What’s the best business travel approval process for your company?

When building or refining your corporate travel programme, one of the most important decisions is how business travel will be approved.

Should your organisation centralise booking and approvals, or give travellers more autonomy with a decentralised system? Should approvals be required before the trip, or only reviewed afterwards?

The “right” process depends on your company’s size, culture, and risk tolerance, but there are clear trade-offs to consider.

Below, we explore the main models – describe their pros and cons, and explain how technology can help you build a streamlined, policy-compliant approval workflow.

Centralised vs. decentralised booking and approval for business travel

Centralised approval: more control, less risk

With a centralised approach, a dedicated team (e.g. travel arrangers or administrators) handles travel bookings, and approves all trips before they’re ticketed. This gives you high levels of control and oversight over:

• Compliance with travel policy and budget limits
• Consistency in supplier and fare class use
• Visibility over cost centres and purpose of travel
• For companies that value compliance, cost control, and consistency, or those with frequent travellers, centralised booking remains a popular and effective choice.

Decentralised booking: empowering employees, boosting flexibility

A decentralised approach gives employees the ability to book their own travel, while still operating under an enforced company travel policy. This model tends to appeal to organisations with:

• Remote, hybrid or distributed teams
• Younger workforce accustomed to self-service booking
• A desire for flexible, agile travel arrangements

With modern booking technology and strong policy-controls, decentralised booking can offer both flexibility and compliance.

If you choose decentralised booking, the next question becomes: what kind of approval process should you use?

Types of approval: active vs passive

Active (Pre-Trip) Approval

Active approval requires manager or approver sign-off before the booking is ticketed. Typically, the approver receives an email with a link, no separate login needed to approve or decline the request.

Pros:

• Ensures traveller bookings align with policy before costs are incurred
• Helps avoid unauthorised travel or budget over-runs

Cons:

• Slower — reliant on approver reacting in time
• Risk that lowest fares may be lost if approval is delayed or forgotten

Many companies mitigate that risk by enabling automated reminder notifications to approvers.

Passive approval (auto-approve in-policy bookings)

With a passive approval model, bookings that meet all policy criteria (fare class, supplier, timing, cost centre, etc.) are auto-approved, with no manual sign-off required. Approvers can still receive notifications for record-keeping.

Pros:

• Fast, frictionless booking process
• Reduces bottlenecks and risk of lost fares
• Suitable for high-volume travel environments or frequent last-minute bookings

Cons:

• Requires robust policy controls and consistent enforcement to avoid out-of-policy spending
• Relies on employees understanding and adhering to policy configurations

How booking technology helps you get it right

To successfully implement a flexible but controlled approval process, particularly in a decentralised or passive-approval model, it’s critical to rely on capable booking technology.

For example, CTM Lightning online booking tool and CTM Approve support the following features:

• Multi-tier approvals
• Policy configuration by country, cost centre, fare class, supplier, etc.
• Role-based approval logic
• Delegate approvers (backup approver if primary is unavailable)
• “Days in advance” (DIA) rules to support advance booking policies
• Risk-based checks (e.g. travel to high-risk destinations)

With the right configuration, you can tailor approval workflows to suit your company’s needs — balancing control, flexibility, and traveller convenience.

Which approach is right for your organisation?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. However, the following guidelines can help you decide:

• Small to mid-sized teams with low travel volume: centralised booking may be simpler and more cost-effective.
• Larger, distributed teams or high travel volume: A decentralised model with passive approval may deliver the best balance of efficiency and compliance.
• Organisations with strict compliance or cost controls (e.g. regulatory, audit, high-cost environments): Centralised or active approval may offer needed oversight.
• Companies emphasising traveller autonomy, speed, and flexibility: Decentralised + passive approval may support culture and productivity.

In many cases, especially in modern businesses with hybrid working, remote employees, or dynamic travel needs, a decentralised model powered by a robust booking system offers the optimal balance.