User Delegation

User Delegation allows one user to access another user's travelers and perform actions on their behalf. This is common in organizations where executive assistants book travel for executives, travel coordinators manage multiple departments, or managers oversee team travel.

The Problem Delegation Solves

In corporate travel, the person booking travel is often not the person traveling. Common scenarios include:

• Executive assistants booking flights for executives
• Travel coordinators managing travel for an entire department
• Office managers booking travel for visiting clients or candidates
• Team leads arranging team travel for offsites or conferences

Without delegation, these users would need shared login credentials (a security risk) or the travelers themselves would need to make every booking (inefficient).

How Delegation Works

Delegation creates a formal relationship between users within a company:

Key terminology:

Delegation Types

Rahal supports two delegation types:

User-to-User

A specific user grants access to another specific user. This is the most common type.

• Example: Sarah (executive) delegates to Ahmed (assistant)
• Ahmed can access Sarah's travelers and book on her behalf
• Both users must be active members of the same company

Company-Wide

A user receives access to all users' travelers in a company, without needing individual delegations from each person.

• Example: A travel coordinator receives company-wide access to book for anyone in the organization
• The delegate can search for any user in the company and access their travelers
• Optionally, company-wide delegations can be restricted to specific delegators

Delegation Model

When User A (delegator) grants delegation to User B (delegate):

1. User B gains access to all of User A's travelers
2. User B can perform actions based on the granted scopes
3. Policy and budget evaluation uses User A's assignments (the delegator's policy and budget apply)
4. User A remains the "owner" of all bookings created by User B

Delegation Scopes

Each delegation grants specific permissions through scopes. This allows granular control over what actions a delegate can perform.

Common Scope Combinations

Key Characteristics

Company-Scoped

Delegations are always tied to a specific company. For user-to-user delegations, both users must be active members of the same company. Company-wide delegations are scoped to a target company, granting the delegate access to that company's users.

Self-Service and Admin Management

Rahal supports two delegation management models:

Self-service (User App)

Users can manage their own delegations directly from the Delegation page in the Rahal app:

• Grant access to colleagues by searching for them
• Choose from preset permission levels (Full Access, Booking Only, View Only, Custom)
• Update scopes for existing delegations
• Revoke delegations when access is no longer needed

Admin-managed (Dashboard)

Administrators can create and manage delegations for any users through the dashboard:

• Create delegations between any two users in the company
• Bulk create delegations for multiple users at once
• Monitor and audit all company delegations
• Revoke delegations for security or compliance reasons

Policy and Budget Attribution

When a delegate creates a booking:

• The delegator's policy is used for compliance checks
• The delegator's budget is consumed (if budget management is enabled)
• The booking is attributed to the delegator in reports and analytics

This ensures that travel policies are enforced correctly regardless of who makes the booking.

Documentation