Approving travel is easy and flexible, giving approvers full control over how and when travel requests get reviewed. With customizable approval flows, mobile-friendly access, and even email-based actions, approving travel happens wherever you are.

How to access Expensify Travel

In New Expensify: Click the + button in the bottom-left corner of your screen, then select Book travel.
In Classic Expensify: Click Travel in the left-hand menu, then select Book or manage travel.

Need to enable travel still? Reach out to your Account Manager or Concierge to schedule a travel demo and get it enabled for your account.

How to review and approve travel requests

All trip requests that require approval can be found under:

Trips > Approvals (on both mobile and desktop)
All members responsible for approving trips will receive an email notification when a trip is awaiting their approval.

Here, approvers can filter by:

Out of policy approval requests
Booking type (Air, Hotel, Car, Rail)
Their own approvals or Organization approvals
Traveler name

Each trip will display relevant details and action buttons to Approve or Deny, based on whether the travel policy uses soft or hard approval.

How approval actions work

Approvers will see different actions depending on the approval type configured for the travel policy:

Hard Approval: The booking is completed and the payment card is charged immediately to secure the selected fare, hotel room, or rental car. The approver then has 24 hours to deny the booking. If denied, the booking is canceled. Pre-Booking Approval: The booking isn’t completed and the payment card isn’t charged until the approver approves the request. The approver has 24 hours to approve or deny the request.

When a trip requires approval, approvers receive a notification with the available approval request.

How to understand Soft Approval, Hard Approval, and Pre-Booking Approval

Soft Approval: Travel can be booked and processed before the approver reviews it. Approvers are notified, but the booking doesn’t require approval to proceed.
Hard Approval: The booking is completed immediately and the payment card is charged to secure the selected price and availability. The approver has 24 hours to deny the booking. If denied, the booking is canceled. Any refund or travel credit depends on the airline, hotel, rental car provider, and the cancellation or refund terms of the fare that was booked.
Pre-Booking Approval: The traveler submits the trip for approval before the booking is completed. The approver has 24 hours to approve the request. The payment card isn’t charged until the request is approved and the booking is completed.

Because a Pre-Booking Approval request doesn’t reserve the fare, room, seat, or rental car while approval is pending, the original price and availability aren’t guaranteed. Prices may change, or the selected option may no longer be available by the time approval is given.

These settings are configured within each travel policy under Program > Policies > select a policy > General > Policy group actions.

How to approve a Pre-Booking Approval request

When a travel policy uses Pre-Booking Approval, the traveler must receive approval before the booking can proceed. No booking is completed and no payment is charged while the request is awaiting approval. Pre-Booking Approval is available for Air, Hotel, and Car bookings.

Here is how the approval process works:

The traveler submits a Pre-Booking Approval request during checkout by clicking Request approval.
The approver receives an email notification with the trip details, including the origin, destination, and travel dates.
The approver reviews the request under Trips > Approvals or directly from the email notification.
The approver clicks Approve or Deny.

The approver has 24 hours to respond to the request. If the request isn’t approved within 24 hours, it expires and no booking is made.

Because the booking isn’t completed until approval is given, the price and availability shown when the request was submitted may change while the request is pending.

What to expect after approving a Pre-Booking Approval request

After the approver approves a Pre-Booking Approval request:

Both the approver and the traveler receive an email notification confirming the approval.
The traveler returns to the trip in Expensify Travel and completes the checkout process.
Once the booking is completed, the payment card is charged and the receipt is automatically added to the traveler’s Expensify account.

The final price and availability are based on what’s available when the booking is completed. A hotel room, flight, rental car, or fare that was available when the approval request was submitted may no longer be available after approval.

If the traveler doesn’t finalize the booking within the allowed approval window, the approval expires and they’ll need to submit a new request.

How to set up secondary approvers

A secondary approver acts as a fallback if the primary approver is unavailable. For example, if a manager is on vacation, a secondary approver ensures there is no delay in getting trips approved. This is especially important when timely approvals are needed with hard approval or Pre-Booking Approval.

Set this up under:

Approvers can set their own secondary approver under User icon > My profile > Configuration > Approval Settings. Click Add Approver to designate a secondary approver who can approve on your behalf. You may add multiple secondary approvers.
Travel admins can set secondary approvers in a traveler’s profile. Head to Program > Users > Travelers > select traveler > Configuration tab. Click Add approver to search for another travel member to approve on their behalf.

FAQ

Can I approve travel from my phone?

Yes. The approval dashboard is identical on web and mobile. You can also approve or deny directly from email notifications.

What happens if no one takes action on the trip?

If no action is taken:

With Soft Approval, the trip is already booked and proceeds as normal.
With Hard Approval, the booking remains confirmed after the 24-hour denial window.
With Pre-Booking Approval, the request expires after 24 hours and no booking is made.

What happens if a Hard Approval booking is denied?

The booking is canceled.

Because the payment card was charged when the booking was originally completed, any refund or travel credit depends on the cancellation terms of the booked fare and the airline, hotel, or rental car provider’s policy.

Refundable or cancelable bookings may be eligible for a refund, while other bookings may result in a travel credit or may be non-refundable.

Can multiple people approve the same request?

Only the designated approver, the member’s manager, a default approver, or a secondary approver can approve a specific trip. This will depend on your approval method in the travel policy.

How do I get notified when I need to approve?

Approvers receive email notifications and can view pending approvals under Trips > Approvals in the Travel dashboard. You can configure your notification settings in your profile under User icon > My profile > Notifications.

Optionally, admins can manage approver notifications and create custom notifications for travel requests and approvals by heading to Program > Company > Configuration > Email notifications.

Approving Travel