Policy & approvals
Spend decided before it happens
Write your travel policy once. Every option is checked against it, every exception needs a reason and an approver, and the same rules apply whether the trip was booked in the portal, by an assistant or by phone.
Walk-through
An out-of-policy booking, start to finish
Rules you can set
Precise, and readable by everyone
| Rule | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Cabin by flight length | Sets the highest cabin allowed by scheduled flight time, per policy group | Economy under 6h, premium economy 6–9h, business 9h+ |
| Hotel caps | A default nightly cap plus city overrides | $250 default; London $320; New York $350 |
| Advance booking | Minimum days between booking and departure | 14 days; later bookings are flagged |
| Preferred suppliers | Airlines and hotel chains to favor, as a rule or a warning | Preferred chains shown first; others marked |
| Trip maximum | A ceiling on the total trip price | Any trip above $6,000 needs approval |
| Approval mode | When approval is required | Only out of policy, always, or never |
| Restricted destinations | Places that always need approval, or can't be booked | Approval for listed countries; blocked for others |
| Department budgets | A budget per department and period, compared with actual spend in reports | Sales: $180,000 a quarter |
| Project codes | Codes a trip is charged to, chosen when it's requested | CLIENT-ACME-2026, RECRUITING |
Policy groups (standard, senior, executive) let different travelers have different limits without separate policies to maintain.
Approvers
The right person, even on vacation
- Each traveler has a named approver; if none is set, any travel manager can decide
- Approvers hand over to a delegate for set dates, and requests route to the delegate automatically
- Approvers are emailed when a decision is waiting, and decide in the portal
- Every request, decision, note and change is in the approval history and the audit log
Changes after approval
An approval covers what was approved
- A change that picks a pricier option, or one that breaks policy, creates a new approval marked as a change
- In-policy changes at the same or lower cost don't need re-approval
- The approver sees the original decision next to the change
Every channel
One policy, three ways to book
Online
Options in the portal carry their policy status, and out-of-policy selections ask for a reason.
Assistant
Assistants book under the traveler's own policy group and approver, not their own.
Service team
Phone and email bookings are entered against the same traveler, so our team applies the same check and the same approval chain.
Evidence
What you can measure from week one
Every figure below comes from your own bookings in the portal, from the first trip. No benchmarks, no borrowed case studies.
Policy compliance
The share of bookings in policy, every exception with its justification, and who approved it.
Budget against spend
Spend by department, project, supplier and traveler for any period, set against each department's budget.
Allocation coverage
The share of spend carrying an entity, department and project code, so month-end gaps show before close.
Money owed back
Refunds requested, processing and received, with outstanding and recovered kept separate.
Unused ticket credits
Every open credit by traveler and airline, with its expiry, until it's used.
Emissions
Estimated CO2e per booking using the UK government's published factors, exportable to CSV.
See all of it on our fictional demo company in the sample monthly report.
Questions
What buyers ask about policy & approvals
Can we write our own policy rules?
What happens if an approver doesn't respond?
Can a traveler see the policy?
Does an in-policy booking need approval?
Are blocked destinations enforced for phone bookings?
See your policy running on real requests
Send us your current policy and we'll show it set up in the portal.
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