Field notes
When boarding evidence is missing
Flight itineraries alone rarely prove travel occurred — auditors still look for boarding evidence on sampled applications.
Digital check-in has made boarding passes easier to lose. Travellers forward an e-ticket confirmation and assume the file is complete. In a financial audit of travel expense applications, itinerary plus payment proof may support the airfare line, yet lodging and per-diem still need evidence that the trip occurred on the claimed dates.
When boarding evidence is missing, we look for secondary support: hotel check-in timestamps, client meeting invitations with attendance notes, or corporate car-service logs at the destination. None of these is as strong as a boarding pass, but together they can reduce the finding from “unsupported travel” to “incomplete airfare support.”
Finance teams can cut exception rates by requiring boarding images at approval time for overseas trips, not at audit time. For domestic KTX or bus travel, ticket QR captures play a similar role. The goal is not paperwork for its own sake — it is aligning reimbursement with days actually spent on business travel.