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Introduction

Pre-trip approval (PTA) is a process put into place to better manage business travel by allowing a notification to be sent or submit a trip to be approved or declined before it is ticketed. It offers an automatic method of controlling travel spending by designating travel approvers who can approve or deny a user's travel request.

Benefits

• Customizable: Deem utilizes JavaScripting, which allows for creativity when configuring approvals or notifications.

• Allows for offline and online approvals.

• Simple and quick process for Approver, simply click the Approve or Decline button within approval email.

• Set up notifications and/or approval based on groups.

Limitations

Offline bookings

• Limited to what can be pulled from offline bookings.

• Policy violation cannot be used as a trigger for PTA when booked offline.

  • Example: Offline booking where the travel policy states - Require approval or notification if travel booked is $200 over the lowest logical fare, or if booking a hotel that is $250 dollars over the lowest hotel rate.

  • For these examples, you would need to configure all offline air or hotel bookings require approval or notification.

  • Another option would be to configure to trigger PTA for offline bookings based on an itinerary or profile value.

• Approvals and notifications are completed through email only:

  • Approvals are not available within the Desktop or Mobile app.

  • Approval and notification emails cannot be re-generated.

  • TMC does not have access to approve on the behalf of the client, or to see what trips are waiting approval.

• Single layer approval process:

  • Unable to require approval from more individual and then another.

  • Changes to approved trips will not be sent for approval.

Need to Know

• Travelfusion and Instant Purchase carriers can be excluded from PTA.

• Travelfusion and Instant Purchase carriers  will be auto-approved.

Useful Terms

• Primary approver: First user responsible for approving or declining trips triggered by the process.

• Secondary approver: Second/backup User identified to take action for trips triggered by the process. If the primary approver does not take action within the configured amount of time, an approval request will be sent to the secondary approver.

• Expired Bookings: Bookings which have not been approved or declined by the primary or secondary approvers within the configured amount of time. Expired bookings can be configured to auto-cancel.

Enabling PTA - Who to Contact

Contact Deem Channel Sales Director

• Contact Channel Sales Director for initial Pre-Trip Approval set up:

  • Statement of Work (SOW) is required initial set

  • Pre-Trip Approval is a cost item

• Deem assists with implementation of PTA for your first site.

  • Once you have Pre-Trip Approval set up on your Deem company domain, you will have the ability to program PTA on each of your clients’ sites as needed.

Enable PTA on additional domains

PTA can easily be enabled on additional domains.  Admins only need to file a support ticket if they plan to use the travelers profiled approver.

Open

• Open a Support Ticket with the following details:

  • Company Name

  • Site ID

  • Please enable Pre-Trip Approval for the above site, client is requesting manager to approval via manager within user profile

Notes:

• The Deem Configuration Team will enable the ability for the approver to be set in the traveler’s profiles.
  Note: If configuring a static approver email within the PTA configuration, no email to support is required.

  Open

  

Gather information

Approvals or Notifications

1. Determine if approvals/notifications will be sent to a static email or manager within the profile.

2. Determine if clients require approvals or notification:

   • Approvals Required:  Approval email is generated, thereby requiring a manager from the traveler’s profile or a static approver to approve or decline a trip before being sent to the TMC for ticketing.

   • Notification only: Notification email is generated to manage within the traveler’s profile or static approver for notification purposes only. No action required on the behalf of the email recipient. Travelers are not alerted when notifications are sent.
     
     

PTA Triggers

Identify parameters which will drive the PTA process.  Examples of parameters that can be used are:

• All Trips

• Trip Cost

• Class of Service

• Travel Policy Violations

More examples can be found here.

If you require customized scripting for PTA triggers, please submit a request via a support ticket.

Queues

Identify processing queues

• Approved/Ticketing

• Declined

• Expired

Enable PTA and Set Queues

Queues Programmed under Agency Configurations

1. Select the Service tab.

2. Click Travel Agency.

3. Click Agency Settings.

4. Select the active settings name.

5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Add PTA Configurations.

Note: You may see Edit PTA Configuration if previously set up.

6. Enter Pseudo-city and Queue for each Approved, Declined and Expired bookings.

7. Enter the time windows for the primary and secondary approvers to approve or decline the trip.
   Notes:

   • The first time window is the time in which a reminder email will be sent to the designated approver if they have not taken action.

   • The second time window is the time in which second reminder will be sent to the designated approver if they have not taken action.

   Tips:

   • The first time window is the time in which the primary approver has to make a decision. If the primary does not approve within this window, a reminder email will be sent as well as an approval request generated to the secondary approver.

   • The second time window is the time in which both the primary and secondary have left to make a decision before the PTA process expires.

   • Best practice is to select between 11 and 14 hours total as most fares will expire by the end of day.

8. Click Save.

Setting Up Approvals and Notifications (Custom fields)

Creating Custom Field Collection

To configure the PTA Triggers:

1. Click the Services tab.

2. Click Custom Fields.

3. Click Custom Field Collections.

4. Click Add a New Collection.

5. Complete the following:

   1. Name: Enter a name, such as PTA, PTAManager, PTAGuest. Label clearly, name in a way that it define the collection clearly. No spaces or special characters.

   2. Label: Will prefill from what is enter in the Name field. Update as needed. Spaces are acceptable. 

   3. Description: This will be the header displayed to the user on the purchase page alerting them that the reservation requires approval.  HTML is supported here if you wish to change font size or color.

6. Select Ask for User Input on the Purchase Page (required).

7. Select Save.

The Custom Field Collections screen displays to add the Pre-Trip approval notifications triggers to the collection.

Creating Custom Fields

Configure Pre-Trip Approval within Collection 

1. Click on the Collection Name under Custom Field Collections.

2. Click Add Custom Field.

3. Complete the following:

   • Name: Enter Pre-Trip Approval Name. This does not display to the user.

   • Label: Will prefill from what is enter in the Name field, please update. Spaces are acceptable. This will display to the user above a box where the user can send additional details to the approver.  Best practice is to label “Note to Approver” so the travelers know the purpose.

   • Field Type: Select PTA.

4. Click Approval required or Notification only.

5. Decide whether to send the approval email to the manager within the profile, or to a default approver.

   1. Click Send approval email to traveler’s profiled approver: if manager within profile is required.

   2. If the setting for "Send approval email to traveler’s profiled approver" is used, the default approver email value is required.
      Notes:

      • The default approver is ignored unless the traveler doesn't have a profiled approver. The default approver will be used in the case the traveler does not have an associated approver within their profile.

      • If approvers are to be taken from traveler profiles additional steps are required to first grant permission to approvers and then to associate travelers to approvers.

   3. Leave Send approval email to traveler’s profiled approver unchecked if default approver required.

   4. Enter the email addresses for the default approver and the secondary approver. If the default approver has not approved or declined the itinerary within the defined period, a reminder email is sent to the primary approver and an approval request is sent to the secondary approver.

6. Select the following options:

   1. Auto cancel declined PNR's?: Check box if trip should be cancelled if declined by approver.

   2. Auto approve or cancel expired PNR's?: Select action that should be taken if trip has expired.  Has not been approved within desiccated time established within Agency Settings. 
      Note: Only online generated reservations can be auto-cancelled.

7. Enter message which will display on both the purchase page as well as email notifications in PTA Rules Description. This should reflect the reason the trip has been submitted for approval (out of policy, class of service, price etc.).

8. Click Advanced to enter JavaScript if specific conditions are required to trigger PTA.

9. Enter JavaScript code.

10. Click Save.

Use Case JavaScripts

• Standard JavaScript Examples

• If you need further help creating a script, please open a Support Case

Example Script

Simple script

//INTERNATIONAL SEGMENT

var Int=UserPnrData.UserBooking.HasInternationalSegment;

if (Int=="Y") {out.print("true");}

else {out.print("false");}

Flying to specific airport

//Alaska and Hawaii

if((UserPnrData.UserSession.AirSearch.FlightLeg[0].DestinationAirportCode=="ANC")||

(UserPnrData.UserSession.AirSearch.FlightLeg[0].DestinationAirportCode=="FAI") ||

(UserPnrData.UserSession.AirSearch.FlightLeg[0].DestinationAirportCodee=="HOM")||

(UserPnrData.UserSession.AirSearch.FlightLeg[0].DestinationAirportCode=="JNU") ||

(UserPnrData.UserSession.AirSearch.FlightLeg[0].DestinationAirportCode=="HNL") ||

(UserPnrData.UserSession.AirSearch.FlightLeg[0].DestinationAirportCode=="KOA") ||

(UserPnrData.UserSession.AirSearch.FlightLeg[0].DestinationAirportCode=="LIH") ||

(UserPnrData.UserSession.AirSearch.FlightLeg[0].DestinationAirportCode=="ITO"))

{out.print("true");}else

{out.print("false");}

Add to Custom Field Set

Add PTA Collection to the appropriate Custom Field Set.

1. Click Back to Custom Field Configuration.

2. Navigate back to Custom Field Configurations and click Custom Field Sets.

3. Select which Set to add PTA.

4. Click on Add Collection to Set.

5. Click the check box next to collection you would like to add to the set and click Add.

6. Optionally, adjust the order in which the fields appear and select Save.

7. Confirm Travel Service Rules are updated properly, by ensuring you have the correct custom field sets assigned to the correct groups.

8. Commit Changes shown at the top of the screen.

   1. Select the changes not applied link at the top right of the page which opens the Commit Changes page.

   2. Click Commit.
      Note: Once the Commit button is selected, the updates are made to production. There is no undo button.

9. Test your settings thoroughly.

Configuring a Custom PNR

Configure pending queue under Custom PNR

1. Click the Services tab

2. Click Travel Agency.

3. Click Custom PNR.

4. Select mapping to be configured.

5. Navigate to the bottom of the mapping and click Add PNR Line.

6. Enter or select values for the following:

   • Line No.:  Enter line number which script will reside in your mapping. In this example we are using line 159.

   • PNR Field Type:

     • For the “Pending Approval” remark select Accounting ID. 

     • For “Approved,” ”Declined,” and “Expired,” remarks, select Pre-Trip Approval.

   • Custom PNR Requirement: Enter Script.

   • Requirement Type: Select Script.

   • GDS: Select the GDS your script writes to.

7. Click Save.

• Standard PTA scripts can be found here.

Add approvers and associated travelers in bulk

Approvers and associated travelers can be added manually (one at a time - see the next section), or they can be added in bulk following this process.

1. Download the approvers template from this webpage (Deem_Approvers.csv) and complete the spreadsheet with the approver’s externalID.

2. Download the travelers template from this webpage (deem_appassociation.csv) and complete the spreadsheet with the traveler’s externalID and the associated approvers. The TravelApproverID also needs to be the approvers externalID.

3. As an admin, log into the console and navigate to the Profiles tab.

4. Select Schedule Profile Upload.

5. Navigate to the File Options and select:

   • File Source: Upload from local file

   • File Format: CSV

6. Click Choose File and select your Deem_Approvers.csv file.

7. Navigate to Load Options and select Update Only (ignore new users) and Ignore empty double quotes. Do not select any other boxes.

Setting up Permissions

Designating  Approver Status Manually

1. Click the User tab.

2. Click Account Permission.

3. Click Travel Approver Permission.

4. Click Save.

Assigning Manager Manually to Traveler Profile

1. Click the Users tab.

2. Click Personal and Employee Info.

3. Click Travel Approver Name.

4. Select an approver from list.

5. Click Save.

Upload Approver

You can upload a file to establish user-approver relationships. Templates are available under the Profile tab.

You may need to upload two separate profile uploads to establish an approver roll, and then a file to assign an approver to the user’s account. If you upload all files at the same time, there may be random issues with one of the files.

Note: Column Header and role is case sensitive

To create an upload and establish Approver Role (See attached template), the following is needed:

• externalID

• userInfo.userName

• userInfo.firstName

• userInfo.lastName

• userInfo.email

• roleSet.role_1: Value ROLE_TRAVEL_APPROVER

To create upload to assign manager to user profile (See attached template) the following is needed:

• externalID

• userInfo.userName

• userInfo.firstName

• userInfo.lastName

• userInfo.email

• userInfo.travelApproverID: Value externalID of manager

Note: Ensure all custom fields, corresponding collections, and custom field sets, are created first before uploading profiles containing custom fields. If not, the upload will fail. Follow the same procedures as you would when uploading the Profile Upload.

• siteid_upload.csv

  • Example: acme_deem_upload.csv (acme_deem is the SiteID of my demo site)

• csv (comma delimited)

See HR Feed with Pre-trip Approval for more information.

Pre-trip Offline booked PNRs

1. The Agency queues the PNR to PNR Synchronization queue listed in Agency settings.
   Note: Deem does not have an independent queue for for Pre-Trip Approval.

2. Deem will determine if the reservation requires approval via the PTA configurations:

   1. If trip is does not require approval, the TMC is responsible for sending to the ticketing queue..

   2. If trip requires approval an email will be sent to the approver.

3. Once approved or declined it will be sent back to the designated queues for processing.

Pre-trip approval messaging

Pending Approval Message

• To Traveler – ‘Your trip is pending approval for travel. You will be notified once it is approved, and the trip will be sent to [agency name] for processing. Online changes are not allowed until the tip is approved for travel, please contact your agency directly for changes.’

• To Approver 1 – Pre-trip approval required [rules description]

Reminder Approval Message

• To Approver 2 – Pre-trip approval required.  Primary approver did not respond within the expected timeframe. [rule description]

Approval Message

• To Traveler – ‘Your trip has been approved for travel.’ Existing confirmation message – Your trip has been completed.

• To Approver 1 – Pre-trip approval has been received and the trip has been sent to [agency name] for processing

• To Approver 2 – Pre-trip approval has been received and the trip has been sent to [agency name] for processing

Declined Message

• To Traveler – Your trip has been declined for travel. The trip has been sent to [agency name] for processing.

• To Approver 1 – This trip has been declined for travel and sent to [agency name] for processing

• To Approver 2 – This trip has been declined for travel and sent to [agency name] for processing

Declined Auto Cancel Message

• To Traveler – Your trip was declined for travel and auto canceled. [existing auto cancellation message]

• To Approver 1 – This trip was declined for travel and auto canceled

• To Approver 2 – The trip was declined for travel and auto canceled

Expired Approval Message

• To Traveler – Pre-trip approval was not received for this trip. The approval process has expired, please contact your agency for further assistance.

• To Approver 1 – Pre-trip approval was not received for this trip and the approval process has expired.

• To Approver 2 – Pre-trip approval was not received for this trip and the approval process has expired.

Notification Only Email

• To Approver 1 – You are being notified that this trip has been sent to [agency name] for processing. [rule description]

Pre-trip Status and Explanations

Waiting for Approval: Bookings have not been approved or declined and are within the configured amount of time for review.

Trip Declined: Bookings has been declined by the travel approver.

Canceled: Bookings have been canceled either manually or by the pre-trip approval process if pre-trip approval has been configured to auto-cancel.
Note: Remember to manually cancel any expired trips if pre-trip approval is not configured to auto-cancel. Although the air ticket is not issued, the trip is not auto canceled and could incur hotel penalties.

Confirmed: Bookings which have been approved by primary or secondary approver and sent to ticketing.

Suggest to add section with instructions for approvers to action approval email.  Calling out ability for approver to send message back to the traveler once the decision has been made.

Instructions for Approvers

When a trip is submitted for approval, the approver gets an email with the traveler’s comments and link embedded where they make the decision on the trip.

Everything needed to approve or decline the trip is embedded within the email. 

• If an approver is going to be out of office, they can manage themselves by setting up an Outlook rule to forward approvals needed to their substitute. 

• Once they return to the office they simply remove the rule.

To make the approval:

1. Click the Approve or Decline Trip link in the email to open the approval page.

2. Optionally, write a note to the Traveler.

3. Select Approve or Decline.

The email to the traveler will look similar to this: