Expense Approvals

When your team logs expenses, you probably want a look before they’re billed to a Client. Expense approvals hold expenses as Pending Approval until someone reviews them.

Who Needs Approval

People who can’t approve expenses always need approval. Members can’t approve by default.
People who can approve have their own expenses approved right away, unless you turn on Require approval for expenses. Then theirs need a review too.

Only Approved expenses can go on an Invoice. See Billing Expenses to Clients.

Set Up Approvals

Owners and Admins can change these settings.

Go to Settings › Expense Settings.
Under Expense Approvals, turn on Require approval for expenses if you want everyone’s expenses reviewed.
Optional: enter an amount under Only for expenses over. Expenses at or above it need a review. Smaller ones are approved right away. Leave it empty to review every expense.
Under Who can approve, check anyone else who should review expenses. People whose role already allows it can approve without being checked here.
Click Save.

Want to change who can approve by role? See Roles and Permissions.

Review Expenses

Go to Approvals and open the Expenses tab. The tab shows how many are waiting.
Find the expense. The list starts on Pending approval. Search by description, person or Project, or switch the filter to Approved, Rejected or All statuses.
Open its actions menu and click Review details to see everything, including notes and the receipt.
Click Approve, or click Reject.

To approve quickly without opening it, click Approve in the actions menu.

Reject an Expense

Click Reject.
Enter a Rejection Reason. It’s required, so the person knows what to fix.
Click Reject Expense.

The person sees the reason when they open the expense.

After a Rejection

A rejected expense doesn’t go back for review on its own. The person can fix what you asked for, then let you know. Anyone who can approve can open the expense and change its status.