Managing the business travel approval process: five things to keep in mind

22 Apr 2021 · 7
The business travel industry is big business. The UK's travel and tourism market is expected to reach a revenue of £32.17 bn by 2024 with an annual growth rate of 1.29%, projecting a market volume of £33.77 bn by 2028. As employees and clients tire of Zoom fatigue and written communication, many will be looking to get back to face-to-face contact—understandably so, since face-to-face requests have been shown to be 34 times more powerful than email.
This is the perfect time to streamline your company’s business travel approval process. Managing the approval process can be confusing since each company has its own unique policy, and multiple people may be involved. However, the business travel approval process doesn’t have to be difficult. By defining a clear policy, centralising all your data in one place, and communicating clearly with business travel stakeholders, you can ensure everything runs smoothly. Here’s what you should do:

1. Consult all relevant business travel stakeholders

The first place to start is to decide who will be part of your business travel approval process. This may look different depending on your organisation’s size and structure. Small companies may have an informal travel policy and only one or two people to consult for travel approval. On the other hand, at a larger business, you may need to involve various people across different departments during the approval process.
Here are some examples of people who may be involved in the business travel approval process of a mid-sized to large company:
  • Administrators: an office travel manager or executive assistant in charge of booking business travel
  • Line managers: the manager of the person going on the business trip
  • Executives: additional managers at the director or C-suite level
  • Finance: a representative from the finance department who handles business travel (from the perspective of travel costs)
  • HR: a representative from the HR department who handles business travel (from the engagement or compliance perspective)
Of course, you’ll want to only involve the people who are absolutely crucial, to avoid creating undue bureaucracy or delays. The important thing is to decide which “approvers” do need to be consulted for pre-trip approval of business travel, and make sure they’re in the loop all the way through the approval process.
Ebook

Learn how to write a comprehensive business travel policy with our ebook.

2. Create an organised business travel approval process

Once you’ve identified your stakeholders, the next step is to put together an organised plan for business travel. If you don’t yet have a company travel policy, this might be a good time to create one. To learn more, check out our e-book: “The Modern Guide to Writing a Company Travel Policy.”
Here are some factors to take into account when writing your company travel policy:
  • Who’s in charge of booking business travel? Employees, managers, an administrative assistant?
  • Do travellers need to fill out a request form?
  • What "approvers" need to be consulted for corporate travel approval?
  • How does spending work when on a business trip? Who sets and controls the budget?
  • How much advance notice is needed to approve a business trip?
  • What happens if there’s a last-minute business travel request?
  • Are only certain types of hotels, flights, etc. approved for travel booking? For example, can a traveller book a three-star or four-star hotel?
  • Is there a certain cabin class allowed for flights (first, business, economy?)
With TravelPerk, you can integrate your travel policy directly with the platform. This means business travellers can easily book their own trips while avoiding non-compliance with your company travel policy. If you need business travellers to send their trips to a manager before booking, you can set up that automated approval process in TravelPerk, too.

Here's how travel policies are seamlessly integrated in TravelPerk

When you book your business travel through TravelPerk, your travel policy is seamlessly integrated into our platform. This not only gives your employees better visibility of whats in policy but also helps them make more informed choices when booking their trips. Not to mention, more control and peace of mind for your finance team too!
Your details will be used for demo purposes only. View Privacy Policy.

3. Manage things all in one place during the approval process

The key to an organised business travel approval process is to centralise everything in one place. If you have numerous documents, emails, and sticky notes flying around, you’re more likely to encounter problems with your business travel programme.
Having a disorganised business travel approval process can cause many challenges for your business. For one thing, you may end up getting stuck in confusing back-and-forths that eventually lead to travel delays. For another, employees may not even be aware of your travel policies and what they are or aren’t allowed to do.
Using a centralised online booking tool like TravelPerk makes the business travel approval process easy, sparing your inbox and your sanity.
Learn how to save your money on business travel by automating your booking process

4. Communicate the business travel approval process to people in your company

After creating a clear, centralised procedure, it’s important to make sure people in your business understand it. Everyone should know what is expected of them during the business travel approval process.
Be sure to send out an internal announcement in a channel you know people will check. This may be email, chat software, or a company intranet. Spread the news via word of mouth as well (did you know news from just 4% of influential employees can end up reaching 70% of your company?)
If you’ve invested in a business travel management software, you’ll also want to provide people with training. Fortunately, this becomes easier if the online booking tool you’ve chosen is highly usable and provides good support.

5. Automate your business travel approval process where possible

Finally, there’s a strong case to be made for automating your business travel approval process. Automation saves time and makes the whole process easily accessible, especially for remote and hybrid teams. According to Workfront’s State of Work 2020 Report, 87% of respondents think leaders should reconsider the way they think about technology, 84% say businesses are missing opportunities by not moving to more modern solutions, and 91% say they crave modern technology solutions.

Bonus: Using TravelPerk for your business travel approval process

Did you know that, with TravelPerk, this whole process can be fully automated? Subscribers to our Premium Plan can benefit from a straightforward and easy-to-use business travel approval process that can complement your company policy and streamline your staff’s workflow.
The way it works cannot be simpler. Your team members can submit their approval requests through our platform by adding the services and travel expenses they require to their itinerary. Once organised, they can add a personalised request letter to the itinerary before putting in their formal request for approval from their boss. This could be to the attention of the project manager, HR department, or whoever is normally in charge of supplying travellers with a letter of approval for their business trips. The trip will automatically be saved in the traveller’s Pending Approval section.
This automatically generates a request email from TravelPerk which will be received by the approver. The email will contain a subject line with the basic information, the full itinerary, the personalised message, and the total cost with all relevant billing and invoicing information.
If there are any issues, the approver can decline the request with an accompanying justification. The traveller can re-submit their approval request once any necessary changes have been made such as budget adjustments. If all is above board and within the company’s travel policy, the trip can be approved which will automatically generate an approval email that will be sent to the traveller. The required payments will also be made simultaneously. The traveller will also see that the trip badge for that particular request has been changed to Approved.
TravelPerk also allows you to manage the same approval process through Slack! With the Slack Integration, the approver will be notified of a travel request through a Slack message containing all of the relevant information we outlined above. They’ll even be able to approve or decline the trip within the message itself.
Gone are the days of awkward, formal letters requesting travel approval from your boss followed by and time-consuming approval and payment processes. TravelPerk’s business travel approval process offers your team a centralised, standardised, efficient, and transparent solution that can be managed directly in your email inbox or Slack workspace.

Conclusion

While the business travel approval process may seem overwhelming when everything is done manually, this doesn’t have to be the case forever. By creating an organised plan, communicating it well, and using an automated, centralised system, you can change the way your company does business travel.

Did you find this article useful?

If you did, please follow us on our social media accounts on LinkedIn or Instagram. Please share the article with your friends or colleagues!
Woman riding train

Make business travel simpler. Forever.

  • See our platform in action. Trusted by thousands of companies worldwide, TravelPerk makes business travel simpler to manage with more flexibility, full control of spending with easy reporting, and options to offset your carbon footprint.
  • Find hundreds of resources on all things business travel, from tips on traveling more sustainably, to advice on setting up a business travel policy, and managing your expenses. Our latest e-books and blog posts have you covered.
  • Never miss another update. Stay in touch with us on social for the latest product releases, upcoming events, and articles fresh off the press.