There is such a thing as a healthy need for approval, particularly when it comes to how your team book their business travel and reducing that travel spend

The need for approval in your organisation and how it can benefit your budget

Tom Davis -  28 Mar, 2017

It’s only fair to warn you ahead of time that this is not a psychological rub down.

We’re not going to be delving deep into your childhood to discover why you’re so desperate for Ian in accounts to like you - that’s not going to benefit anyone.

There is such a thing as a healthy need for approval though, particularly when it comes to how your team book their business travel.

Business travel approvals usually take place before the trip itself takes place. The advantage of doing things this way around is that the trip can typically be cancelled if approval is not granted, thus avoiding unnecessary costs being incurred.

You might already have approvals processes in place for certain departments within your organisation; marketing might have to get sign off on any spend over £XYZ, for example. It can be a useful, straightforward way of controlling spend and ensuring that no nasty surprises hit at the end of the financial year.

It’s pretty much the same when it comes to approving your business travel and an approvals process that fits in with the culture of your organisation can be the key to regaining control of what you’re spending on travel, whilst also presenting an opportunity for you to reduce that spend over time.

So, which costly behaviours could approvals be used to control? This will vary depending on how your organisation travels, as well as any rules and policies that you already have in place, but here are a few examples:

- The booking of trips over a specified amount

- The booking of a train journey that is over X% of the cheapest option available

- The booking of trips in business or first class

- The booking of journeys that take longer than a specified amount of time

You could also specify the amount that travellers can spend per booking on a city-by-city basis. For example, anyone wishing to spend £200 a night on a hotel in Bradford would need approval, whereas anyone wishing to spend that in London will be permitted to book.

For some organisations, implementing an effective approvals process across teams might depend on the amount of resource and time available. However, there are ways around pouring a load of time into approving your teams’ bookings and they all start with the site that you’re using to book your business travel.

Look for a booking site that offers you the chance to customise and automate approvals. By having the option to approve every booking or only those over a certain amount or in First Class, as well as the option to change this over time, you’ll be able to regain control of your spend by creating an approvals system that works for your organisation’s unique culture.

To start using a booking site that’s easy to use, full of all the content that you’d find anywhere else and offers the ability to automate and customise approvals then sign up to travel.cloud today

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