Approvals

Expense Approvals

How expense reports are submitted, who approves them, the approve/reject/mark-paid actions, and how separation of duties scopes department heads.

This page covers the approver side of expenses — how reports reach the queue, who can decide them, and the approve, reject, and mark-paid actions.

The expense status flow

DRAFT → SUBMITTED or PENDING_APPROVAL → APPROVED → PAID
                                         (or REJECTED / CANCELLED)

See Statuses and submission for the full status detail.

What happens on submit

When an employee submits a report (POST /api/expenses/:id/submit):

The report needs at least one line item.
If the organization requires receipts, every line item over the receipt threshold must have a receipt attached.
If a maximum report amount is set and the total exceeds it, submission is rejected.
If an auto-approve-below threshold is set and the total is under it, the report is APPROVED immediately.
Otherwise it becomes PENDING_APPROVAL (when approval is required) or SUBMITTED.

The assigned approver is the submitter's manager (reportsToId); if there's no manager, it falls back to the first active administrator or executive.

Who can approve

The expense approvals queue (GET /api/expenses/approvals) shows reports in SUBMITTED and PENDING_APPROVAL. You can approve a report if you are:

The assigned approver, or
The submitter's manager, or
An administrator or executive.

Department heads are department-scoped — always. A department head cannot approve a cross-department report even if they're the named approver. This is a separation-of-duties rule. You also cannot approve your own report unless you're an administrator.

Actions

Action	Endpoint	Who	Notes
Approve	`POST /api/expenses/:id/approve`	Assigned approver, manager, admin/exec	Moves the report to APPROVED.
Reject	`POST /api/expenses/:id/reject`	Same as approve	Reason required. Submitter notified at HIGH priority.
Mark paid	`POST /api/expenses/:id/mark-paid`	Admin/exec only	Report must be APPROVED. Optional `paymentReference` and `paymentMethod`. A bulk mark-paid is also available to admin/exec.
Cancel	`POST /api/expenses/:id/cancel`	Owner (own) or admin/exec (any)	Cannot cancel a PAID report.

Notifications

Event	Notification
Submit	`EXPENSE_APPROVAL_REQUIRED` to the approver plus admins/execs.
Approve	`EXPENSE_APPROVED` to the submitter.
Reject	`EXPENSE_REJECTED` to the submitter (HIGH priority).
Mark paid	`EXPENSE_PAID` to the submitter.

Payment reminders. A scheduled reminder runs for reports that are approved but unpaid, so payments don't slip through the cracks.

Statuses and submission — the full expense status reference.
Approvals overview — scoping and notifications.

Leave Approvals

How approvers review the leave queue — approving and rejecting new requests and reviewing cancellation requests for already-approved leave.

Time Approvals

How time entries reach the approvals queue, who can approve them, the approve/reject action, and what notifications and integrations fire on approval.