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:

1. Fill your trip details
2. Enter your destinations
3. Estimate your budget
4. 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 mandatory noting that sometimes you will be required to select from a drop down box, other times you will be able to enter free text. 

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 later 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 mandatory questions which will need addressing.  

Note: At anytime you can click SAVE DRAFT. If you see red alerts for any field that are required before the draft will save, simply filled these in and click SAVE DRAFT again. This will allocate a trip plan number for your 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.  If you are planning any private leave days or undertaking private travel on this trip, click in the check box to indicate this first.  This will create a multi destination trip form and alter the process slightly however this is addressed 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.

Note: The estimated CO2 emissions will be an overall indication of the trip's calculated carbon emissions for travel segments.

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.

• 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". You can also SAVE DRAFT any time the button is blue. You will be returned to a viewing state and will need to EDIT the trip plan when you are ready.

Navigating via the NEXT button may require you to review and action some alerts if there is not an activity for each day of the trip or the start and return destinations differed. Once these are handled, you will be able to move onto estimating your budget for the trip.

Note: 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 total budget required for this trip by budget type.

Your cost centre and trip currency are pre-filled with information from your travel profile. Update if they are not relevant to this trip.

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 and 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". You can also SAVE DRAFT any time the button is blue. You will be returned to a viewing state and will need to EDIT the trip plan when you are ready.

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.