Book now, approve later

Overview

When booking on Ramp, the new Book now, approve later setup lets employees book travel right away, while managers can still review and approve (or reject) requests after the booking is made. This prevents failed requests and avoids higher prices caused by waiting for approval. If a request is rejected, the booking is automatically canceled. More flexibility for employees, the same control for managers.

How to set it up

Admins should go to the Travel policy settings (Travel page > Manage > Travel policy) and review the Bookings section.

Set how to handle in-policy and out-of-policy bookings. To balance flexibility and control, we recommend selecting Book without approval for in-policy bookings and Book ahead of manager approvalfor out-of-policy bookings.

The default simplified approval workflows (shown above) work for most Ramp customers. However, if you need special approval rules, you can create a custom approval workflow. Select the Book ahead of manager approvaltemplate to get started.

How book ahead of manager approval works

When Book ahead of manager approval is selected as the approval policy, employees book travel right away, while managers can still review and approve (or reject) requests after the booking is made.

Fully refundable bookings

Fully refundable bookings (flights, hotels, and cars) are booked instantly.

• If a manager approves, the booking stays as is — no changes.
• If a manager rejects, the booking is canceled, and the traveler receives a full refund.

Non-refundable bookings

Non-refundable bookings require manager approval before they’re booked, since they can't be canceled with a refund.

Exception: non-refundable flights with a void window

The majority of non-refundable flights include a void window (typically 24 hours). For these flights, the Book ahead of manager approval policy will be applied. This exception exists because most flights are non-refundable.

• If the flight booking is rejected within the void window, it's canceled, and the traveler receives a full refund.
• If the flight booking is canceled after the void window, the traveler may receive airline credits instead of a refund. In those cases, a manager can request repayment from the traveler.

Auto-approval window

If the manager does not approve or reject a booking, it is automatically approved after 5 days.

Bookings that require a fund request

Bookings that require a fund request must be approved before they’re booked.