Approval dashboard

Various bookings may require approvals based on how your company travel policies are defined. Policies may be set to require approvals before a booking can be confirmed or to be optional and only cancel the booking if the approver declines the booking. 

Approvers can use the Approval Dashboard to act on pending approvals for future bookings or view past bookings and their approvals.

In addition, certain users with roles that allow them to manage more than one company may have access to the menu at the top of the Trips page. This menu enables those users to select a particular company from a list of companies. Once selected, only the trips, events, and approvals associated with that company will be displayed. 

To access the approval dashboard

1. To access the Approval Dashboard, click the Trips menu. The Trips page will be displayed. 

2. Then, select the Approvals tab.

Company administrators can use the Approvals tab to access all approvals associated with their company. Non-administrators (approvers) will only be able to view and act on the approvals assigned to them. Travelers who are not approvers for other travelers will not see the Approvals tab.

To approve or deny a booking

1. Select Pending from the menu (it may already be selected). All pending approvals where you are one of the approvers will be displayed (Company administrators will see all pending approvals). For each booking awaiting approval, the following will be listed (some additional fields can be added from within the Columns setting): 

   • Time left (how much time is left before the approval deadline will expire)

   • Date on which booking was made

   • Start date 

   • Booking type 

   • Trip name (associated with the booking)

   • Traveler (name)

   • Booking details (e.g., flight departure and arrival cities, location of hotel booking)

   • Policy status (In policy, Out of policy)

   • Cost

2. You can use the filters and toggles along the top to limit the pending approvals that are displayed to just those that are:

   • In-policy or Out-of-policy (under Policy status)

   • Assigned to you as an approver 

   • For a particular booking type (e.g., air, hotel)

   • Associated with a particular traveler (use the search field to find and select the desired traveler). 

3. Locate the pending approval you wish to reject or approve and click the Review button at the end of its row. The Approval request details panel will open on the right and display details to help you decide whether to deny or approve the booking. 

   • To reject the booking, click Deny. The booking will be cancelled and the traveler will be notified.

   • To approve the booking, click Approve. The booking will proceed.

To view past bookings

1. Select History from the menu (on the Approvals tab). All past approvals or rejections will be displayed. For each approval or rejection, the following will be listed (some additional fields can be added from within the Columns setting): 

   • Status. The possible approval statuses are: 

     • Approved (this will also include soft approvals when no action was taken by the approver. Soft approval bookings do not require an approval to proceed).

     • Denied - These bookings have been cancelled. This will include hard approvals when no action was taken by the approver before the approval deadline. Hard approval bookings require an approval to proceed

   • Start date 

   • Booking type

   • Trip name

   • Traveler (name)

   • Booking details

   • Policy status (e.g., In-policy, Out of policy)

   • Cost

2. You can use the filters and toggles to limit the approvals shown to just those that were:

   • In-policy or Out-of-policy (under Policy status)

   • Assigned to you as an approver 

   • For a particular booking type (e.g., air, hotel)

   • Associated with a particular traveler (use the search field to find and select the desired traveler). 

To review who approved or denied a booking (and other details), click the Review button in the relevant row to open the side panel.