Airline Ticket

Introduction

In GCC countries, companies commonly offer a benefit known as the 'Air Ticket,' which serves as an airfare allowance for expatriate employees. This recurring benefit is typically provided on an annual basis and can be availed through various methods, including booking a ticket, reimbursement for an already booked ticket, or encashment of the allowance if the employee chooses not to use it.

The primary purpose of this benefit is to alleviate the financial burden associated with travel, allowing employees to visit their families in their home countries. The specifics of the benefit, such as eligibility and coverage, may vary based on factors like the employment contract, department, location, and employer policies. For example, some companies may extend the ticket benefit to the employee's family, while others may restrict it to the employee alone.

Let us now take a look at how to set up an Air Ticket policy and how to add employees to it on the Keka portal. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Setting up an Air Ticket Policy
• Employee Assignment
• The Request process for an employee
• Approval Process

Setting up an Air Ticket Policy

Go to Payroll (1) and click on Benefits (2), then click on Air ticket (3). Here, you will see a button at the center of the screen asking to Set up air ticket policy (4). 

The first step involves setting up the policy details such as the name, coverage, frequency of usage, etc., once you are done entering the details, click on Save and next to move to the next step. 

On the Claim settings page, you can configure the eligibility, claim options, currency, reimbursement limit, restrictions, etc., once you are done setting up the appropriate settings, click on Save and next to move to the final step.

Note - There are two claim options, you can either enable one of the two, or have both enabled depending on your organization policy.

Under Other settings, you can configure the fields that need to be available for the employee to be able to raise a ticket request.

Below, you can set up the approval chain for the same, and set responsibilities for ticket booking, and payout in case of reimbursement or encashment.

Once you are done, click on Save and close to finish configuring the Air ticket policy. 

You can now view all the details of the policy at a glance under the Summary tab.

Employee Assignment

Now, to assign air ticket policy to employees, click on the Employee Assignment tab.

Here, navigate to the employee(s) you want to the policy to be assigned to and either click on the Update policy button against the employee or click on the check box adjacent to employee name in case you want to assign the policy to multiple employees.

A pop-up window will appear where you can select the appropriate policy to be assigned to the given employee(s) and then click on Update.

The Request process for an employee

As an employee, navigate to My Finances (1) and then click on the Air Ticket (2) tab. Here, the employee can click on Request for Air Ticket (3).

An overlay window will open where the employee will have the option to choose between either requesting for a ticket booking or requesting for a reimbursement.

If the employee chooses the option to request for a reimbursement, then the Request details such as the date of expense, the reimbursement amount, and a note would need to be entered along with a section to upload the receipt of the said expense. After entering all the relevant details, click on Apply.

If the employee chooses the option to request for a ticket booking, then the Flight details, Passenger details, etc. (1) would need to be entered. After entering all the relevant details, click on Apply (2).

Te employee will get a success notification and a Ticket booking request will be created and and approval request will be sent to the respective approver.

Additionally, the employee has the option to edit the booking request by clicking on the Edit icon, or withdraw the booking request by clicking on the three dot icon and then clicking on Withdraw request.

Approval Process

Once a booking request has been raised by an employee, you can take action on it by navigating to Payroll (1), then go to Approvals (2), and under Air Ticket (3) navigate to the relevant booking/reimbursement request and then click on Take action (4).

Note - The relevant approvers will be able to approve requests from their inbox, however, the payroll admin or global admin will be able to take action on the pending requests from the approvals section under Payroll as well.

An overlay window will appear where you can view the relevant details added by the employee at the time of raising the request. You can either approve or reject the request by clicking on the corresponding buttons at the bottom of the screen. If you choose to reject the request, then a pop-up window will appear on the screen where you will have to add a reason for the rejection and then click on confirm.

Once a request is approved by you, the request will then move to the Booking and Payments tab.

The next step is to book tickets and share it with the employee or release reimbursements. To execute these tasks, visit the Bookings and Payments (1) tab and click on review and book to make the appropriate booking for the employee.

A new window will open up where you can upload the booked ticket for the employee by clicking on Upload Ticket (1).

Once you have uploaded the ticket, you can then click on Confirm booking (2).

A pop-up window will appear where you can enter the booking cost, add a note, and then click on Confirm booking.

Once the booking has been confirmed, the employee can download the same through Keka by navigating to My Finances >> Air ticket.

If a reimbursement has been requested by an employee, then under Reimbursements and encashments, navigate to the appropriate request and under Actions either click on the red cross button to reject the request or click on the three dots to View and edit the request.

If you click on View & edit a new window will open up where you can view the request details and also edit details such the payment amount, payment status, and payment date.

You can either approve or reject the request by clicking on the corresponding buttons. If you choose to reject the request, then a pop-up window will appear on the screen where you will have to add a reason for the rejection and then click on Reject.

And you are done! The reimbursement will be received by the employee along with the salary in the chosen payout month.

We hope you now have a good understanding of the Air Ticket feature on Keka and how to implement it for your organization. Please feel free to reach out to one of our product experts in case of any additional queries!