Delegation Model

This page explains the core concepts behind Rahal's delegation system and how delegation relationships are structured.

Core Concepts

Delegator and Delegate

A delegation relationship always involves two parties:

Direction of Access

The delegation direction determines who can access whose data:

• A delegates to B means B can access A's travelers
• B does NOT get access to make A view B's travelers

This is a one-way relationship. If two users need to access each other's travelers, two separate delegations must be created.

Delegation Types

Rahal supports two delegation types that serve different organizational needs.

User-to-User

The most common type. One user explicitly grants access to another user.

• Both users must be active members of the same company
• Creates a direct relationship between two specific users
• The delegator appears in the delegate's list of people they can book for

Company-Wide

A user receives access to all users' travelers within a company. Instead of needing individual delegations from each person, the delegate can search for and access any user's travelers.

• The delegate can search for any user in the target company
• No individual delegator is required (though optionally, access can be restricted to specific users)
• The delegate sees a search interface instead of a fixed list of delegators

Delegation Properties

Each delegation record contains the following properties:

Company Scope Requirement

For user-to-user delegations, both users must be active members of the same company. For company-wide delegations, the delegation targets a specific company, and the delegate can access travelers of users within that company.

Relationship Uniqueness

For user-to-user delegations, the combination of delegator, delegate, and company must be unique. You cannot create duplicate delegations for the same user pair in the same company.

For company-wide delegations without a specific delegator, only one such delegation can exist per delegate per company.

If you need to modify an existing delegation (e.g., add or remove scopes), update the existing delegation rather than creating a new one.

Active vs Inactive Delegations

Delegations can be temporarily disabled without being deleted:

This allows administrators to temporarily suspend delegation access without losing the delegation configuration.

Traveler Access

When a delegation is active, the delegate gains access to all travelers owned by the delegator. There is no partial traveler access - it's all or nothing.

The specific actions the delegate can perform depend on the granted scopes.

Policy and Budget Attribution

When a delegate creates a booking for a delegator's travelers:

Key points:

• The delegator's policy is used for compliance evaluation
• The delegator's budget is consumed
• The booking appears in the delegator's booking history
• Reports and analytics attribute the booking to the delegator

This ensures that travel policies are enforced correctly based on the actual traveler's role, not the person making the booking.

Delegation Lifecycle

Related Concepts

• Scopes - Understanding delegation permissions
• Booking Flow - How delegation affects the booking process