Approving expenses

Expense Approvals lists submitted expense claims whose current approval step is yours to action. A claim may pass through several steps that HR configured by amount, category or department; you only see it while it waits on you. You can approve, reject with a reason, or send it back to the employee for changes, singly or in bulk.

Who can do this: Managers with `expenses.approve.direct_reports`; `expenses.approve.own_company` or `.assigned_companies` holders for role-based steps in their company; `expenses.approve.any` (HR Manager, Admin) on anything. Overriding a hard policy block needs `expenses.approve.any` or `roles.manage`.

Where to find it

Expenses → Expense Approvals, with a pending-count badge. URL: `/expense-approvals`.

Deciding a single claim

1. Each card shows the claim title (or its type), a Submitted badge, the employee's name and the total in the claim currency. Click the title to open the full claim with its line items, receipts, policy flags and Approval chain.
2. Approve records your step. If more steps remain, the claim moves to the next approver; otherwise it becomes approved.
3. Reject asks "Reason for rejection:" (required, up to 2000 characters). The claim is rejected and remaining steps are skipped.
4. Send back asks "What needs changing?" (required, up to 2000). The claim returns to draft, the chain is discarded, and the employee edits and resubmits, which builds a fresh chain.

Approving several at once

1. Tick the checkbox on each card. A bar appears reading "N selected".

1. Click Approve to approve all, or Reject to reject all with one reason.
2. Each claim is processed independently. Claims you cannot action, or that need a policy override, are left in the queue without a message; decide those one at a time.

Policy overrides

Line items can carry policy flags. A hard-block flag (over the category limit, missing receipt on a strict category) stops Approve with "This claim exceeds policy limits. Enter a reason to override and approve:". HR Managers and Admins enter a reason and the approval proceeds with the override recorded; others see "Only HR/Admin can override policy violations." and should reject or send back.

Statuses

What happens next

• Approvers of the next step get an "expense submitted" notification; the employee gets approved, rejected or sent-back notifications with your comment.
• Every step and decision is recorded on the claim's Approval chain and in the audit log.
• A fully approved claim is reconciled against any approved cash advance, then goes to the reimbursement register.

Rules and limits

• Your queue holds claims where you are the named approver of the active step, or where the step names a role you hold in the claim's company (only if you also have `expenses.approve.own_company` or `.assigned_companies`).
• A step with an amount threshold above the claim total is skipped automatically; a reporting-manager step for an employee with no manager is dropped. A claim with no actionable step is auto-approved on submit.
• Rejecting or sending back is only possible while the claim is submitted.
• Reimbursement itself is done by Accounts or HR, not from this page.
• This module must be enabled on your plan; Admins can check Settings → Billing.

Troubleshooting

A claim I expected is not in my queue. The active step may name another approver or role, or the rule matched a different chain. Open the claim from the employee's record to see the Approval chain.

Approve did nothing. A policy block needs an override; check for the prompt, or reject and ask for a receipt.

Some claims stayed in the queue after a bulk approve. They were decided elsewhere, need a policy override, or are not yours to action. Open each one and decide it singly.

I sent a claim back and now cannot find it. It is back in the employee's drafts; it returns when they resubmit.

Related

• Expense approvals
• Approval rules and delegation
• Submit an expense claim
• Reimbursements and payroll push
• Manager dashboard and pending actions