Before the trip
Travel authorisation before booking, not after
A travel authorisation workflow approves the spend before the trip is booked, rather than reimbursing it afterwards. Trexo runs a travel authorisation request up a three-level chain of line manager, department head and finance, then links the later expense claim back to what was authorised. Trexo is built by Sulayo, a Dubai product studio.
Why approve travel before it is booked?
Because after the trip there is no decision left to make. A claim submitted for a flight already taken and a hotel already slept in can be questioned, but it cannot realistically be refused, so approval after the fact is a formality that generates paperwork without controlling spend. Authorising first moves the decision to the only moment it can change the outcome, and gives finance a forward view of committed travel cost instead of a backward one.
What does the three-level approval chain do?
A request in Trexo goes to the line manager, who knows whether the trip is necessary; then the department head, who knows whether it fits the department's plan; then finance, who knows whether the budget carries it. Each level is answering a different question, which is why collapsing them into a single approver loses the control rather than streamlining it. The chain is configurable through an approver matrix in the admin console.
How does Trexo keep the chain from stalling?
A control that blocks work gets routed around, so Trexo makes each step cheap. Approvals can be actioned from a magic link in an email without opening the app, approvers can delegate their queue while away, and approvals can be actioned in bulk. Every step lands on a visible approval timeline, so a request that is sitting somewhere is visibly sitting with somebody rather than lost.
At a glance
- Two documents
- Travel authorisation request before, expense claim after, linked
- Approval levels
- Line manager, department head, finance
- Payment
- A separate Accounts Payable role, which does not approve
- Roles
- Six, configurable per organisation
- Away from the desk
- Magic-link email approvals, delegation, bulk actions, mobile-first
- Audit trail
- A visible approval timeline on every request
- Pricing
- From $6 per user per month, 14-day trial, no card
Questions people ask
What is a travel authorisation request?
A travel authorisation request, often shortened to TAR, is the document raised before a trip that sets out the purpose, the destination, the dates and the estimated cost, and asks for approval to commit that spend. It is the opposite end of the process from an expense claim, which reports what was actually spent once the trip is over.
Can the approval chain be changed per department?
Yes. The admin console carries an approver matrix, so which approvers a request passes through can differ by department and by the shape of the organisation. Enterprise customers can go further with fully custom approval chains.
What happens if the actual cost exceeds what was authorised?
Because the claim is linked to the authorisation, the difference is visible at the point the claim is reviewed rather than discovered in a month-end reconciliation. That is the practical value of running both halves in one system: the reviewer is comparing against a number the organisation already agreed to, not against a memory of it.
Does Trexo handle cash advances for travel?
Yes, on the Business plan and above. Cash advances matter in this region, where an employee travelling for a fortnight may reasonably be given money up front rather than asked to carry the cost personally and reclaim it later.
Is Trexo usable on a phone?
Trexo is built mobile-first, which is the only sensible design for a product whose users are by definition travelling. Approvals in particular are designed to be actioned from a phone, including from an emailed magic link without signing in.