Note: Before going deeper into approvals, do have a look at how policies work first.
1. How approvals work
When a booking requires approval, 3 people are typically involved:
- A booker: the person making the booking. This can be the traveller them self, but also someone else like a travel manager or admin.
- Traveller(s): the people travelling in this booking. Keep in mind that 1 booking can have multiple travellers in it (eg when you book a flight for 2 people at once).
- The Approver(s): the person that is allowed to approve this booking (and ultimately proceed with payment and ticketing). These are typically the manager of a group that the bookers belong to, unless a super-admin decides to override the approval.
Step 1 - making the booking
Whenever someone wants to book a trip which is out of policy the approval flow will be enabled. Meaning that the booking will need to be approved before it can be charged and processed.
Step 2 - reviewing the booking (as an approver)
The approver will receive an email notification asking to review the booking. On the approvals page, they can approver or reject the booking. Once approved, a message will go to the booker and traveller that the booking is being processed.
Step 3 - ticket issuance:
After approval the booking will be processed by our service providers. This can take up to a few hours depending on the service. Once the tickets have been processed by our providers, the booking confirmation will be to the travellers.
2. Understanding who the approvers are.
By default the approvers are always based on the travellers in the booking. For example if the traveller is part of a "Sales" group, the manager of the "Sales" group is the approver for any of their bookings.
Making a booking for yourself (the booker = the traveller)
Mikaela is making a flight booking for herself and requires approval. Cliff is Mikaela's manager so he will receive the request after which he can reject or approver her booking.
Making a booking for multiple other travellers
When making bookings for multiple travellers that are part of different groups, things can get a bit more complicated.
Example setup:
- Jesslyn makes a booking for Mick and Eva who are part of two separate groups "Sales" and "Marketing".
- David is the manager of the "Sales" group
- Regina manages the "Marketing" group.
- Jesslyn makes a booking for Mick and Eva that requires approval. Because Mick and Eva are part of two different groups, the approval request goes to all their managers (David and Regina).
- David and Regina will receive an approval request, the first one to approve or reject will close the booking. So this means either person can take action.
After rejection or approval, an email goes to Jesslyn, Mick and Eva (booker & travellers).
IMPORTANT: Approvals are made on a first come, first serve basis. This means that if there are 5 different approvers that get an approval request. The FIRST approver that approves the booking, approves it for all of them.
In some scenarios, it's also possible to change the approver when making a booking. You can learn more about that in this help article