Planning your trip
Follow those 4 easy steps and you will have you first trip plan submitted in no time!
By the end of step 2, you will be able to save your trip as a draft and resume the following steps anytime.
The 4 steps to plan a trip plan are:
- Fill your trip details
- Enter your destinations
- Estimate your budget
- Submit for approval
Step 1. Create your trip plan
To get started, click on the "create" button to open to open up the trip planning template.
This will take you to the first step of the Trip Wizard
The asterisk's indicate where information is needed.
Trip Name is a short title for your trip used to identify it. Consider something informative and short as you will have the option to provide further information further down depending on your organisations requirements.
Travellers is where you add who is travelling including travel companions who are taking the trip.
Trip Type is one of the categories defined by your organisation to help them quickly understand the reason for travel. Select the reason that fits the best to your trip.
Use the scroll button on the right to ensure any further information required is given. In this example, there are three criteria which will need addressing.
Note that at anytime you can SAVE DRAFT for this new trip plan.
To proceed to the next step, click on "Next".
Step 2. Enter your destinations
The second step in the trip plan, is to enter your destinations. First, if you are planning any private leave days or undertaking private travel on this trip, click in the check box to indicate this. This will alter the process slightly however we can address this further down. For now, here is the workflow for a trip without private travel.
Now you need to select whether this is a single destination trip ie. Melbourne to Perth and return, or a multi destination trip ie. Melbourne to Perth to Broome to Melbourne.
The estimated CO2 emissions is an overall indication of the trip's calculated carbon emissions.
Your departure location is pre-filled with information from your travel profile and is highlighted in blue. Hover over the departure location to update it for this trip if it is not accurate.
The estimated CO2 emissions is an overall indication of the trip's calculated carbon emissions.
- Activity: select from the drop down box
- Destination: fill in the details of your first destination by typing the first few letters and selecting the correct location.
- Date range: Select the date range for this destination by clicking on the start date & the end date. For single day trip, double click on the date required.
- Travelling By: Select the method of travel, ie. Air - Economy. This is used to estimate your carbon emissions.
With a multi destination trip, for each location you are planning to go, please enter a new line with the "plus" button remembering to include a return to your starting location if you are returning home.
Note you can also plan a trip using the calendar view by clicking on the calendar icon as highlighted.To proceed to the next step, click on "Next", or at this point onwards, feel free to click on "Save Draft" if you wish to resume later on.
If your trip includes a destination deemed as high risk, your next step will be to complete the high risk destination form.
Step 3. Estimate your budget
In this step, we are going to estimate the budget required for this trip.
Your cost centre and trip currency are pre-filled with information from your travel profile, please update them for this trip if they are not accurate.
We have also added a flag to nominate how a trip is funded: Internally, Externally, Third Party Paying or Personal Contribution. Click the ? for more information on what each option means.
- Budget Type: Select one of the budget types defined by your organisation.
- Fund Code: Will be automatically pre-filled however can be changed to another fund code under the same cost centre. If a fund code is needed and it isn't available on the list, then remove the cost centre then return to the fund code field and search again.
- Enter Amount: Estimate the amount required for this budget item. This does not need to be an accurate figure, but keep in mind that changing it in the future may require an additional approval.
For additional budget items, add a new line with the "plus" button.
To proceed to the next step, click on "Next", or at this point onwards, feel free to click on "Save draft" if you wish to resume later on.
Step 4. Submit for approval
The final step of the trip plan, is the approval step.
Attach any supporting documentation that will help the approvers quickly validate this trip, read and tick any declarations defined by your organisation before selecting your approver and submitting your trip for approval. You can also save your trip as a draft at this stage too.
Once your trip has been submitted for approval, you will be taken back to your Trip Plans dashboard and see your trip with a pending status as it waits for approval.