Expense Management Tools with Pre-Approval Workflows

Traditional expense management is a reactive process. An employee spends money, and weeks later, a manager reviews an expense report to see if that spending was appropriate. If an employee books a last-minute, first-class flight, the company doesn't find out until the trip is over and the money has already been spent. This "ask for forgiveness, not permission" model is a recipe for budget overruns and a major source of financial leakage for most companies.

The modern solution to this problem is to shift control from post-trip reimbursement to pre-trip authorization. A pre-approval workflow is a process where an employee must get approval for the estimated cost of a trip before they are allowed to book it. This is the single most effective way to control T&E spend, and it is a core feature of any modern travel and expense management platform. This guide will explain why pre-approval workflows are so critical and which tools are best at implementing them.

Why Pre-Approval is a Game-Changer for Cost Control

1. It Prevents Overspending Before It Happens: This is the most obvious benefit. When a manager has to approve a trip's estimated cost upfront, it provides a powerful checkpoint. The manager can review the itinerary and budget before any money is committed. If a proposed trip is too expensive or not a strategic priority, the manager can deny it or ask the employee to find a more cost-effective option. This is infinitely more effective than questioning an expense report for a trip that has already been taken.

2. It Drives Better Planning and Reduces Last-Minute Bookings: A pre-approval requirement naturally encourages employees to plan their travel further in advance. They know they need to build in time to get their manager's sign-off. This helps to combat the culture of last-minute travel, which is the single biggest driver of high airfare costs. Our analysis of what drives travel overspending clearly shows that advance booking is the most powerful cost-saving lever.

3. It Provides Real-Time Budget Visibility: A pre-approval system gives the finance team a real-time view of committed travel spend. When a trip is approved, that estimated cost can be immediately factored into the budget forecast. This is a massive improvement over a manual system where you don't know what has been spent until weeks after the fact, a core reason why most companies lack a real-time expense sync.

4. It Aligns Travel with Strategic Goals: The pre-approval step forces a conversation between the employee and their manager about the "why" of the trip. Is this trip necessary? What is the expected ROI? This ensures that all travel is aligned with the company's strategic priorities.

What to Look for in a Pre-Approval Workflow Tool

An effective pre-approval workflow is not just a simple form. It is an intelligent, automated, and flexible system.

Integration with the Booking Tool: The pre-approval workflow must be natively integrated with the travel booking tool. The employee should be able to build a proposed itinerary (flights, hotels) in the booking tool, see the estimated cost, and then submit that entire "cart" for approval with a single click.
Multi-Level and Conditional Logic: A sophisticated tool allows you to create "smart" approval chains. For example:
- A trip under $1,000 only needs manager approval.
- A trip over $5,000 might require a second level of approval from the department head.
- An international trip or a booking that is out-of-policy might automatically be routed to the travel manager or finance for review.
Mobile-First Approvals: Managers are busy and on the go. The system must allow them to review and approve trip requests instantly from their mobile phone, with a clear summary of the cost and any policy violations.
Data-Rich Requests: The request that the manager receives must contain all the context they need to make an informed decision, including the total cost, the reason for the trip, and any policy flags.

The Top Tools for Pre-Approval Workflows

Given the requirement for deep integration between booking and approvals, the best tools for pre-approval are the all-in-one travel and expense platforms. Standalone expense tools, by their nature, are reactive and cannot manage pre-trip authorization.

1. Routespring

Why it's a leader: Routespring has one of the most powerful and flexible policy and approval engines on the market. Its platform allows administrators to easily build complex, multi-tiered approval workflows with conditional logic. Because travel and expense are unified, the pre-approval process is seamlessly connected to the booking and final reconciliation, creating a true end-to-end automated system. The mobile approval experience is clean, fast, and data-rich, making it easy for managers to do the right thing.

2. SAP Concur

Why it's on the list: Concur's "Request" module is a powerful tool for pre-trip authorization. It is highly customizable and can be configured to handle the most complex approval chains of a large global enterprise.
Considerations: Like the rest of the Concur platform, the user interface for creating and approving requests can feel clunky and outdated. The complexity of the configuration often requires specialized consultants to set up and maintain.

3. Navan (formerly TripActions)

Why it's on the list: Navan also offers a modern, integrated approval workflow as part of its travel platform. The user experience for both the traveler requesting a trip and the manager approving it is generally clean and mobile-friendly.
Considerations: The approval logic may not be as deeply customizable as some enterprise-grade systems, but it is very effective for most standard corporate travel scenarios.

4. TravelPerk

Why it's on the list: TravelPerk provides a solid approval workflow that is easy to set up and use. It allows for multi-level approvals and provides clear visibility for administrators.
Considerations: As with other features, the approval workflow is part of their paid subscription tiers, and the most advanced logic is reserved for the higher-priced plans.

Conclusion: Control Spend Before It Happens

Moving from a post-trip reimbursement model to a pre-trip approval model is one of the most impactful strategic shifts a company can make in managing its T&E spend. It is the key to proactive financial control. By implementing a modern travel and expense platform with a powerful, automated pre-approval workflow, you can stop financial leakage at its source, drive a culture of more thoughtful and planned travel, and provide your finance team with the real-time visibility they need to be strategic partners to the business.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Won't a pre-approval process slow down our ability to book travel? A manual, email-based approval process absolutely slows things down. But a modern, automated, mobile-first approval workflow is incredibly fast. An employee can submit a request, and a manager can approve it on their phone in a matter of minutes. This is far faster than the old way of doing things and allows you to book tickets quickly before prices change.

2. We trust our employees. Doesn't a pre-approval process signal a lack of trust? It's all in how you frame it. It shouldn't be positioned as a lack of trust, but as a standard business process for ensuring good financial governance. It provides a valuable checkpoint for managers to align travel with strategic priorities and budget availability. Most employees appreciate the clarity of knowing their trip is fully approved before they book.

3. Should every single trip require pre-approval? For the tightest control, yes. However, a "management by exception" approach can be very effective. A modern platform can be configured to "auto-approve" routine, fully in-policy trips below a certain cost threshold. This means a manager's active approval is only required for the exceptions (high-cost, out-of-policy, or high-risk travel), which saves time while still maintaining control where it matters most.

4. What information should a manager see in a pre-approval request? The request should be a data-rich summary. It should include the traveler's name, trip dates and destination, the total estimated cost (broken down by air, hotel, etc.), the business purpose of the trip, and a clear flag for any policy violations with an explanation. Some advanced systems can even show how this trip will impact the department's remaining travel budget.

5. We are a small business. Is a pre-approval workflow really necessary for us? Yes. For a small business where cash flow is critical, having pre-trip visibility and control over a major expense like travel is arguably even more important. Modern travel platforms offer affordable plans that make this level of control accessible to any size company.