Your boss is headed out for a trip and you're writing up an itinerary. The way you prepare your manager's itinerary can play a key role in saving him or her time and stress. A well-planned itinerary can also boost your boss's belief that the trip will run smoothly — putting them in the right frame of mind to do business.

What should you include?

• Specific travel details — the how, when, where.
• Hotel information — address, phone and fax numbers, even facilities, so that your boss knows whether there's a gym or pool.
• Meeting details — address, who will be there and their titles, phone number, meeting start and finish times, how your boss will get there and away afterwards.
• The "what if" scenario with emergency numbers to call if things go wrong — crucial if your boss is arriving in a city when you're not in the office.

Remember that personal touches you make can impact on your boss's trip and make it less stressful. These include checking him in on-line so he gets his favourite seat on board; asking for a particular room he likes in his hotel, or asking the car company to send his favourite driver to pick him up.

Should you share the itinerary with anyone?

Providing confidentiality allows, why not give a PA you work closely with a copy of your boss's itinerary so that if your boss suddenly has a problem or changes his plan, and you're out of the office, they can do it for you.

What else should you give your boss?

• Relevant papers, organised so that he can refer to them quickly, and presented in such a way that their contents are not read by others.
• Any extra reading he needs to catch up on.
• Currency, if appropriate.

Where do travel itineraries go wrong?

A key component to the success of an itinerary is the way you envisage possible things could go wrong, such as:

• Travel hold ups, even minor ones.
• Last minute strikes.
• Cancelled flights and trains.

Other potential problems include:

• Your boss's personality — does he usually leave things to the last minute?
• Local events which could affect smooth travel arrangements.
• Forgetting changes in time and date zones.
• Not being specific enough so your boss wastes valuable minutes working out what to do next.

Itineraries fall down when they don't allow for these eventualities. A successful itinerary not only looks to allow for them, but it looks to save your boss time wherever possible.

Take our Travel Itinerary Test!

Below, we have an imaginary itinerary for SellitKwik Software's Finance Director Joanne Moss. Joanne lives an hour's drive from Heathrow and she is off to Paris. Her PA, Sandra, has prepared the itinerary. Without looking at the second version of this itinerary, print this out and mark in the right-hand column anything you think Sandra could add to make the itinerary more effective and to save Joanne time. Then, compare with our second version to see how well you fared!

Download Itinerary Version One

See Joanne Moss's Travel Itinerary — Version Two

Now take a look at our second version below. How does yours compare? Did you add similar information? Did you spot where Sandra's previous itinerary was weak? Consider these questions:

1. Which itinerary gave Joanne the most confidence that the day would run smoothly? What difference would each have made to her peace of mind?
2. Which itinerary gives Joanne the most clarity about the day, leaving her to focus on the meeting?
3. At which point in each day did Joanne save time in the second itinerary and waste time in the first?
4. What else could you do to the second itinerary to save Joanne even more time and energy?

Share best practice!

Why not share this with other PAs in your office to see what they think and how they draw up travel itineraries?