The envelope that comes back from every tour
Before a departure, the tour leader collects a float in euros and a company card. During the tour they pay for the boat trip, two lunches, museum tickets, tips for the coach driver and local guide, water for the coach, and a taxi for a passenger who needed a pharmacy. They keep receipts in an envelope, when there is a receipt.
Back home, the envelope and a handwritten summary arrive at the office, sometimes weeks later if the leader goes straight onto another tour. The accounts person works through faded till slips in Italian and tries to match them to the card statement and the float. The total is out by an amount nobody can explain.
Paper receipts and memory are the only record
The problem is not dishonesty. It is that spending on tour happens quickly, in cash, in another language, and is recorded after the fact. The office also has no clear list of what the leader was expected to pay.
- Planned on-tour payments are not written down anywhere the leader can see.
- Receipts fade, get lost or were never given.
- Card and cash spend are recorded differently.
- Currency conversions are done by hand at the end.
- Reconciliation waits until the leader is back and has time.
Slow reconciliation hides the true tour cost
Until the float is reconciled, you do not know what the departure really cost. Differences are written off because chasing them weeks later is awkward. Leaders dislike the paperwork, especially when they run back-to-back tours, and good leaders are not easy to replace.
Where on-tour costs are part of the costing, such as included lunches or tips, you also lose the information that tells you whether next season's price is right.
A float log on the leader's phone
We build a simple on-tour spend log for each departure.
- The office sets up the departure's planned on-tour payments from the itinerary and supplier schedule: which suppliers are paid on the day, roughly how much, and in which currency.
- The leader sees the list on their phone, with the float amount issued and the card to use.
- When they pay, they tap the planned item or add a new one, enter the amount, choose cash or card, and photograph the receipt. It works offline and sends when there is signal.
- Receipt photos are read by an extraction step to fill in amount and date, which the leader confirms.
- The office sees the running float balance and spend against plan during the tour, not afterwards.
- Card spend is matched against the card provider's transactions, and cash spend against the float, with currency converted at the rate you set.
- At the end, the leader confirms the cash returned, and the reconciled total flows to your accounts system as one entry for the departure, with receipts attached.
| Item | Before | With the log |
|---|---|---|
| What the leader should pay | Briefing notes or memory | Planned list on the phone |
| Receipts | Envelope, some missing | Photographed when paid |
| Float balance | Known at the end | Seen live by the office |
| Currency conversion | Done by hand afterwards | Applied at your set rate |
| Posting to accounts | Weeks later | One entry at tour end |
Tour end with the float already reconciled
On the last day, the leader checks the log, adds a tip that was not planned, and records the cash left. The office sees a float that balances, except for one unreceipted taxi fare the leader has already explained in a note. The departure's on-tour costs are in the accounts the following week.
When planning next season, the product manager can see what each tour's on-tour costs actually came to, compared with what was planned.
Is the receipt envelope familiar?
- Tour leaders return receipts in an envelope.
- Floats are reconciled weeks after the tour ends.
- Leaders do not have a list of planned on-tour payments.
- Currency conversions are worked out at the end by hand.
- Unexplained differences are written off.