Travel Approval

Business travel is expensive. However, some costs are avoidable. Implementing a robust travel approval process improves oversight of your bookings while reducing internal admin costs.

Internal admin and communications bring hidden costs. These include the time your team spends on calls and meetings, as well as rising costs associated with delayed bookings. Our template is built to improve efficiency when managing travel.

What is a travel approval tool?

Travel approval tools are used to digitize your request and booking processes. This means giving your employees a simple platform to request travel approval. Responsible teams can then review, manage, and approve these requests, within the same platform.

The goal here is to create a repeatable process for all travel requests. This ensures that the right information is gathered, while also streamlining internal workflows.

Additionally, travel approval apps allow you to centralize and rationalize data models relating to company travel. Analyze trends in travel spending, to improve resource allocation, or identify travelers who are overspending.

Why do businesses digitize travel approval requests?

Travel approval workflows can be complex. Often, different stakeholders manage trip approval requests, with very little coordination. This can lead to very different outcomes, across different departments, as well as poor oversight over traveler’s bookings.

Beyond this, setting up a call or meeting every time an employee needs to travel is costly and time-consuming.

Creating a travel approval system is the most effective way to overcome these challenges.

What should travel approval tools contain?

Basic travel approval software includes two key components.

These are:

1. A travel request form interface for making approval requests.
2. A back-end database for managing and approving requests.

The most effective tools feature a simple and intuitive interface for viewing, managing, and responding to new requests. Travel request platforms should also integrate with your existing software stack, for maximum efficiency.

For example, you might want to integrate with expense approval workflow tools or automation software.

Our travel approval request template

Our template is built for fast deployment and maximum efficiency. In minutes, you can build totally custom approval workflow software.

Use our template for:

• Support for external databases.
• Complete customization.
• Automated processes.
• Intuitive UI.
• Tiered permissions.
• Third-party integrations.
• Responsive design.
• Optional self-hosting.
• Design customization.
• Streamlined workflows.

Budibase makes it easy to build deployable business tools. Our template is the smart way to digitize travel approval request workflows.

Simplify travel requests & approval workflows

We’ve built our template around a simple travel request and approval process. Employees can use an intuitive form interface to make new requests. This ensures that your team has the exact right data to assess each trip request.

New requests are automatically given the submitted status. Responsible teams can approve or decline requests, based on the information submitted, as well as leaving comments.

Individual employees can view and edit any of their own requests from a simple listings page. Users with higher access levels can search and view all travel requests.

Manage communications

Digital approval workflows greatly improve internal communications. On the one hand, our template eliminates the need for many calls and meetings. Employees can request business trips and gain approval, without ever needing to communicate manually.

This greatly reduces your operational costs.

For times when more information is needed, Budibase supports a range of communications processes. Add your SMTP credentials to send automated emails or use the mailto command to contact employees and query their requests.

Automate approval processes

Budibase is built for process automation. Use any action in our template to trigger a wide variety of built-in automations. We’ve even provided a built-in JavaScript editor, to add advanced custom functionality.

Use our range of third-party app integrations to trigger automations in external tools.

With Budibase’s automation tools, it’s easy and cost-effective to build powerful approval workflow software.

Check out our free vacation request form template .

Intuitive request and approval UIs

We’ve designed our template for maximum usability. With separate screens for request submission, listings, and management, our template is entirely intuitive.

Our request form uses clear and simple language to ensure that users provide the right data. We’ve also configured key data fields to autocomplete, based on the current user’s information, speeding up the request process.

Different categories of users can access different features and data. Individual users are limited to screens relating to their respective requests, decluttering the app’s overall interface.

Customize access control

It’s crucial that users can access the exact data they need. Our template uses two permission tiers, for basic and power users. This ensures that individual employees can request and manage their own trips.

Power users can then access, view, and manage all travel approval requests.

With Budibase, you have complete control to customize your permission tiers. Add, edit, or remove access levels, to create an approval tool that perfectly suits your organizational structure.

Responsive design

The effectiveness of your approval request tool depends on its adoption. Our template is fully accessible and mobile-responsive. All design elements automatically resize and scale to fit perfectly on different devices.

Empower your teams to quickly request and approve business trips, on the go.

Mobile responsiveness is crucial for app adoption. Deploy internally or as a web app, and make sure that your employees can use your app whenever and wherever they need to.

Searchability and filtering

Our travel approval request template features powerful search and filtering tools. Each of our request listing screens features our dynamic filtering component. Users can filter their requests by key data fields, including destination, cost, or category.

Search with simple equals and contains expressions, or use more complex numerical and boolean filtering.

With our smart filters, it’s quick and easy to find the exact information you need at any given moment.

Why build a travel approval request tool with Budibase?

At Budibase, we’re revolutionizing the way businesses build approval workflow software. With our low-code app builder, you can create highly functional, deployable apps in minutes.

Budibase boasts:

• Open-source design.
• Scalability.
• Fast deployment.
• Tiered permissions.
• Self-hosting.
• Mobile-friendly design.
• Security.
• Automation.
• Integrations.
• Low-code app development.
• External data support.
• Infinite customization.
• JavaScript editor.
• Auto-Generated app screens.

Our open-source, low-code platform

Budibase is the smart way to build open-source approval workflow tools. Our intuitive low-code platform makes it easy to build deployable business tools, with minimal development time.

Customize our template to your heart’s content, and at the end, you’ll even own the finished product. We also offer free SSO across all of your Budibase tools.

Complete customization

With Budibase, you have complete scope to customize your tools. Alter any element of our template’s design, functionality, branding, or UI in a matter of minutes. Add, edit, or remove processes to fully match your travel approval policies.

You can also totally customize your approval software’s data fields and forms. Alter your request form interface to gather the exact data that you need to make informed approval decisions.

Third-party integrations

Budibase offers broad support for external app integrations . Our apps integrate seamlessly with your existing software stack. Connect our template to a variety of third-party apps, using Zapier, Webhooks, and more.

Trigger automations in travel management, communications, invoicing, and other internal platforms for maximum functionality.

Optional self-hosting

Deploy your travel approval request platform however you choose. With Budibase, it’s easy to create web apps and internal tools alike. Choose from self-hosting or our proprietary cloud-based platform.

Self-host your Budibase tools using Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Compose, Digital Ocean, and more.

External database support

Our template connects seamlessly to a range of existing datasets. With Budibase, you can query, manipulate, and update existing databases from within our tools. Use our template as a modern interface for external databases.

Connect to external data sources, using Kubernetes, Airtable, MongoDB, CouchDB, MySQL, MSSQL, Postgresql, and more.

Conditionality

The Budibase offers powerful conditionality features. Hide, display, or update different components, using behavior, user data, and more. Display different CTAs based on a requests’ status, or create bespoke workflows for different request categories.

Conditionality also allows you to create truly optimized mobile experiences. Use truncated or multi-step forms for mobile users, simplifying workflows.

Total security

Budibase offers unparalleled security. With our open-source, low-code platform, you’re in complete control over how you secure your apps. Choose self-hosting, or use custom access control to manage who can access your data.

We also offer additional security tools, including free SSO, OpenID, and OAuth.

Future-proof approval tools

Our approval management templates are designed to grow and evolve with your business. With Budibase, you can easily add new users, functions, and app screens, with minimal downtime.

Simply use our low-code platform to tweak and alter your tools, as the need arises.

Start using our travel request approval template

Budibase is the fast and cost-effective way to digitize approval workflows. Our innovative low-code platform cuts development times to minutes.

To start using our travel approval template, simply click below.
We also offer premium support options and SLAs for enterprise users. Check out our pricing page for more information.