How do I set a travel policy on Swile Travel?

In your administrator area, go to Policies from the side menu. The Travel policies page contains two tabs: Employee policies, where you define your budgets and rules, and Approval rules, where you define approvals.

From the Employee policies tab, you can:

• add a new travel policy;
• edit or delete an existing policy;
• view a clear summary of what each policy contains, without going into the details of the rules;
• drag policies to define their priority order.

Creating a travel policy involves five steps, from the Employee policies tab.

1. Step 1: On the Travel policies page, click Add a policy, then give your travel policy a unique and easily identifiable name.

   

2. Step 2: When creating the policy, choose who it applies to: one or more travellers, an analytical field, or both.

   

3. Step 3: Enter the policy rules programme by programme, in the Train, Accommodation, Flight and Car sections. Click Add a rule in each section to see all the available rules and their associated documentation.

   

4. Step 4: Add policy exceptions, for example a higher hotel budget in a specific city.

   

5. Step 5: Save the travel policy. Then check its summary on the Travel policies page.

   

We recommend creating a default policy that matches the rules applicable to the vast majority of your employees, then creating additional policies, if necessary, to target specific groups (for example, members of the executive committee).

On the Travel policies page, drag the policies to reorder them. The first matching policy is applied. Therefore, place your most specific policies above your broadest policies. Keep your default policy, which is intended to apply to the majority of employees, at the very bottom.

A travel policy applies to a group of employees who share the same rules. The best practice is to match a policy to a traveller profile: for example, a policy dedicated to all employees by default, a policy dedicated to sales staff or one for members of the executive committee.

You have two assignment criteria, which can be combined:

• By traveller: you select one or more employees from a list.
• By analytical field: you target a group, such as a team or cost centre. This is the recommended method, as the group is updated automatically through your employee imports.

An employee who does not match any travel policy is assigned to the default policy.

You can assign a travel policy to a cross-functional analytical field, meaning a field that is not linked to the employee's profile, such as a project code or client. In this case, when the employee starts their travel search, a form asks them to enter the value for this field. The policy applied to the booking is determined by their response. The same employee can therefore be covered by different policies depending on the project they are travelling for.

To define your travel policy on Swile Travel, we offer more than 60 rules, organised by travel programme and categorised by type: budget, booking, class, carrier and prohibition. Each rule is accompanied by an explanation and usage examples in the interface.

We continue to add rules very frequently. Here are some of those currently available:

Rules in the Prohibition category actually block the booking: the employee cannot select the offer concerned. If you block a rail operator, for example, journeys operated by that company can no longer be booked.

A dynamic budget automatically adjusts to the market price, instead of setting a fixed amount. It is available for all four programmes: train, accommodation, flight and car. You define the accepted difference from the market price, as a percentage or in euros. For example, you can allow a price up to 20% above the market price.

The booking window, available for all programmes, encourages advance booking. You define a minimum period before departure: any booking made outside this period is considered out of policy. For example, with a 7-day window, a booking made 3 days before departure is considered out of policy.

Exceptions apply different rules depending on certain conditions, such as the destination or journey duration. An exception automatically overrides the basic rule defined earlier in the policy when the condition is met. All rules can be overridden in this way.

1. Step 1: In the travel policy, open the relevant programme section, then the Exceptions section.
2. Step 2: Click Add an exception, then define the trigger condition using Add a condition.
3. Step 3: Click Add a rule to specify the rule that replaces the basic rule when the condition is met, then save.

Example: your accommodation budget is €150 per night and per traveller. You add an exception with the condition “destination is Paris” and a budget of €220 per night. In Paris, the €220 budget applies.

Yes, you can duplicate a travel policy: 

• Go to Policies in the side menu, then Business travel (the Employee policies sub-tab)

• On the relevant travel policy, click the three dots on the right, then click Duplicate. 

  

• Create an exception in the existing policy for an isolated and stable case, for example an executive who has a different budget in a small organisation.
• Create a dedicated travel policy as soon as the difference in rules is long-term, or when the group concerned will follow its own update schedule. A dedicated policy offers more flexibility, as you can then define your own exceptions in it. Conversely, managing numerous cases through exceptions becomes difficult to maintain over time.

The employee is assigned to your organisation's default travel policy. To ensure they are covered by the correct policy, check that their analytical field is properly filled in, or add them to the list of travellers for the relevant policy.

If your company has not defined a default travel policy, there are no restrictions; all travel options are included in the policy.