During the approval process, emails are sent automatically to the people involved when the status of an expense changes. Who is notified depends on whether approvers are assigned to the employee and whether the expense is entered by the employee or by a deputy.
The following examples show the most important scenarios.
Case 1: Employee without an approver
No approver is assigned to the employee. The employee can therefore approve their entered expenses directly.
Upon approval, an additional person, such as Accounting, can optionally be notified by email.
Case 2: Employee with one or more approvers
The employee is assigned one or more approvers. When the employee submits an expense, its status changes to In Review.
The assigned approvers receive an email informing them that an expense is awaiting review.
The One approval is sufficient approval rule currently applies. If multiple approvers are assigned, approval by one of them is sufficient.
Expense is approved
When one of the approvers approves the expense, the employee receives an email notification. An additional person, such as Accounting, can optionally be notified of the approval.
Expense is rejected
If an approver rejects the expense, its status changes to Rejected. The employee is notified of the rejection by email.
The employee can make the necessary changes and then submit the expense again. Its status then changes back to In Review.
Case 3: Expense entered by a deputy
The employee is assigned one or more approvers. However, the expense is entered by a deputy rather than by the employee.
The employee's approval workflow still applies. Once submitted, the expense is sent to the employee's approvers for review.
By default, communication during the approval process takes place between the deputy and the employee's approvers. The employee does not initially receive an email.
If the Also notify me of status changes made by deputies option is enabled for the employee, the employee additionally receives notifications about the corresponding status changes.
Expense is approved
When one of the approvers approves the expense, the deputy is notified of the approval.
If the Also notify me of status changes made by deputies option is enabled, the employee also receives a notification.
An additional person, such as Accounting, can optionally be notified of the approval.
Expense is rejected
If an approver rejects the expense, the deputy is notified of the rejection.
If the Also notify me of status changes made by deputies option is enabled, the employee also receives a corresponding notification.
Case 4: Deputy is also an approver
The deputy enters an expense for an employee and is also one of the approvers assigned to that employee.
In this case, the deputy can approve the expense they entered directly.
If multiple approvers are assigned, the One approval is sufficient rule currently applies here as well. Approval by the deputy in their role as an approver is therefore sufficient.
Upon approval, an additional person, such as Accounting, can optionally be notified by email.
Summary of notifications
- Without an approver: The employee approves their expense directly. Accounting can optionally be notified.
- With an approver: The assigned approvers are notified when a new expense has the status In Review. The employee receives a notification when the expense is approved or rejected.
- Expense entered by a deputy: Notifications about approval or rejection are sent to the deputy by default.
- If Also notify me of status changes made by deputies is enabled, the employee also receives the corresponding notifications.
- If the deputy is also assigned as an approver, they can approve the expense directly.
For more information about the review and approval process, see the Approval workflow article.