Employees at each corporate account request trips through a short form, and every request is checked against that company's travel policy. In-policy trips go straight to the booking queue, while breaches go to the employee's manager for approval with the reason spelled out.
Typical results
Under 5 min
From request to booking queue when in policy
≈10 hrs/wk
Agent time saved on policy checks and chasing
100%
Decisions logged for the monthly spend report
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
Each corporate account has its own travel policy, with cabin rules by flight length, hotel caps by city and minimum booking lead times. Agents check requests from memory or a PDF, so breaches slip through and show up on the company's invoice. When a request needs approval, the agent chases the manager by email, and the fare often rises meanwhile.
Before and after
Out-of-policy bookings per month
−70%Hours from request to approval decision
−83%Agent hours per week on policy checks
−83%The automation
Employees submit trips through a short form. The automation checks each request against that company's policy: cabin class by flight length, nightly hotel caps by city and how far ahead the trip is booked. In-policy requests go straight to the booking queue with the cost center attached. Out-of-policy ones are emailed to the employee's manager with each breach spelled out and one-click approve or decline. Every decision is logged for the monthly travel spend report.
How it works
- 01
Employee submits a trip request
A short form collects the traveler, dates, route, preferred times and the cost center for the trip.
- 02
Checked against the company policy
Cabin class is checked by flight length, the hotel rate by the nightly cap for that city, and the lead time against the minimum days ahead.
- 03
In-policy goes straight to booking
Requests that pass every rule land in the agency's booking queue with the cost center and the policy result attached.
- 04
Breaches go to the manager
Out-of-policy requests are emailed to the employee's manager with each breach spelled out and approve or decline buttons.
- 05
Every decision logged
Each check, approval and decline is written to a log that feeds the company's monthly travel spend report.
Starts from
- Trip request form
- Company travel policy
Delivers
- In-policy booking queue
- Manager approval email
- Log for monthly spend report
The impact
Out-of-policy bookings fall by about 70%, from roughly 40 a month to 12, and most of those carry a manager's recorded approval. Agents save around 10 hours a week on checks and chasing, approvals come back in about 4 hours instead of a day, and the monthly spend report builds from the log.
Questions about this automation
How are each company's policy rules set up?
Each corporate account has a policy tab in Google Sheets with its cabin rules by flight duration, nightly hotel caps per city, minimum days of advance booking and any preferred airlines. The automation reads that tab on every request, so when a company updates its policy, the agency edits one row and the checks follow.
What happens if the manager doesn't respond?
The approval email is sent again after 8 business hours, and after 24 hours the request is escalated to the company's travel administrator with the fare and the breach. The agent sees the request as waiting for approval in the booking queue, so nobody books it early or forgets it.
Does it connect to the agency's booking tools?
It connects to the request form, Gmail or Outlook for approvals, and the agency's booking queue, whether that is a CRM, a ticketing tool or a shared sheet. Fares and hotel rates come from the request or the agent's quote. This is a multi-step build, usually rolled out in stages, one corporate account at a time.