When a trip is booked through Perk Travel under a Travel approval policy, Perk can automatically send the resulting travel expense for review and approve it, without the traveler or booker doing anything. Use this article to understand how this works, when it applies, and how to change what happens next if you need a different setup.

How it works 

Auto-submission and auto-approval work together whenever a trip booked through Perk Travel was already pre-approved under a Travel approval policy. When that happens, Perk creates a matching booking expense and automatically submits it straight to Finance > Review—no action needed from the traveler or booker. Perk also automatically approves the expense, skipping manager review, unless your account has its own custom approval workflow set up. If it does, that workflow is followed instead, and a manager or approver still reviews the expense before it reaches Finance > Review.

This is different from the standard expense flow. Without auto-submission and auto-approval turned on, a traveler sends their expense manually, and it goes through your account's normal approval workflow before landing in Finance > Review.

When it applies

Auto-submission and auto-approval only apply to expenses that come from trips pre-approved under a Travel approval policy before or at the time of booking. If a trip wasn't pre-approved this way, the resulting expense follows the standard flow: the traveler sends it manually, and it moves through your account's normal approval workflow.

Default behavior by account age

Whether auto-submission and auto-approval are on depends on when your Perk account was created. Accounts created on or after April 2, 2026 have this turned on by default. If your account was created before that date, it may or may not be turned on. If you're not sure, ask your Account Manager to check and turn it on for you.

Note: If booking expenses are landing in Draft instead of Finance > Review—even though you have Travel approval policies set up—ask your Account Manager to check whether auto-submission and auto-approval are turned on for your account.

Changing what happens after auto-submission (custom approval workflows)

You can control what happens to a booking expense after it auto-submits by setting up a custom expense approval workflow. When your account has its own custom approval workflow set up, that workflow governs approval instead of the automatic no-review approval—the booking expense still auto-submits to Finance > Review, but a manager or approver reviews it first, following your workflow's steps. If you want manager review to still happen for pre-approved travel expenses, set up a custom approval workflow in your expense approval workflow settings.

Here's what changes when a custom approval workflow is in place:

• Booking expenses still auto-submit for the traveler, just like before.
• A manager or approver reviews the expense under your custom workflow before it reaches Finance > Review.

Turning off auto-submission and auto-approval

Auto-submission and auto-approval aren't something you can turn off yourself in Perk. To fully go back to manual submission and the standard approval flow, contact your Account Manager or Perk's Customer Success team and ask them to turn it off for your account.

Caution: Turning off auto-submission and auto-approval only affects new booking expenses going forward. Expenses that were already sent or are already in review keep their current status and approval path.

Once it's turned off:

• Travelers send their booking expenses manually, like any other expense.
• Booking expenses follow your account's standard approval workflow before reaching Finance > Review.

Custom fields required before submission

If your account has mandatory custom fields—Travel or Spend—set up, a booking expense can't submit until those fields are filled in. This applies whether the expense is submitted manually or through auto-submission. If a mandatory custom field is missing when a booking expense is created, the expense stays in Draft (or Travel Draft) instead of submitting. The traveler needs to fill in the missing field and send the expense themselves before it can move forward.

This protects your expense reviews: a booking expense with missing mandatory fields never passes silently into Finance > Review. It waits in Draft until it's complete.

Submission comments

Some expense categories need a comment before an expense can submit. For these categories, Perk automatically adds a comment—"Imported automatically. Trip: [trip name]."—to booking expenses created through auto-submission. This means a missing comment never blocks a pre-approved travel expense from auto-submitting.