs | Contact time, traveler, outcome, OBT session ID | Whether offline and after-hours fees match real contacts |
| Hotel commission statements | Property, nights, room revenue, commission paid | Commission retained by the TMC on your stays |
| Hotel rate audit sample | Rate code, rate paid, BAR on the night | Rate loading errors, NLRA close-out, cap breaches |
| Corporate card feeds | Merchant, MCC, amount, cardholder, date | Bookings made outside the TMC channel |
| Expense reports | Claim lines, receipts, policy flags | Duplicate claims, out-of-policy spend, personal points |
| HR roster and leaver list | Employee ID, status, exit date | Unused ticket credits held by departed employees |
Write the right to receive these files into the TMC contract before you need them; a clause is at the end of week 4 below.
Week 1 — Data intake and ARC/BSP air reconciliation
Week 1 builds the master trip table. Every ticket in the ARC/BSP file is matched to a TMC invoice line by ticket number, and every TMC line is matched back. Three populations fall out of the match.
- Tickets settled but not invoiced by the TMC. These were bought outside the TMC, usually on consumer sites or airline websites, and show the size of channel leakage.
- Refunds settled but not credited. A refund that the airline paid to the agency but that never reached your account is a direct cash recovery.
- Exchanges with fare differences that do not reconcile. Residual value lost on exchanges points to agent error or missed credits.
The same week, the auditor confirms the contracted airline POS discount was applied on each contracted city pair, and pulls the open unused ticket credit list with expiry dates. The mechanics of both are set out in airline NDC surcharges and unused ticket recovery.
Week 2 — TMC invoice line audit
Every fee line is mapped to the contracted fee schedule. Lines with a fee code that maps to nothing in the contract are unauthorized. The rest are tested against the event that should have triggered them.
- Offline coding test. Compare offline fees with logged agent contacts for the same traveler and day. A booking with an OBT session and no contact should carry the online fee.
- Stacking test. Count transaction fees per trip. More than one fee on one trip breaches a per-trip schedule.
- Change test. Match exchange fees with carrier schedule-change messages; involuntary changes billed as exchanges are recoverable where the contract excludes them.
- Surcharge test. Identify GDS segment surcharges on carriers where the TMC had an NDC connection, and NDC servicing fees billed on top of the online fee.
- Premium test. Reconcile after-hours and VIP fees with time stamps and the approved VIP list.
Benchmark ranges for each fee line are in the 2026 TMC fee benchmarks; vendor-specific patterns are in the Amex GBT and BCD Travel contract audit guides.
Week 3 — Hotel commission and rate reconciliation
Hotel spend is usually 35%–40% of T&E, and two different leaks sit inside it.
Commission. The auditor rebuilds commissionable nights from the TMC’s booking data and compares them with commission statements. Where the contract requires pass-through, the gap is owed; where it is silent, the figure becomes the opening position for an 85%–100% pass-through clause.
Rates. A sample of stays at the top 20 properties is tested: was the negotiated rate loaded, was it displayed in the OBT, was it booked, and on how many nights did the property close it out? The NLRA close-out share found here feeds directly into the cost model in LRA vs. NLRA close-out math.
Week 4 — Card feeds, leakage and the recovery report
Card data closes the loop. Airline, hotel and car merchant transactions on corporate cards that have no matching TMC record are out-of-channel bookings. Industry average out-of-channel leakage runs at about 34% of hotel and air bookings; each 10-point reduction is worth 2.2%–3.5% of total T&E cost. The same pass catches duplicate claims, where a TMC-billed hotel also appears as an expense claim.
The report sorts findings into three groups: cash recoverable now (refunds, overbilled fees, commission owed), contract changes worth money from the next invoice, and policy or behavior changes. Each item carries the invoice lines that prove it.
Clause 9.2 · Data access and audit rights
The TMC shall deliver, within 15 business days of request and at no charge, transaction-level data for any period of the term, including invoice lines with PNR, ticket number, fee code, booking channel and agent identifier, agent contact logs, unused ticket credit records and hotel commission statements by property. The Client or its appointed independent auditor may audit fees and supplier income once per contract year; where overbilling exceeds 2% of fees in the audited period, the TMC shall refund the overbilling and bear the cost of the audit.