As a Payhawk Administrator, you can configure travel policies and approval workflows for trip requests in the Payhawk Web Portal.
Travel policies define the rules employees must follow when submitting trip requests, such as budget limits, allowed booking options, how far in advance trips must be booked, refundability terms, and out-of-policy flagging. Approval workflows define what happens next: the steps, approvers, and conditions that determine how each request is reviewed and approved.
Based on these settings, the Travel AI Agent collects the required details from employees, displays available options (flagging out-of-policy choices), and triggers the approval workflow.
Supported travel policies
By default, Payhawk suggests a travel policy, which you can modify according to the requirements of your company. Once you configure the desired travel policy, it will apply to your entire company or group of entities.
If your company has negotiated hotel rates Payhawk, they will be fully compatible with your travel policy. Negotiated rates will be applied automatically during hotel searches and employees do not need to take any action or enter any codes. Policy rules such as budget limits and approval requirements continue to apply as usual, regardless of whether the employee selects a negotiated or public rate.
Flights
You can define the following flight details in your travel policy:
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 the total airborne time across all segments is up to 7 hours, it's considered a short-haul flight. A long-haul flight in the same region is more than 7 hours of total airborne time.
If the flight is across different regions and the total airborne time across all segments is up to 6 hours, it's considered a short-haul flight. A long-haul flight in different regions is more than 6 hours of total airborne time.
Maximum percentage above the market rate, for example, up to 15%. Flights priced more than this percentage above the market rate for the route are flagged as out of policy.
When booking or approving a trip, travelers and approvers can see how the selected option compares with other options for the same route, including the cheapest and average price, alongside the policy insights.
Hotels
You can define the following hotel details in your travel policy:
Maximum hotel rate, for example, up to EUR 200 per night.
Preferred hotel ratings, for example, 3-star or 4-star hotels only.
Preferred hotels, for example, hotels from the chains Hilton and Ibis 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.
Refundability terms, for example, partially or fully refundable rates only.
Automatic hotel re-booking that allows Payhawk to rebook refundable stays at a lower rate before the free-cancellation deadline.
Daily spend
Daily spend covers the day-to-day costs of a trip, such as meals and local transportation, on top of the flight and hotel budget. For each trip type, you can set daily spend to one of three options:
None. Employees cannot request daily spend for the trip.
Card allowance. Payhawk adds a cash amount to the traveler's card, approved together with the trip.
Per diem. Payhawk applies the daily rates from your per diem policy and reimburses the traveler after the trip.
Card allowance is a spending budget on the card. When the trip request is approved, the card limit increases by the allowance amount multiplied by the number of trip days. For example, a EUR 50 allowance on a 4-day trip raises the card limit by EUR 200. The traveler can spend the allowance from approval until the last day of the trip, and Payhawk removes any unspent amount when the trip ends. You can cap the allowance with a limit and set country-specific limits, or leave it without a limit. Travelers can adjust the amount on their own request.
Per diem is a reimbursable expense, not a card budget. Payhawk works out a per-diem amount from the trip's dates and destinations using the rates in your per diem policy, then reimburses the traveler after the trip. Per diem needs an active per diem policy, set up under Settings > Spend > Spend types > Per Diem. For details, see the articles on automated per diems for travel and configuring the per diem spend type.
Per diem uses the same per diem policy for every trip type, because your company can have only one active per diem policy at a time. To give a trip type a different daily amount, for example, a higher allowance for client meetings, set its daily spend to Card allowance and define its own limit.
If you have per diems enabled and a valid per diem policy, your travel policies default the daily spend to per diem, so your trips generate per diem claims automatically. Any policy you've already set to Card allowance or None keeps your settings.
Trips
You can define how far in advance employees must book a trip, for example, at least 7 days before the trip starts. Trips requested or edited later than this are flagged as out of policy.
Additional guidelines
Use additional guidelines for any travel rules you can't set in the fields above, for example, "The trip cannot be longer than 10 days". The Travel AI Agent reads these guidelines and follows them when suggesting options during the booking process.
Configuring travel policies
To configure a travel policy:
In the Payhawk Web Portal, go to Settings > Trips.
Open the desired trip type by clicking on it.
Navigate to the Policy tab.
Set your policy rules in the structured fields:
Under Flights, set caps for domestic, short-haul international, long-haul international, including all other flights, each with a currency, and add any preferred airlines. Set the Maximum percentage above market rate to flag flights priced too far above the market rate for the route.
Under Hotels, set the maximum rate per night, maximum star rating, preferred hotels, and any country-specific hotel rates.
Under Refundability, select whether rates must be partially or fully refundable.
Enable the Rebook hotel stays automatically when prices drop toggle button to let Payhawk rebook refundable stays at a lower rate before the free-cancellation deadline. The traveler keeps the same hotel, room, and dates, and gets a notification about the savings.
Under Daily spend, select:
None to prevent employees from requesting daily spend for a trip.
Card allowance to allow employees to request a cash amount on their cards, approved with the trip. You can set a limit to the card allowance as well as define country-specific limits to the allowance.
Per diem to automatically apply the daily rates from your per diem policy. For more information, see the automated per diems for travel.
Under Trips, set the Minimum days booked ahead.
Under Additional guidelines, describe any other travel rules you want the Travel AI Agent to follow.
Click on Save changes.
Alternatively, to automatically configure a travel policy with the Implementation Agent:
In the Payhawk Web Portal, go to Settings > Trips.
Open the desired trip type by clicking on it.
Navigate to the Policy tab.
Click on Edit with the Implementation Agent.
In the side panel that opens, attach the travel policy as a PDF or Word document, or paste the travel policy text you would like to use for this trip type. Once you provide the details, the Agent automatically prepares a preview of the policy for you to review.
Click on Save changes.
The following video provides an overview of automatically configuring a travel policy with the Implementation Agent:
Useful resources