In this article:
How the platform is structured
1.1 Organisation and billing setup
1.2 People and access management
1.3 Travel operations and governance
Organisation and billing setup
2.1 Company entities and invoice profiles
2.2 Payment methods and finance workflow
2.3 Summary invoice schedules
People and access management
3.1 Organising team members with groups
3.2 Adding users and assigning roles
Travel operations and governance
4.1 Lowest Logical Fare (LLF) and corporate rates
4.2 Travel policies
4.3 Approval workflows
Welcome to TruTrip. This guide will help you understand how TruTrip is structured and how to set up your account in a clear and manageable way.
Setting up a corporate travel management platform can feel daunting at first. There are many components that can be customised to fit how your company operates, from billing and payments to people management and travel policies. The good news is that you do not need to configure everything at once.
Most teams start with a simple setup and layer in more controls as their usage grows. This article gives you a clear starting point and shows you where to go next.
1. How the platform is structured
TruTrip is built around three core pillars. Understanding these will help you decide what to set up first and what can wait.
-
Organisation and billing setup
This defines how your company is represented in TruTrip and how payments, invoices, and reporting work. Getting this right ensures clean billing, accurate reporting, and smooth finance operations. -
People and access management
This defines who can use TruTrip and what they are allowed to do. A clear people structure ensures the right users see the right options and that approvals and policies work as intended. -
Travel operations and governance
This defines how travel is booked, approved, and managed. It brings together policies, approvals, cost controls, and traveller support to balance compliance, savings, and traveller experience.
Once you've successfully set up all three, your team is ready to get started with corporate travel in TruTrip.
2. Organisation and billing set up
If you haven't done so already, you can go to https://app.trutrip.co/company/profile and update the basics such as your company name, logo and colours.
2.1. Set up your company entities and invoice profiles
Your entities and invoice profiles are critical to set up before you can make any booking. Go to https://app.trutrip.co/v2/company/invoice-profile and make sure to add your main business entity for correct invoicing.
Important articles to review:
- How to set up your invoice profile(s)
- How does multi currency billing work?
- Customising your invoice pdf file
2.2. Setting up your payment methods and workflow
Without a payment method, you will not be able to make any bookings. Go to https://app.trutrip.co/payment-billing/payment-method - You can either set up a deposit account to top up, add payment cards, or request credit payments as a payment method.
Once set up you can assign them to your users / groups for smooth booking. Learn more in this help article.
Important articles to review:
2.3. Set up your summary invoice schedules
For payment consolidations and invoicing, summary invoices are very powerful. You can essentially set up scheduled summarised invoices to be sent to your finance team, including detailed CSV files with all transactions.
You can set it up from here: https://app.trutrip.co/company/summary-invoices
Important articles to review:
- How do summary invoices work?
- Understanding the summary invoice files
- Using Summary Invoices with Xero via CSV import
3. People and access management
The system runs on three different roles: Admins, Managers, and Travellers. Before you invite all your users, it's good to understand how to organise your team into different groups, departments and assign the right roles.
3.1 Organising your team members around groups and departments.
Especially in larger organisations, groups are where all travel rules come together. Groups are used to assign:
- The right approval workflows and right approvers to the right people
- The correct travel policies
- Streamline your payment workflow
Set up your groups from the groups page: https://app.trutrip.co/people/groups
Important articles:
Departments are purely used for reporting purposes. Every person can be assigned to a specific department. In all reports (or integrations with external systems) the department name or code will be assigned to the right user.
3.2 Adding team members and assigning them to groups
Once your groups are defined, you can start adding users to the platform and organise them into groups. You can simply add all the users first and send them an invite later if needed as well.
Important articles:
- What are the different roles and permissions?
- Inviting users to your company
- Adding users to your company
- Editing team member profiles
4. Travel operations and governance
Last but not least, you will need to define how you want your team members to book and organise travel. Travel operations consists of many components; we're more than happy to help you get started so don't hesitate to reach out with any questions.
Travel ops consist of a few core components: your lowest logical fare configuration,
4.1 Configure your Lowest Logical Fare (LLF) and corporate rates
Lowest Logical Fare, or LLF, is TruTrip’s way of balancing cost control with traveller flexibility. It helps guide travellers towards cost-efficient options while still allowing reasonable alternatives when timing, routing, or comfort matters. At a basic level, LLF compares available options at the time of booking and highlights when a cheaper logical alternative exists. You can control how strict or flexible this comparison is, depending on your company’s travel culture.
In addition to LLF, you can also add negotiated corporate hotel rates. These rates will be prioritised in search results and help ensure your travellers see the best available deals for your organisation.
You can start simple with default LLF settings and no corporate rates, then refine these over time as you understand your booking patterns.
Important articles to review:
4.2 Setting up your travel policies
Travel policies define the rules and guidelines for how bookings should be made. They control things like cabin class, hotel star ratings, advance booking requirements, and whether certain options require approval.
Policies can be as simple or as detailed as you like. Many companies begin with a single, lightweight policy and introduce more advanced rules later as their travel volume grows.
Policies are typically assigned at group level, which allows different teams or departments to follow different rules where needed.
A well-designed policy helps travellers book confidently while giving admins visibility and control over spend.
4.3 Your approval workflows
Approval workflows define when a booking requires approval and who needs to approve it. This can range from no approvals at all, to simple single approver flows, to more advanced rule-based or multi-step approvals. Approvals are closely linked to your groups, policies, and LLF settings. For example, a booking that exceeds policy or LLF thresholds can automatically trigger an approval.
You can configure approvals to balance speed and control. Some companies approve only exceptions, while others require approvals for all bookings or specific travel types.
It is recommended to start with a simple approval setup and adjust as needed once your team is actively booking.
Important articles:
- What are all the different approval settings?
- Setting up rule based approvals
- How does the approval flow work?
- How to set up multiple (double) approvals for a booking
Tips:
- Use a clean logo file. A square or landscape PNG on a transparent background works best; avoid logos on coloured backgrounds. Double-check your registered name, address, and contact info, as these flow through to invoices.
- Set up both a deposit account and a card. The deposit account handles everyday bookings. The card is your safety net for urgent trips when your deposit balance is temporarily low; it rarely gets used, but you'll be glad it's there when you need it. If you want to use credit, share your company details early as underwriters need time to review.
- Plan your groups before you invite anyone. Groups control policies, payment methods, and approvers; think about how your teams or entities divide up, as that will shape how you structure everything downstream.
- Invite links expire after 24 hours. If someone misses theirs, you can resend it, or they can use 'Forgot Password' to get access. If your team uses Microsoft 365, consider setting up single sign-on to remove login friction entirely.
- A simple policy applied consistently is far more effective than a complex one that nobody follows. Consider starting with 'everything requires approval' during your initial setup phase — it keeps you in control while you're learning the platform, and you can relax it later. You can also add short booking guidelines that appear during the booking flow (for example: 'Always choose economy for domestic flights under 3 hours'). These help travellers make the right call without needing to contact anyone. If you don't have a policy yet, reach out and we'll help you build one.
- Get your groups right before setting up advanced approvals; approval logic is built on top of group structure, so if your groups aren't logical yet, hold off on this step. Once you're ready, you can set up multi-stage approvals that escalate based on cost or trip type (for example, a line manager approves first, then finance above a certain threshold).
- The default LLF setting is a good starting point; it balances cost and practicality, and most companies find it works well out of the box. If cost control is a priority, the settings can be tightened to surface cheaper options more prominently. Note that there is one LLF configuration per account, so it applies across all your groups.
- Add each entity that needs its own invoice; they don't need to be legally related. If different teams or cost centres need separate invoices, just add them as separate profiles. Consider turning on Traveller Dynamic Approval early so travellers can select their own invoice profile during booking while you're still figuring out who goes where.