Describe your travel policy and approval path. Makeform builds a travel advance request form for itineraries, estimates, requested funds, payment details, and review before departure.
Send advance requests to Slack, Google Sheets, and Zapier.
Sample prompts for the builder
Choose a prompt, adapt it, or send it to the builder. Revise every example for your policy.
Audience
Employees requesting funds for a scheduled domestic trip
Format
Itemized request with manager and finance review
Prompt size
315 chars
Example form structure
Itemized request with manager and finance review
Employee, department, and manager
Destination and business purpose
Departure and return dates
Estimated costs by category
Advance amount requested
Suggested routing tags
Manager review
Finance review
Ready to disburse
Ask for the requested advance and estimated trip total so finance can see what needs funding before departure.
Step 1
Estimate
itinerary, categories, and expected costs
Step 2
Review
manager confirms purpose and coding
Step 3
Disburse
finance records the approved advance
Step 4
Reconcile
employee reports actual spend after travel
Why structure the request
A structured request puts the itinerary, cost assumptions, funding code, requested amount, and review trail in one submission.
Separate transport, lodging, meals, mileage, fees, and other costs so finance can review the calculation.
Collect manager, cost center, and project code, then route the request through manager and finance review.
Record the approved amount, payment method, acknowledgment, and return date for post-trip reporting.
Adapt to the trip
Choose a use case, then adjust categories, lead-time rules, currencies, and reviewers.
Capture dates, purpose, fares, lodging, meals, cost center, and requested advance.
Add currencies, conversion assumptions, document readiness, and quote uploads.
Use a traveler roster, shared costs, per-person calculations, and a funds custodian.
Capture the missed lead-time reason and flag the request for urgent review.
Advance workflow
Build a pre-departure form reviewers can approve, record, and later reconcile.
Specify eligible expenses, lead time, accounting codes, and reviewers.
Add categories, allowances, attachments, currencies, and calculations. Keep the advance distinct from the trip total.
Notify the manager and finance inbox, with exceptions sent to the appropriate reviewer.
Connect the traveler, approved amount, payment date, and trip for comparison with actual expenses.
Form vs email vs spreadsheet
Reviewers need the trip, cost estimate, funding source, and payment destination together.
Field guide
Follow the request from business purpose through estimate, review, payment, and reconciliation.
Employee and ownership
Capture the employee, department, manager, and trip coordinator to establish ownership and routing.
Trip and purpose
Capture destination, dates, purpose, and expected travelers before asking reviewers to evaluate costs.
Estimated costs
Use numeric categories and a calculated estimate, separating the trip budget from cash needed early.
Advance and payment
Ask for the advance, payment date, and allowed method. Use an internal payment reference when details are managed elsewhere.
Evidence and policy
Attach quotes or itinerary details, then show your policy summary beside the acknowledgment.
Approval and closeout
Keep decisions, approved amount, comments, and payment reference beside the request for closeout.
Related tools
Connect advances with authorization, reporting, reimbursement, payment, and trip preparation.
Capture purpose, itinerary, funding, and authorization first.
Open toolHandle eligible costs paid personally by the employee.
Open toolPrepare a requisition for an approved payment.
Open toolPrepare documents and bookings for international trips.
Open toolCollect general travel requests before choosing next steps.
Open toolFAQ
Practical answers for finance teams replacing email-based advance requests with a consistent intake process.
It is an internal form employees use to request money before business travel. It records the traveler, purpose, itinerary, estimates, requested advance, funding code, payment method, files, and review decisions for later reconciliation.
An advance provides approved funds before a trip based on estimates. Reimbursement repays eligible personal spending afterward. A post-trip report compares actual costs with the advance and identifies unused funds or an additional amount due.
Common categories include fares, lodging, meals, rental vehicles, mileage, fuel, local transit, registration, visas, baggage, and approved incidentals. Use your policy categories. Separate numeric fields support a calculated total.
Yes. Add numeric categories and calculations for totals, allowances, nights, mileage, or traveler counts. Keep the trip total and requested advance separate because prepaid costs may reduce the cash needed. Review calculations before publishing.
Ask for spending and reporting currencies, the exchange-rate source and date, and local and converted estimates. Include visa and international transport costs. Finance can update final accounting from actual or policy rates.
Yes. Collect the manager and cost center, notify reviewers, and keep status or notes with the submission. Your sequence might let a manager confirm purpose before finance checks calculations and prepares payment.
Yes. Makeform offers unlimited free forms and responses, so you can generate, edit, publish, and collect requests without a response cap. The paid tier removes the Makeform badge. Adapt the fields, policy, and routing before sharing.
Use the request ID when the employee submits actual expenses, receipts, and unused funds. Finance compares eligible spending with the advance and records the difference. State the reconciliation deadline in the request.
Replace advance-request email threads.
