Please be aware that, similar to Expense settings, Expense approval workflows are applicable to both Card Expenses and Reimbursements. However, it is important to note that these two types of expenses have slight variations in their behaviour once the Expense approval process has been finalised:
- Once a Card Expense completes all steps in your approval workflow, it will transition to an “Approved” state and sync to an accounting provider (if applicable). Read more at definition of “card expense statuses”.
- Once a Reimbursement completes all steps in your approval workflow, it will transition to an “Awaiting Payment” state. At this point, admins with transfer permissions can reimburse the employee into their bank account, but any applicable transfer approvals will still apply. Read more at “Definition of reimbursement statuses.”
Timestamp: (5:00-9:18)
Step 1: To view and manage your approval workflows, navigate to the Approvals page under Account in the left hand menu
By default, all accounts will have a default approval workflow enabled. This default workflow requires that all expenses receive one approval from any expense admin in the account. Admins can edit this default workflow by setting custom approvers.
Step 2: To create a custom workflow, click “Create an approval workflow” to open the configuration page
When creating a custom workflow, you will need to do the following:
- Create a workflow name
- Enter in the expense amount threshold that you want to customise approvals for. Click “Add an approval layer” if you plan to have multiple expense amount thresholds
- For each approval layer, specify whether approval is required or not required
- If approval is required for a given layer, select which user(s) to require approval from. You can choose from the user’s manager, any administrator, or select individuals. If you plan to have multiple approvers for that layer, click “Require another approver”
Currently, expense amount thresholds are defaulted to the account’s home currency and cannot be edited at this time.
If you select the user’s manager as an approver, expenses will be dynamically routed to the manager of the submitting user for approval, as configured in User Management. If the submitting user does not have an assigned manager, then the expense will default to any admin for approval.
Once you’re done, click “Create workflow” to return to the Approvals page.
From the Approvals page, you’ll be able to manage your workflows by continuing to edit them, duplicating them, and deleting them.
Step 3: Turn on your custom workflow for the account
Toggle on your custom workflow to activate it for the account. This will automatically turn off the previously active workflow as only one workflow can be active at any given time in the account.
Once a new workflow is turned on, all expenses submitted after that point will automatically be routed for approval based on the new workflow. Any expenses submitted prior to the new workflow being turned on will continue to go through the previous workflow until completion.