TMC Vendor Pricing & Contract Clause Audit Directory

How to use the vendor audit directory

A vendor audit answers one question: does your signed contract, applied to your own booking data, produce the invoices you are receiving, and are its terms in line with the market? It is narrower than a TMC selection and faster than an RFP. Use it when a renewal is 6 to 12 months away, when a platform or fee schedule change has been announced, or when invoice totals have drifted away from booking volume.

Every guide in this directory follows the same rules. Fees are shown as typical contracted ranges we see in RFP responses and invoices, collected for the Business Travel Consulting 2026 benchmarks, never as a vendor’s price list. Vendor facts are limited to public, stable information such as ownership and product names. Pricing varies by contract, and each vendor’s current published terms and your signed agreement govern. Cross-vendor fee benchmarks sit in our 2026 TMC fee benchmark report.

Each guide leads with the issue that most often decides that vendor’s renewal. The Amex GBT guide covers channel-shift pricing and migration terms after the CWT acquisition. The Navan guide separates card economics from travel fees. The BCD Travel guide converts a management fee into a per-transaction cost. The TravelPerk guide works through flexible-cancellation break-even math. The FCM Travel guide defines the billable agent touch. The Spotnana guide builds an all-in cost per trip across two invoices, and the SAP Concur guide untangles booking fees stacked on TMC fees.

Four pricing models and where each one leaks

The vendor matters less than the pricing model you signed. The same audit question recurs across vendors that use the same structure, so identify your model first.

Six clauses that belong in every travel contract

Whatever the vendor, these six protections recur in every scorecard in this directory: a narrow definition of a billable agent touch; hotel commission pass-through of 85% or more, explained in our hotel RFP guide; channel-neutral pricing with a capped NDC servicing fee, covered in our NDC surcharge guide; automatic unused ticket reuse with an expiring-credit report; a no-fee data export at exit; and an annual audit right with remuneration disclosure. The last one makes all the others enforceable.

Clause 12.1 · Audit right and remuneration disclosure

Once per contract year, Client or its independent auditor may audit Supplier’s invoices, booking records and fee calculations relating to Client on [30] days’ notice. Supplier shall provide, within 60 days of each contract year end, a statement of all commissions, incentives, overrides and other supplier remuneration attributable to Client’s bookings. Overcharges identified shall be credited within 30 days, and Supplier shall bear the audit cost if overcharges exceed [3]% of fees for the year.

Clause 12.4 · Transaction-level data

Supplier shall deliver monthly a transaction-level data file showing, for every charge, the booking reference, traveler, fee code, channel and amount, in a format agreed with Client.

The vendor audit sequence

1. Collect the paper. Signed agreement, all amendments, current fee schedules, and 12 months of invoices and booking data.
2. Identify the model. Use the table above, then open the matching vendor guide.
3. Re-price the year. Apply the contracted schedule to your bookings and compare with what was invoiced, following our 30-day forensic T&E audit method.
4. Score the clauses. Complete the vendor scorecard to rank missing protections by exposure.
5. Benchmark. Compare each fee line with the matching head-to-head comparison and the cross-vendor benchmarks.
6. Decide. Renegotiate, re-scope or run a market test.

Renegotiate, re-scope or run an RFP

Most audits end in a renegotiation, because the incumbent can usually fix definitions and pass-through terms faster than a new provider can be implemented. Three signals point to a market test instead: re-priced invoice variance above about 5% of TMC fees, service levels missed for two or more consecutive quarters, or a platform or schedule migration imposed on weaker terms. In those cases, run a structured process with a standardized mock basket, as described in our TMC RFP guide. If you have no managed program yet, start with the unmanaged-to-managed playbook instead.

All 7 vendor audits guides