This article walks you through creating a travel approval process where two people must approve a trip in order: the first approver, then the second. Use it when you want one person (e.g. line manager) to approve first and another (e.g. finance or a senior lead) to approve second before the trip can be booked.

Before you start

• Make sure your account has access to two-step approval (e.g. Pro plan and feature availability). If the option to add a second approver does not appear, contact your account manager or support.
• Decide who the first approver and second approver should be. You can use specific people, the traveler's line manager, or the cost object approver (the person assigned to the cost object selected for the trip).
• Decide when this rule should apply (e.g. all trips, out-of-policy only, or only when a specific cost object is selected). Your travel policies define what counts as in-policy or out-of-policy.

Setting up the approval process

1. Go to Settings > Travel management > Travel approvals.
2. Click New approval process.
3. Give the approval process a name and select who the process is for (e.g. which travelers or companies).
4. Under Is approval needed when booking?, select Yes.
5. Under Who should approve their trips?, click select approver and choose the first approver (e.g. Line manager or a specific person).
6. Click select setting and choose which types of bookings need approval (e.g. out-of-policy only, or all trips). The options depend on your travel policies.
7. To limit the rule to specific cost objects, hover over select setting, click + when, and select the cost object.

Adding the second approver

1. Next to the first approval rule, click + and then (or the option that adds a second step with "followed by" / sequential behavior).
2. Select the second approver (e.g. a specific user or cost object approver). The rule should read like: "Request approval from [first approver] followed by [second approver]."
3. Under Approvals for changes to booked trips, choose whether changes to the trip after booking need approval and how, as needed. You can use the options or set up your own rules.
4. Click Create approval process.

After you save, any trip that matches the rule will need the first approver to approve; only then will the second approver receive the approval request. The trip is booked only after both have approved.

Tip: If you want the line manager to approve first and then a finance or cost owner to approve second, set the first approver to Line manager and the second to the specific person or Cost object approver. If your travelers use different cost objects, assign the right cost object approvers in Settings > Cost management > Cost objects so requests route correctly.
For more two-step approval scenarios, see Two-step approval rule examples.