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Expense Authorisation - Backup Approver

Ensure requests are not delayed by assigning a secondary approver alongside the Line Manager. Can be approved by either one.

Updated over a week ago

Introduction

By default, the Expense Authorisation Workflow routes requests based on amount - smaller claims to managers, larger ones to Admins.

This article explains how to switch to an alternative workflow that sends all expense requests directly to Managers and a Secondary approver as a backup, ensuring consistent approval and clearer accountability.

Standard Expense Authorisation Workflow

The system's default approver for expense requests depend on the expense amount. All approval rules are as followed:

  • Employee requests expense and they do not have a manager – All Admins are notified, and any one can reject/approve

  • Employee requests expense under 100 and they have one or more managers – Managers are notified and any one can approve or reject

  • Employee requests expense over 100 and they have one or more managers – Managers are notified and any one can approve or reject. If approved, all Admins are notified, and any one can reject/approve

Expense Authorisation Workflow - Managers only

We offer an alternative workflow that sends an employee's requests to the line manager and a 'Secondary approver', specified in the job details section of an employee’s profile. Both will receive this request at the same time, and only one of them needs to action.

If different managers and secondary approvers are specified for a person with multiple job roles, they will all get the request but only one must approve.

All rules are as follows:

  • Employee requests expense and has a manager – The request is sent to the manager, and can approve or reject.

  • Employee requests expense and has a manager and secondary approver – The request is sent to the manager and the secondary approver, any one can approve or reject.

  • Employee requests expense and does not have a manager – The request is sent to the Admins, and any one can approve or reject.

  • Admin requests expense and has no Line Manager or secondary approver – The request is automatically approved.

How it works

Employee adds an expense through the Expenses Mobile App.

Manager and secondary approver receives an email:

Any one of the approvers can approve or decline via the Todo that has been assigned to them:

The employee is notified by email.

How to get this Workflow

If you're interested in this workflow, please reach out to support.


FAQs


  • Will this change all pending requests to the new approver rule?

Moving to this workflow will only impact requests going forward, any expenses requested prior to this change will adhere to the standard authorisation workflow.

  • How do I add the secondary approver field?

You can do this via the Screen Designer. The field must be called 'Secondary approver' (case sensitive) and must be present in the Job details screen. We suggest adding it next to the Line Manager field so it's quick to find and compare the two.

  • What happens if an employee doesn't have a secondary approver?

If no secondary approver is present, the request will only go to the Line Manager.

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