Topic
This article explains why a traveler can appear with an approval-related status such as “waiting for traveler” or “waiting traveler response” even when they are already at their destination and correctly located on the map. It also describes how itinerary approval status is driven by travel approval policies and how administrators can verify locations, review policies, and adjust or remove those policies in Travel Protector and Visual Command Center (VCC).
Description
When travel approval policies are enabled, the itinerary approval status can indicate that an approval workflow is pending rather than that the traveler must update their profile. The system may show a status such as “waiting traveler response” or “Waiting for Traveler” because policies require review or approval for travel.
In reporting, the itinerary approval status is displayed in the Itinerary Approval Status column. This column shows the current stage of the itinerary approval workflow for a trip. “Waiting for Traveler” means the approval process is paused because action is required from the traveler, such as verifying themselves on the trip or submitting a required travel questionnaire for certain destinations. The approval cannot proceed until the traveler completes the required step. When the traveler completes the required step, the status updates as the process moves on to review and approval. “Approved” means the trip has completed the required steps in the approval process and has been authorized to proceed. The approval process can include traveler verification, completion and submission of required questionnaires, and review by an approver, who can approve, decline, or request more information. When a trip is marked “Approved,” the reviewer has given permission for the trip and the traveler is notified that the trip may commence.
If an organization does not use the built-in approval workflow and does not rely on policy statuses, a traveler appearing in traveler reporting generally indicates that they are traveling. In that case, leaving travel policies enabled but not used can create confusion for others who view status fields, because approval-related statuses can still appear even though the organization is following a different internal approval process. It is recommended to remove or adjust travel policies if an external approval process is used and the in-platform approval workflow is not needed.
The approval-related statuses that appear for trips are triggered by travel policies. To change how these statuses appear, you can edit or remove the travel policies that trigger approvals. One option is to select all relevant policies and delete them. In the travel policy configuration area, select all policies using the top-left checkbox, edit a policy, and then delete the policy entries for all countries. This removes the approval requirement for those policies so new trips are not placed into a pending approval workflow driven by those entries.
Another option is to relax the policies instead of deleting them. You can edit a policy and change the dropdown from “Review All Travel” to “Approve all Travel.” This setting prevents the system from requiring approval for those trips, because trips covered by that policy are treated as approved and do not require the same approval workflow step. Both of these options affect how itinerary approval status values such as “Waiting for Traveler” and “Approved” are applied to trips and how often approval-related statuses appear for travelers who are already traveling.