Trips

Admins can configure preferences regarding trip submission, trip notifications, trips' custom status, and other preferences.

To set up trip preferences:

1. Click Admin View.
2. Go to Settings on the left sidebar.
   (OR)
   Click the Gear icon at the top right side.
   
3. Go to Modules under Customization.
   
4. Click Trips.
   
5. Under the Preferences tab, you can configure the following:

Auto-generate trip number

You can set a prefix and a starting number to auto-generate the trip numbers.

Make trip mandatory in expense report

Check this option if an expense report must be submitted only with a trip associated to it.

Associate expenses incurred only within the trip’s duration

If you mark this option, users will not be able to associate expenses with a trip, that are not within the trip’s date range. This is to ensure that only the expenses that are within the trip’s duration are associated with the trip’s expense reports.

Create an advance for the trip’s budget amount and associate it with the trip when it is approved

Check this option if you want Zoho Expense to automatically create an advance for the trip’s budget amount whenever a trip is approved.

Trip Allowance

An organization might provide its employees with a fixed allowance per day for their daily expenses. You can choose to create these per diem allowances as trip allowances automatically for your users.

Under the Auto-create Trip allowance for dropdown, select for which trip you would like to auto-create the allowance. Once you’ve selected your preference, the allowance will be automatically added to the associated report as a reimbursable expense. The trip allowance will be calculated based on the duration of the trip and the default per diem rate.

Trips' Custom Status

In addition to the pre-defined statuses, Zoho Expense allows you to create new custom statuses for your Approved and Closed trips. In your business, when you approve and close trips, you may have intermediate stages such as Reimbursement Initiated, Reimbursement Pending, or more. But, Zoho Expense provides only Approved and Closed as default statuses. Now, if you want the stages in your business to match with the trip’s status in Zoho Expense, you can create them as custom statuses using the Custom Status option.

To create a new custom status:

1. Navigate to the Trips' Custom Status section and click + New.
2. Fill in the status Name and select Approved or Closed from the Consider As dropdown. Click Save.
   

To change the status of the trips:

1. Go to Approvals on the left sidebar.
2. Navigate to Trips.
   
3. Select the Approved or Closed trip for which you would like to change the status.
4. Click the Change Status dropdown at the top right corner and select the “Custom Status Name”.
   

Once this is done, the trip will be marked with the new status and will be considered as Approved or Closed as per your configuration.

On trip submission

Under this section, you can configure the following preferences:

• Attach the trip as a PDF file to the notification email: A copy of the trip will be sent as a PDF file along with the notification email.
• Receive a copy of the trip request as an email: You can add the email addresses to which you would like to send a copy of the trip, whenever a trip is submitted.
• Display Terms & Conditions: You can enter the terms and conditions that have to be shown to the users while submitting a trip.
  

Approval Preference

• Allow approvers to approve their own trips: You can allow the approvers to approve their own trips that were created and submitted by them.
• Receive a copy of the trip upon its approval: You can add the email addresses to which you would like to send a copy of the trip, whenever a trip is approved.
  

Send notifications when

Under this section you can configure when you want to send notifications to the users. You can notify the users when trips are:

• Approved
• Submitted
• Cancelled