Using the approval workflow, you can have your employees' trips and receipts reviewed by one or more approvers before accounting exports them. Approvers can approve or reject expenses. For each employee, you decide who reviews and whether one approval is sufficient or all must approve.
If an expense is rejected, the employee can make the necessary corrections and then submit it for review again.
Who does what?
- Employees enter their expenses and submit them for review.
- Deputies enter and submit expenses on behalf of others, for example an assistant for their manager (see Deputy).
- Approvers review their employees' expenses and approve or reject them.
- Administrators set up the workflow and export the approved expenses.
Deputy and approver are two different functions: a deputy enters expenses on someone's behalf, an approver reviews them. One person can be both.
Use the approval workflow
To use the approval workflow, specify which users act as approvers, assign the employees to them and choose the approval rule.
- Open TEAM → Administration.
- Select the user who is to approve expenses by name, enable the Approve expenses for user (approver) permission on the Roles/Permissions tab and save.
- Open the employee and assign one or more approvers on the Review/Approval tab using Add approver. Alternatively, open the approver's Review/Approval tab and use Add employee to assign the employees whose expenses they review.
- If the employee has more than one approver, choose the Approval rule on the same tab and save.
The approval rule
| Rule | When is the expense approved? | When is it rejected? |
|---|---|---|
| One approval is sufficient | as soon as the first approver approves it | as soon as one approver rejects it |
| All must approve | only once all assigned approvers have approved it | as soon as one approver rejects it, even if others have already approved it |
The rule only applies if an employee has more than one approver. With a single approver, that approver decides alone.
Which rule is right for you? One approval is sufficient is useful when several approvers stand in for each other, for example during holidays. All must approve is useful when several parties have to agree, for example the line manager and controlling.
Employees without an approver
If you do not assign an approver to an employee, the employee enters their expenses and approves them directly. In this case, the expenses do not go through an approval workflow and never receive the status under review.
Approval procedure
- The employee enters their receipts and trips.
- Once they have finished, they click the in progress status badge and choose Submit for review. This is also possible in the open trip or receipt.
- The dialog names the approvers who will review the expense. The employee can enter a remark for the approvers. If they have other trips in progress, they can submit them in the same step using the checkbox.
- The expense now has the status under review. The assigned approvers see it on the dashboard and receive an email (see E-mail notifications in the approval workflow).
- The approvers open the Review and approval page under TEAM or decide directly in the Review and approval tile on the dashboard.
- An approver approves the expense or rejects it with a reason. If All must approve applies, the expense remains under review until all approvers have approved it.
- The employee is informed of the result on the dashboard and by email.
Take back a submitted expense
As long as no decision has been made, you can take an expense back via the status badge using Edit again. It then returns to in progress. Previous approvals expire. When it is submitted again, a new review round begins in which all approvers decide again.
After a rejection
The employee receives an email with the reason. They also see the reason in the dialog that opens when they click the rejected status badge (for trips, the Rejected trip dialog) and in the history. They correct the expense via Edit again and submit it again.
Change an approved expense
An approved expense can also be changed again via Edit again. It must then be submitted and reviewed again. After export, only an administrator can change the status. Spesenfuchs then warns that duplicates may occur in accounting. For more information, see the article Expense Status.
How it works in typical situations
Who has to approve an expense depends on the approval rule, the number of approvers and on who submits it.
| Situation | Who has to approve? | Result |
|---|---|---|
| One approver | this approver | approved or rejected according to their decision |
| Several approvers, One approval is sufficient | one of them | The first decision counts. For the others, the expense disappears from My open reviews. |
| Several approvers, All must approve | all of them | approved after the last approval, rejected as soon as one approver rejects |
| Deputy without approver permission submits | the employee's approvers | as above |
| Deputy who is also an approver of the employee submits | the remaining approvers | The submission counts as their approval. |
| Passive employee | the employee's approvers | The deputy enters, submits and corrects. |
| Approver with their own expenses | their own approvers | They do not see their own expenses in their review list. |
| Employee without an approver | nobody | They approve their expenses themselves. |
Example: All must approve
Anna has the approvers Ben and Clara, and All must approve applies.
- Anna submits a trip. Ben and Clara each receive an email.
- Ben approves. The review card shows “1 of 2 approved” and Clara under Still pending. Anna does not receive an email yet.
- Clara approves as well. The trip is approved. Anna and accounting receive an email listing both approvers and their remarks.
If Clara had rejected the trip, it would have been rejected despite Ben's approval. After it is submitted again, both have to decide again.
Example: passive employee
The managing director is set up as a passive user, and her assistant is her deputy. The assistant creates the trip for the managing director under Trip for this person and submits it. The trip goes to the managing director's approvers. After the decision, the assistant receives an email. The managing director only receives one if an email address is stored for her and Also notify about status changes by deputies is enabled. The assistant corrects a rejected trip.
Enter expenses as a deputy
If you enter expenses for an employee as a deputy, the employee's approval workflow applies to these expenses. The expense goes to their approvers, not to yours. This also applies if you are allowed to approve your own expenses or if other approvers are assigned to you.
When the expense is approved or rejected, you as the deputy who submitted it receive an email and a notification on the dashboard. After a rejection, you can correct the expense and submit it again.
Deputy who is also an approver
If you are also an approver of the person you submit for, your submission counts as your approval. This also applies to administrators who are assigned as approvers.
- All must approve, with further approvers: The expense goes under review. The dialog shows who still has to approve afterwards.
- One approval is sufficient, or you are the only approver: Nobody else is missing. Instead of Submit for review, the Approve dialog opens and the expense is approved immediately.
Changes during an ongoing review
You can change approvers, the rule and users at any time. For expenses that are currently under review, the following applies:
- Adding an approver: They are immediately listed as pending. With All must approve, they must approve as well.
- Removing an approver: Remove the approver on the Review/Approval tab using the X on the right of the row. If all remaining approvers have already approved, Spesenfuchs lists the affected expenses and asks whether they should be approved. The removed approver can no longer decide.
- Changing the rule from All must approve to One approval is sufficient: Expenses with at least one approval are approved immediately after you confirm.
- Removing a deputy assignment: The deputy can no longer edit or submit the person's expenses. Expenses that have already been submitted remain under review.
- Locking an employee: Their expenses under review stay with the approvers and can still be decided. The employee is marked Locked there.
- Locking or archiving an approver: This is only possible once no employees are assigned to them. Otherwise, Spesenfuchs shows Not possible and lists the employees they are still the approver of.
- Removing the approver permission: As long as employees are assigned to the approver, the checkbox for the permission is locked. A hint on the checkbox tells you to assign their employees to another approver first.
Important: The last approver of an employee cannot be removed while the employee still has expenses under review. First assign another approver, or have the open expenses decided or taken back.
Frequently asked questions
Can I approve my own expenses?
No, your own expenses are always reviewed by your own approvers. Exception: if you are a deputy for another person and also their approver, your submission for this person counts as your approval.
An approver is away for a longer time and All must approve applies. What can I do?
An administrator can remove the absent approver from the employee or switch the rule to One approval is sufficient. If expenses are fully approved as a result, Spesenfuchs asks whether they should be approved.
Where can I see who has already approved?
In the review card and in the dashboard tile (progress and Still pending), and in the history under Approvers (n). For more information, see the article Where can I see the status history of a trip or an individual receipt?.
Why can't I remove the approver permission from an approver?
As long as employees are assigned to them, the checkbox for the permission is locked. First assign their employees to another approver or remove the assignments.
Why don't I see the Review and approval menu item?
It only appears if you have the Approve expenses for user (approver) permission. If no employees are assigned to you yet, the page shows a corresponding notice.
Further information
- Review/Approval: set up approvers and the approval rule
- Review and approval – approval view: review, approve and reject expenses
- E-mail notifications in the approval workflow: who receives an email and when
- Roles/Permissions and Deputy