Opening a req for a junior coordinator to support about 300 travelers on Concur with Amex GBT, enforcing a $600 airfare cap and a 14‑day advance‑purchase rule. For cost control and policy adherence, what skills have moved the needle for you lately — Excel audit chops, entry‑level GDS, or vendor‑management basics?
I’d prioritize Excel/Power Query and tuning Concur audit rules over entry‑level GDS for a junior. Have them build a weekly exception flow from Concur/GBT into Power Query that flags >$600 and <14‑day bookings, applies reason codes, and auto‑pings approvers — it’s like a speed camera for fares. Basic PNR reading helps for waivers later; @OP can they tweak your Concur audit rules, or is that locked down?
What moved the needle for us was having the junior own the Amex GBT unused-ticket ledger — pull the weekly e-credit report, match to Concur profiles, and send targeted “use credit” nudges for trips 15–20 days out so they ticket before the “14-day” window and stay under the $600 cap; it beat basic GDS work for savings, though airline mix matters. Do you have Unused Ticket Manager enabled with GBT?
Have them own GBT auto re-shop to keep “$600” fares; add alternate-airport maps. @hiringteam, ok?
Quick example: I had our junior run a daily “near‑cap queue” — any fare >$560 or inside the two‑week window triggers a two‑line nudge to the traveler (“can you shift time/airport or approve variance?”) and a same‑hour ping to GBT to try a split‑ticket or small schedule tweak. It cut cap breaches about 30% without needing GDS, but make sure finance gives them a tight exception code list so they’re not chasing exec trips. @hiringteam want the nudge template?