Approvals

Engine's Approvals feature makes handling out-of-policy travel requests smarter and simpler. Travelers can request exceptions right in the booking flow, and Admins/Managers can approve or decline instantly from a centralized dashboard. Say goodbye to messy email chains and hello to real-time visibility, automated policy enforcement, and confident compliance. It’s flexibility and control, all in one place.

 

Key Benefits

• Less Manual Work: No more tracking approvals through email or chat.

• Real-Time Visibility: Both travelers and approvers see instant updates on approval status.

• Policy Confidence: Enforce travel policies automatically while allowing for necessary exceptions.

• Centralized Tracking: All requests, reasons, responses, and results are tracked in one approvals dashboard.

Setting Up Approvals

 

Admins can configure the approval flow within Lodging, Flights, and Cars rules in Travel Policies. . Learn more about Travel Policies here.

 

Configure Approval Settings: 

1. Navigate to Spend → Controls, under Spend. 

2. In controls, click on any policy listed in Travel Policies

3. Click on make changes in Lodging Rules, Flight rules, and/or Cars rules 

4. Once you're in the Make changes to rules side panel, scroll down to Out of policy booking, under the Approvals header. Here, you can select the following options: 

   1. Not allowed: Prevents any out-of-policy booking.

   2. Allowed with reason: Reason required to complete booking. 

   3. Allowed with approval: Booking allowed if request is approved by an admin. Requests will appear in the Approvals tab under Settings. With this option you will need to enable the following settings:

      1. Request approval from department managers : Toggle this on if you want Department managers to be notified for their specific department. This setting will be greyed out unless you allow Department Managers to approve booking requests within your Roles and Permissions settings. 

      2. Request approval from select admins : Toggle this on if you don’t want all company admins to be notified. Please note that by default, all Admins will be set as Approvers if you do not toggle this option on.

      3. Choose the name(s) from the drop down list.  

      4. Notification method: Set how assigned approvers get notified of requests.

         1. Email only

         2. Email & text message

   4. Click Save policy. 

5. Assign Policy: Assign the configured travel policy to the right travelers by going to the People page (under Company). 

6. Next time your traveler books out of policy, the Admin or Department Manager will be notified via email or SMS. 

 

 

Managing and Taking Action on Requests

 

Approvers (admins or department managers) manage all incoming requests through the Approvals Dashboard and real-time alerts.

 

Receiving and Viewing Requests

• Real-Time Alerts: Approvers receive instant notifications via the selected notification method (email/text) when a traveler submits a request.

• Approvals Dashboard: All requests are listed in your approvals dashboard, automatically sorted by urgency (e.g., same-day requests, expiring soon). Closed requests move to the "Completed" tab.

Taking Action

 

When reviewing a request, you will see full booking details and the traveler's reason for requesting the out-of-policy booking. The current, updated room rate will always be shown. Requests automatically expire after 24 hours. For same-day reservations, requests expire at the end of the reservation day.

• Approve & Book: Click to approve the request. The system will automatically complete the booking for the traveler at the refreshed rate.

• Decline: Click to decline the request. You must add a reason for the denial, and the traveler will be notified.

 

 

Approval request during bookings 

When a traveler attempts to book out of policy, they will need to submit a request for approval. 

1. The traveler will see a red banner indicating approval is needed. 

2. They will need to provide a reason for the out-of-policy selection and submit the request.

3. After submission, the traveler will receive a confirmation, and the pending request will be visible on their Trips page.

4. The traveler will be immediately notified whether the request has been approved or declined.

5. If approved, the system will automatically finalize the booking at the current rate. The traveler will be notified, and the confirmed trip, along with the approval status, will be displayed in their trips list.