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Travel Budgets

Understand how to request and manage travel budgets

Travel Budgets: pre-approve trip spend

Travel Budgets let employees request a pre-approved budget for a work trip, then link related spend to it for full visibility.

For: Requesters (employees) and Approvers (managers, finance) on all plans, all markets.

Table of Contents

  • Before you start

  • Submit a Travel Budget Request

  • Approve or reject a Travel Budget Request

  • Link spend to an approved trip

  • Track budget consumption

  • Coming soon

  • Troubleshooting

  • FAQs

  • Related articles

Before you start

  • Available by default on Web, iOS, and Android — no setup required to start using it.

  • Any Requester can submit a Travel Budget Request; any Approver in your approval flow can review it.

  • Admins can customise the approval workflow for Travel Budget Requests in Settings > Company Rules > Approval Workflows, by setting a condition on the Spend type = Travel budget dimension.

  • Travel Budgets do not currently support linking mileage claims or per diem allowances — these remain separate reimbursement types.

Submit a Travel Budget Request

  1. Click New Request in the top-right corner.

  2. Select Travel Budget Request.

  3. Enter the trip destination(s).

  4. Enter the trip purpose.

  5. Enter the trip start date and end date.

  6. Enter your estimated budget, in your company currency.

  7. Fill in any additional required fields (cost centre, expense category, etc.).

  8. Click Submit to send the request for approval.

Approve or reject a Travel Budget Request

  1. Go to Requests > To approve.

  2. Select the Travel Budget Request you want to review.

  3. Review the trip context and estimated budget.

  4. Click Approve or Reject.

  5. If approved, the trip becomes available for the requester to link spend to it. The requester receives an email notification.

Link spend to an approved trip

  1. When submitting a card payment, invoice, or expense claim related to the trip, select the approved Trip in the request form.

  2. Repeat for every payment linked to the trip (hotel, flights, taxis, meals).

  3. Confirm the request as usual.

💡 Tip: Link every travel expense to the trip so finance can see complete, real-time spend against the approved budget.

Coding fields (cost centre, expense category, etc.) are pre-filled from the original Travel Budget Request wherever possible. Linked amounts reduce the trip's remaining budget automatically.

Track budget consumption

  • Requesters and Approvers can see the total, consumed, and remaining budget on the trip.

  • If a new linked expense would exceed the remaining budget, Approvers see a warning before they approve it.

⚠️ Warning: You cannot edit a submitted Travel Budget Request. Cancel it and submit a new one if details change.

Coming soon

These items are on the Travel Budgets roadmap and are not yet available:

  • Filtering All Payables by Trip.

  • Adding Trip ID as a column in the All Payables CSV export.

  • An optional setting to auto-approve linked expenses when the amount is below the trip's remaining budget (this will be off by default when released).

📋 Best Practice: Create the Travel Budget Request before making any bookings, so spend stays aligned with your company's travel policy from the start.

Troubleshooting

Symptom: I can't add my mileage claim or per diem to a trip.
​Cause: Travel Budgets don't yet support linking mileage claims or per diem allowances.
​Resolution: Submit these as standalone reimbursement requests. Track their cost against the trip manually until this is supported.

Symptom: My Approver rejected my linked expense because it exceeds the trip budget.
​Cause: The linked amount pushed total spend above the approved trip budget, triggering a warning for the Approver.
​Resolution: Reduce the expense amount, or ask your Approver to review and approve despite the warning if the overspend is justified.

Symptom: I need to change the destination or dates on my Travel Budget Request.
​Cause: Submitted requests can't be edited.
​Resolution: Cancel the request from Requests > Your requests, then submit a new Travel Budget Request with the correct details.

FAQs

  • Can I edit a request after submission? Not yet. Cancel the request and submit a new one.

  • What happens if the trip budget is exceeded? Approvers see a warning and can approve or reject the linked expense.

  • Can multiple employees link spend to the same trip? Not yet. Each trip is linked to one traveler.

  • Does linking spend affect approvals? No. Reimbursement flows are unchanged; linking only adds budget context and visibility.

  • Is this the same as Spendesk Hotels booking? No. Travel Budgets is a pre-approval and spend-tracking feature available to all customers. Spendesk Hotels is a separate Beta feature for booking hotels directly in Spendesk. Reach out to travelbeta@spendesk.com to join the Beta.

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