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What are Approval Workflows?

Approval workflows define who reviews and authorizes expenses and expense reports before they can be reimbursed. Smartbills supports two types of approvals, expense-level approvals for individual transactions and report-level approvals for entire expense reports. Workflows can be configured with a single approver or a multi-level chain depending on your organization’s policies.

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Two Types of Approvals

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Expense-Level Approvals

Expense-level approvals (/:slug/approvals) let approvers review and act on individual expenses one at a time. This is useful when expenses need to be approved as they arrive rather than waiting for them to be grouped into a report.
  • Each expense is approved or rejected independently
  • Commonly used for Business Expenses expenses that do not go through expense reports
  • Allows faster turnaround on individual transactions

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Report-Level Approvals

Report-level approvals (/:slug/approbations) apply to entire expense reports. When an employee submits a report, the approver reviews all expenses in the report together and makes a single decision.
  • The approver sees the full report with all expenses, receipts, and totals
  • The report is approved or rejected as a whole (individual expenses can be flagged for changes)
  • This is the standard workflow for Expenses expense reimbursement

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How It Works

1

Submission

An employee submits an expense report or an individual expense is flagged for approval. The system identifies the correct approver(s) based on the configured approval chain.
2

Notification

The designated approver receives an email and in-app notification that an item is awaiting their review. The notification includes a summary of the expense or report with the total amount.
3

Review

The approver opens the item and examines the details: receipts, amounts, categories, vendor information, and business purpose. They can add comments or ask questions.
4

Decision

The approver takes one of three actions: Approve the item, Reject it with a reason, or Request Changes to ask the submitter to correct specific issues.
5

Escalation (Multi-Level)

If the approval chain has multiple levels, the item moves to the next approver after the first level approves. This continues until all required levels have approved. If any level rejects, the item is sent back to the submitter.
6

Resolution

Once all required approvals are obtained, the expense or report moves to the Approved status and proceeds to reimbursement. If rejected, the submitter can correct the issues and resubmit.

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Approval Chain Configurations

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Approver Actions

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Notifications and Escalations

Smartbills keeps all participants informed throughout the approval process:
  • Submission Notification: Approvers are notified by email and in-app when a new item needs their review
  • Decision Notification: Submitters are notified when their expense or report is approved, rejected, or returned for changes
  • Reminder Notifications: If an approver has not acted within a configurable time period, a reminder is sent automatically
  • Escalation: After multiple reminders, the item can be escalated to the next level or an admin, depending on configuration

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Key Terminology

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Roles Involved

Expense Reports

Understand how reports are created and submitted for approval

Approve a Report

Step-by-step guide to approving an expense report

Reject a Report

How to reject a report and provide feedback

Roles and Permissions

Learn about roles that can approve expenses