Where to start with travel approvals
There’s a point during the growth of any company when the amount of business travel increases rapidly. You begin to set parameters, such as a travel and expense policy, but then you find yourself worrying about flying blind. You don’t know whether your travelers are following policy, how much they’re spending, or what safety considerations there might be until after they’ve already booked.
So where do you stand when it comes to implementing a business travel approval process? Lots of businesses do it, and our data shows that only 2% of travel requests for booking are rejected.
So, is it the best option for your company and how can you make sure it works seamlessly? Let’s explore.
Choosing the right business travel approval process
Businesses have different risk tolerances and financial norms based on their structure, industry and other factors. These factors, plus your information and cost control needs can point you in the right direction when choosing an approach model.
There are three basic types of approval models:
Strict models
Strict models will have hard approvals for itineraries and costs, with multiple required approval steps. They might have longer timelines and pre-set approval processes with little room for unforeseen situations. A fixed maximum budget is also common.
Permissive models
Permissive models have hard approvals for itineraries and high-cost bookings with a few approval steps. Late bookings are discouraged but timelines for an approval are not overly lengthy. Budget limits are flexible based on market rates, and there are processes to follow for contingencies.
Relaxed models
Relaxed models mostly use soft approvals except for high-cost travel. Employees are offered incentives to book early rather than limiting last-minute bookings. Budgets are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, and soft approvals are used to resolve contingencies.
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The benefits of using travel approvals
1. Peace of mind for you and your people.
If your employees are waiting for a travel request to be approved, it means you have oversight of their travel plans. You can check in on trip requests and act early to manage risk, whether it’s reviewing travel to high-risk locations or changing plans in a crisis.
2. Keep a tighter leash on that budget.
With approvals in place, it’s easier to control how much you’re spending on travel now and in the future. Managers can assess the requested expenditure and act as needed to curb excessive spending and avoid fraudulent activity.
3. Travelers are more likely to book within the policy and processes you’ve spent hours refining and rolling out.
When there’s an approvals process in place, people may think twice before they book a trip and are more likely to book within policy. They’ll be more mindful about how much they’re spending and are more likely to try to stick within budget.
The downsides of travel approvals
1. It’s another process for everyone to think about.
An extra layer of bureaucracy costs time and efficiency. Consider the time it takes for managers to approve trips, how prices may vary in the meantime, and the number of times the traveler has to rebook.
2. The old carrot and stick argument.
Think about your company culture and how people want to be treated by their employers. They want to be trusted and feel their contribution is valued, right? Nudges and communication to entice them to book within the policy may work better than a rigid approval process.
3. Getting that green light.
There’s nothing worse than sitting around for a “yes” before starting on a project or trip, especially if it’s last minute. Hopping onto a plane at short notice is stressful enough when you also need somewhere to stay, get packing, and make arrangements, or rearrangements, for anything from pets to childcare. Adding an approval step with time-consuming decision making is only going to add to that stress.
Best practices for travel approvals
Think about your business priorities, but factor in the impact it may have on travelers and travel bookers.
Strategic setup for a streamlined approval process
Be targeted and efficient, going back to your overall travel and company goals. You might not need approval for every trip, and you should keep things simple wherever you can. For example, if you’re focused on saving money, can the travel approval process kick in when a travel booking is over a certain budget amount?
Establishing clear approval requirements for different types of trips can help control costs. You can also tailor the approval processes for different types of travelers. While no traveler is the same, you should be able to identify a few different types of travelers in your business, e.g., the travel rules for the sales team might be different from other departments. When you customize your travel policy to suit a few traveler types, you’ll find the approval process will differ too.
Check out our downloadable guide to streamlining your corporate travel.
Optimizing the approval process
It’s a team effort to make sure that approvals operate smoothly. Employees performing approvals, reporting, or making requests need to be able to use the system easily and effectively. Now that you have an approval process for different traveler scenarios, the next step is adding multiple approvers and creating parallel workflows.
Early bookings can play an important role in optimizing travel processes and reducing travel expenses. Planning ahead can have a big impact on costs, especially for flights and accommodations or for popular business travel destinations.
The relaxed model of the approval process encourages travelers to book early by offering rewards points or other incentives.
Advanced strategies for approvals
Project-based approvals are another tool that might be right for your business, especially if you’re in an industry like consulting or professional services. For this type of travel, a project manager should be part of the business travel approval process to ensure milestones are being met without going over budget. Setting up and defining custom-use cases can be part of the travel policy.
Automating approval steps is a great way to optimize travel management. Current technology can be your best friend, offering real-time management for functions like policy compliance, approvals, and prepayment. Employees will appreciate an all-in-one technology platform for travel booking because they have used similar tools before for personal travel.
Use technology to start off on the right foot
It needs to be easy for travelers to seek and get approval, and easy for those who have the power to approve a trip seamlessly. Consider how approvals will work in the systems and processes you already have. Technology can automate the business travel approval process to make it slicker for everyone involved.
When companies want more oversight for significant travel investments, software tools can be used to implement high-cost approvals without a lot of additional admin work. Itineraries and cost-base approvals can be set for the level that works for your business.
There is a middle ground option, too. You can have the oversight without the hard stop of requiring approval through notification settings.
With Melon, you can switch on this setting so that if a traveler or travel arranger books a trip that’s out of policy, you’ll be notified and can take any appropriate action. The booking experience stays the same, and there are no delayed or ignored approvals or fare increases.
Let technology do the work for you
Manage your travel requests in Melon with a configuration that meets your specific needs. Set the approval policy by traveler type and tailor Melon’s approval features to the requirements of those different groups.
You can adjust the approval process to kick in at the point you want it to, including price, trip duration, flight class of service, and more. We’ll wait for your go-ahead to get the process rolling and can advise on what will work for your company.
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