Approvals let you review your team's spending before it counts. A member saves an expense, it comes to you, and you either approve it or send it back with a note.

Quick Guides

What changes when you turn approvals on

• Expenses from members come to you automatically. As soon as a member saves an expense, it gets the status “Pending approval”. They do not have to send it.

• Reports are sent to you by hand. Members decide when a report is ready by tapping “Submit for Approval”.

• Your own spending is not reviewed. When you or another manager or admin saves an expense, it is approved immediately and recorded with your name. Only expenses from members enter the queue.

• Items lock during and after review. Members cannot edit an expense while you are deciding on it, or once it has been approved.

Before you turn it on

• You need at least two people in your workspace. Otherwise, anything approval related can’t be seen.

• Only new expenses are affected. Everything saved before you switch it on stays as it is and will not be pulled back for review. There is no backfill.

• Reviewing is web only. The “Approve”, “Reject” and “Mark Reimbursed” buttons exist in the web app. The mobile app shows statuses and rejection notes, but you cannot approve from your phone.

• Only admins can change the workspace setting. Managers can review, but cannot turn approvals on or off.

How to turn approvals on

Mobile: Tap “gear icon” (top-left) → “Workspace Settings” → Enable “Require Manager Approval”

Web: Tap “Settings” → Checkmark “Require Manager Approval”

Working through your review queue

Where work shows up

• “Reports” tab. Reports waiting on a decision, plus approved reports that still need paying back.

• “Transactions” tab. Every expense that is not settled yet, meaning anything not approved, rejected, or paid back.

How to approve or reject

1. Open the expense or report in the web app.

2. To approve it, click Approve.

3. To send it back, click Reject, write a reason, then click Submit Rejection.

A reason is required. The button will not go through without one, and you have up to 500 characters. Your note is shown to the person who sent it in, so be specific about what they need to change.

What approving a report does to the expenses inside it

Approving a report also approves the expenses in it, but only the ones still waiting on a decision. If an expense was already approved on its own, or as part of a different report, it keeps its original approval and is left alone.

This means you can safely approve a report that overlaps with one you have already handled. Nothing gets approved twice, and the record of who approved what stays accurate.

How to handle reimbursements

Reimbursing is a separate step that happens after approval. An approved report that still owes someone money shows “Needs reimbursement”, along with the amount and who is owed it.

1. Open the approved report or expense.

2. For a whole report, click “Mark Report Reimbursed”.

3. For a single expense, click “Mark Reimbursed”.

4. Once everything is covered, it shows “Reimbursed”, with a record of who paid and when.

How to undo a decision

• “Undo approval” and “Undo rejection” both send the item back to Pending approval.

• “Undo reimbursement” marks it as unpaid again.

• “Undo submission” pulls a waiting report back to a draft. Either you or the person who sent it can do this.

Undoing a report's approval only reverses the expenses that this report approved. Anything approved elsewhere stays approved, and undoing a payment works the same way. You will not accidentally unwind another manager's decisions.

What your team sees

• Saving an expense. Nothing for members to do. It gets “Pending approval” on its own and appears in your queue. If you save an expense as a manager or admin, it is automatically approved.

• Sending a report. Members tap “Submit for Approval”. An empty report cannot be sent.

• Getting something back. Members see who rejected it with a note, with a “Resubmit” button. Fixing and resubmitting puts it back in your queue.

• Edits during a fix. On mobile, tapping “Resubmit” also saves the changes they just made, so a corrected amount or new receipt comes back with it.

What locks and when

Locking stops an item changing while you are deciding on it, or quietly afterwards. This is the single biggest source of questions from members, so it is worth knowing precisely.

An expense locks when any of these is true:

• The expense itself is “Approved”.

• It is on a report that is “Approved”.

• It is on a report that is “Pending approval”, and it stays locked until you decide.

A report locks once it is “Approved”.

Rejected items are never locked. Rejecting deliberately hands the item back so the member can fix it and send it in again.

If someone taps a locked field on their phone, they see a short explanation. Members are told it can only be changed by a manager or admin. Managers and admins are told it can only be changed within the web app.

What each status means

Expense Statuses

Report Statuses

What you can do on web and mobile

Common Questions

Why can I not edit my expense any more?

It has been approved, or it is on a report that is approved or currently under review. You can free it with “Undo approval”, which sends it back to “Pending approval” and unlocks it.

Why is there no Approve button in my mobile app?

Approving, rejecting and marking things paid back are web only. Mobile shows the full status and any rejection note, but not the buttons.

Why do I not see a “Submit for Approval” button?

It only appears on a member's own report, when approvals are on and the report has not been sent yet. Managers and admins never see it, because their own work is approved automatically.

Why was my expense approved without anyone looking at it?

They are a manager or an admin. Expenses from reviewers are approved on save and attributed to them.

Nothing is being approved on my team

Check that the workspace has more than one member, and that “Require Manager Approval” is ticked in “Workspace Settings”.