Fixing Requested Changes

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Overview

An approver who cannot approve a report as submitted, but does not want to reject it outright, requests changes. The report returns to you in the Requires Changes state with an explanation of what needs fixing. This is the normal path for a missing receipt or a wrong category. Rejection is reserved for claims that should not have been made.

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Finding reports waiting on you

The Expense Reports item in the sidebar carries a badge counting reports that need changes. The badge is the fastest way to notice one came back, since it is visible from anywhere in the app.

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Make the fix

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Common requests and how to clear them

Smartbills flags several issues before submission, and these are what approvers most often send back: Clearing these before you submit avoids the round trip entirely. The report shows them as issues on the report itself.

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Replacing an expense

Sometimes the expense itself is wrong, not just its details, for example the wrong receipt was attached. Rather than removing and re-adding, an expense on a report can be replaced with a different one, which preserves the line’s position and history.

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If the approver changes their mind

An approver can cancel a change request, returning the report to review without you doing anything. They can also reset the review state of an individual expense, or revert a whole report back to review after it was decided. If a report you were fixing suddenly moves out of Requires Changes, this is why. Check the timeline for what happened.

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Every change is recorded

Reports keep a timeline and an audit log covering submissions, approvals, rejections, change requests, recalls, reimbursements, comments, and every expense added, removed, edited, or replaced. Neither you nor the approver needs to reconstruct what happened from memory.

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