As a Payhawk administrator, you can configure the settings of the travel request for business trips directly within the Payhawk portal.
Based on the defined settings, the Travel AI Agent will collect all the required details from your employees, display all available options (flagging the ones that are out-of-policy), and trigger an approval workflow.
Configuring field settings
You can configure all the information you want the Travel AI Agent to collect from your employees, for example, dates and destinations, before triggering an approval workflow.
To configure field settings:
Go to Settings > Requests > Travel > Fields tab.
Under Request details, fill out the information for each of the built-in fields:
Description - Employees will be expected to provide a reason for submitting the travel request.
Trip details - Employees will be expected to provide their desired trip details, for example, inbound and outbound dates and destination.
Payment method - Employees will be expected to provide information about which Payhawk card the Travel AI Agent must use for the booking. In case the employee doesn’t have an active Payhawk card, the Travel AI Agent will automatically issue them a new virtual card that will be used for the specific travel request.
Enable the Required for submission toggle to make the request details mandatory for employees to complete before submitting a travel request.
Note that the Required for review toggle is always enabled by default.
Click on Save.
Configuring travel policies
By default, Payhawk suggests a travel policy, which you can modify according to the requirements of your company.
To configure travel policies:
Go to Settings > Requests > Travel > Policy tab.
Under Policy Description, enter the desired details of your company travel policy in plain text format. You can define the following details:
Preferred airlines, for example, Lufthansa and British Airways.
Maximum budget for domestic flights, for example, up to EUR 150, where domestic flights are the ones within the same country.
Maximum budget for short-haul or long-haul international flights, for example, up to EUR 300 for the former and up to EUR 1000 for the latter.
If the flight is within the same region and up to 7 hours long (outbound and inbound, including stopovers), then it’s considered a short-haul flight. A long-haul flight in the same region is more than 7 hours in duration.
If the flight is across different regions and is up to 6 hours long (outbound and inbound, including stopovers), then it’s considered a short-haul flight. A long-haul flight in different regions is more than 6 hours in duration.
Maximum hotel rate, for example, up to EUR 200 per night.
Preferred hotel ratings, for example, 3-star or 4-star hotels only.
Country-specific rates, for example, up to EUR 250 per night in France or up to GBP 250 per night in the United Kingdom.
Click on Save.
The system includes a 10% buffer on travel requests to account for price changes during the review and approval of the request. If the original option is unavailable, the Agent will ask the employee to select a new flight (same dates and destinations), room, or hotel (within 5 km) and book the confirmed choice - you won’t need to approve the new option.
Configuring workflows
You can configure approval workflows for the travel requests of your employees.
To configure workflows:
Go to Settings > Requests > Travel > Workflow tab.
Click on Edit workflow. Alternatively, click on Go to workflows and you'll be redirected to the Settings > Workflows screen to view and manage all travel request workflows in one place.
Create an approval workflow that suits your requirements by following the steps for defining custom workflows and noting the following specifics that are valid for travel requests:
The Submit step is always present. During this step, the Travel AI Agent must gather the needed information to fill out all the request fields, create, and submit a travel request.
The Review step is optional. You can set the relevant people at your company as reviewers. These are usually travel managers who can make changes to the flights and hotels. This step will trigger a review request notification in the Agent - in web portal, mobile app, and Slack.
The Approve step is for you to define. For example, you can set the corresponding Team manager as an approver. This step will trigger an approval request in their Payhawk web portal, mobile app, and Slack. This will allow them to approve the travel request in the Agent - in Slack, web portal, and mobile app.
The Create expense report step is optional. You can configure the travel request to generate an expense report in the system. If there’s a discrepancy between the travel request and expense report settings, such as a mismatch in payment methods or custom fields, the system will display a warning message.
The Pay step is always present. Once there's a successful approval, the Travel AI Agent automatically tops up the employee's card and books the business trip.
The Close step is also always visible by default. It includes predefined rules for automatically closing requests when the auto-close option is activated and also specifies the default roles authorized to manually close requests.