How Literati Cut Travel Costs 14% With Navan

After launching a new business segment, Literati found its former expense solution, Airbase, was ill-equipped to handle its newfound growth. Frustrated by a lack of visibility and control of its travel and expense program, Literati sought a new solution.

What happens when your company launches a brand-new business segment, only to discover that its expense management solution can’t handle the growth?

That’s what happened with Literati, a business first known for its monthly kids’ book clubs, the company experienced rapid expansion after launching school book fairs across the U.S. in 2022, and as the business grew, its T&E challenges became clearer:

• Zero visibility or control with spend
• No policy controls
• Lengthy expense reimbursements
• Intense manual work
• Unmanaged travel

“Airbase lacked control over what was being spent on the card,” said Laura Martin, VP of Finance at Literati. All Airbase transactions had to be manually reviewed — even those that complied with policy.

To make matters worse, Martin had to manually calculate the cost of meals for each day an employee traveled to ensure the total didn’t exceed the daily limit. 

“When you compare how much time it takes an administrator to calculate someone’s daily meal spend versus the money the company might save by catching them overspending, it just doesn’t add up,” said Martin.

So Literati made the switch to Navan, which automatically approves 96% of the company’s virtual card transactions — drastically cutting Martin’s burdensome busywork. Literati has also gained real-time spend visibility and seen other impressive results with the all-in-one solution:

• 22% savings on hotels
• 14% savings on travel overall
• Average daily hotel rate 31% below policy cap

“Using Navan is how traveling for work should be,” said Martin.

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