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

22 Apr 2021 · 6 MIN READ

Last updated: May 2026A business travel approval process is the structured workflow your company uses to review, authorize, and manage employee trip requests before booking. It typically involves submitting a travel request, routing it to designated approvers, and ensuring the trip aligns with your company's travel policy and budget.The five steps to managing a business travel approval process are:

Consult stakeholders
Create a policy
Centralize management
Communicate the process
Automate where possible

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, centralizing 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 organization’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.

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2. Create an organized business travel approval process

Once you’ve identified your stakeholders, the next step is to put together an organized plan for business travel. If you don’t yet have a company travel policy, this might be a good time to create one.

What should a business travel policy include?

A business travel policy is a document that outlines your company's rules and guidelines for employee travel. The key elements to include are:

Booking responsibility: Assign who books travel—employees, managers, or a dedicated travel administrator—to avoid confusion.
Request process: Require travelers to submit a formal request form before booking.
Approval chain: Define which approvers must sign off on corporate travel requests.
Budget and spending limits: Set clear guidelines on who controls the budget and spending caps for trips.
Advance notice requirements: Specify how much lead time is needed to approve a business trip.
Last-minute requests: Establish a process for handling urgent travel needs.
Approved accommodations: List acceptable hotel categories (e.g., three-star or four-star) for travel booking.
Flight cabin class: Define which cabin classes are permitted (economy, business, first).

With Perk, you can integrate your travel policy directly with the platform. This means business travelers can easily book their own trips while avoiding non-compliance with your company travel policy. If you need business travelers to send their trips to a manager before booking, you can set up that automated approval process in Perk, too.

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

The key to an organized business travel approval process is to centralize 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 program.Having a disorganized 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 centralized online booking tool like Perk makes the business travel approval process easy, sparing your inbox and your sanity.

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

After creating a clear, centralized 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.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. Employee expectations for digitization are changing, and teams increasingly expect modern technology solutions that reduce manual work.

How automated travel approval workflows function

Automated travel approval workflows streamline the entire request-to-booking process. Here's how they typically work:

Submit a request: Team members add their required services and travel expenses to an itinerary and submit a request with a personalized message.
Route to approvers: The system automatically sends the request to the designated approver (project manager, HR, or line manager).
Review and decide: The approver receives all relevant details—itinerary, costs, and billing information—and can approve or decline with a justification.
Process booking: Once approved, the system automatically confirms the booking and processes payments.
Track status: Travelers can see their request status updated in real time.

With Perk, this workflow can also be managed through Slack. The Slack Integration lets approvers review and respond to travel requests directly within a Slack message—no need to open a laptop or switch platforms.

In summary, the five steps to managing a business travel approval process are:

Consult stakeholders: Identify who needs to be involved in approving travel requests, from administrators to finance and HR.
Create a policy: Document clear guidelines covering booking responsibility, budgets, advance notice, and approved accommodations.
Centralize management: Keep all travel requests, approvals, and documentation in one place to avoid confusion and delays.
Communicate the process: Make sure everyone in your company knows the policy and how to follow it.
Automate where possible: Use travel management software to streamline requests, approvals, and bookings—saving time for everyone.

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 organized plan, communicating it well, and using an automated, centralized system, you can change the way your company does business travel.

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Consult stakeholders
Create a policy
Centralize management
Communicate the process
Automate where possible