Managing approvers on an expense

Assign reviewers to a pending expense from the Expense Status card, remove them again, and understand the Add approvers badge that flags an expense with no one to review it.

When you open an expense from the HR queue, the sidebar shows an Expense Status card. That card is where you decide who reviews the expense: pick one or more colleagues as approvers, see how each one is responding, and remove anyone you added by mistake. This article walks through both directions, explains the Add approvers badge you may see in the queue, and covers the few rules that apply.

Open the expense

Go to Expenses in the HR area and select the expense you want to work on. The expense opens with its details in the main panel and a sidebar on the right. The Expense Status card sits in that sidebar.

If no one has been assigned yet, the card shows an Assign approvers notice telling you that no approvers have been assigned and asking you to add at least one. The same expense is flagged with an ADD APPROVERS badge in the queue, so it is easy to spot.

Add an approver

Once at least one approver is assigned, the card lists everyone reviewing the expense, with a status next to each name (Pending, Approved, Declined, or HAS FEEDBACK when someone has asked for changes).

Remove an approver

In the approvers list inside the Expense Status card, select the remove icon next to a reviewer's name to take them off the expense. You see a confirmation that the reviewer was removed, and the list updates straight away. Removing someone does not delete any decision they already recorded in the timeline.

What the Add approvers badge means

In the HR expenses queue, the Status column sometimes shows an Add approvers badge instead of a normal status like Pending or Approved. It is a prompt, not a problem: the expense is still waiting for a decision, but no one has been assigned to review it yet, so it cannot move forward on its own.

The badge shows on an expense when both of these are true:

• The expense is still Pending (no one has approved, declined, or requested changes yet), and
• It has no reviewers assigned and is not following a company approval flow.

In other words, the expense reached your queue but has nobody routed to act on it. The badge is your cue to step in. It is part of the HR view only, so employees never see it on their own expenses.

Two ways to clear it

Open the expense from the queue. With no approvers assigned, you have two ways to move it forward:

• Assign reviewers. Use the Add approvers picker in the Expense Status card, as above. Once at least one reviewer is saved, the badge stops showing Add approvers and follows the reviewers' progress instead. When everyone has decided but the expense is still pending, it shows Ready to be completed so you can finish it.
• Decide it yourself. If the expense does not need a separate reviewer, act on it directly from the Review Expense Report form without assigning anyone first. Approve clears it for reimbursement through payroll, Request changes sends it back to the employee with a note so they can fix and resubmit (available on uploaded expense reports), and Decline rejects it with your reason. A comment is required when you request changes or decline, and optional when you approve. Then select Submit review. The expense moves to Approved, Declined, or Changes requested, and the badge is gone.

Rules to know

A few things are decided by the app, not by you:

• The expense owner cannot review their own expense. The person who submitted the expense is left out of the picker, and a short line in the card reminds you that owners cannot be added as approvers.
• No one left to add. If there is no one available to pick and no approvers yet, the card shows There are no available reviewers. instead of an empty picker.
• An approval flow takes over. If your company uses a custom approval flow for this expense, that flow decides the reviewers and the Add approvers picker does not appear. See how approval flows change the review process.
• The card closes when the expense is finished. Once an expense is Approved or Declined, the Expense Status card disappears, so there is nothing left to add or remove.

Troubleshooting

• I cannot find the Add approvers picker. The expense is most likely on a custom approval flow, which manages reviewers for you, or it is already approved or declined. See the reasons below.
• The picker is empty or says there are no available reviewers. Everyone eligible is either already assigned or is the expense owner. There is no one left to add. If no one is available, decide the expense yourself with the Review Expense Report form.
• I added the wrong person. Use the remove icon in the approvers list to take them off, then add the right colleague.
• The Add approvers badge is still there after I assigned someone. Refresh the queue. Once a reviewer is saved, the Status column switches from Add approvers to the reviewers' progress.
• An expense with an approval flow shows nothing to add. That is expected. Flow expenses route reviewers automatically and never show Add approvers.

Why I cannot add approvers to an expense

When you open an expense report to review it, the sidebar usually shows an Expense Status card where you assign or add reviewers. Sometimes that card is missing, or the picker will not let you add someone. This is by design: a few situations remove or block the add-approver controls.

A company approval flow is running this expense. If your company uses a configured approval flow, that flow decides who reviews the expense and in what order. When a flow is active on an expense, the manual Expense Status assign card does not appear at all, and you cannot pick reviewers by hand. The flow is in charge. Instead, the sidebar shows the Expense Status flow card with the message "This expense uses the company approval flow. Steps are connected in order." Below it is a step-by-step timeline: each step names the group reviewing it (for example Manager, HR, Salary, or Finance), the reviewer names appear under each step once they are known, and you can hover any step to see who reviews it and the current state of that step. To change who reviews under a flow, you adjust the flow itself, not the individual expense.

The expense is already approved or declined. The Expense Status card only shows while an expense is still open. Once the report reaches a final Approved or Declined state, the card is hidden, so there is nothing to add reviewers to. The decision has already been made. If an expense was declined and the employee needs another look, they can fix the issue and resubmit. That creates fresh activity you can review, rather than reopening the old, closed report.

There is no one left to add. You can only add another employee as a reviewer once. When every other employee in your company is already a reviewer on the expense, the picker has no one left to offer and shows "There are no available reviewers." If you reach this message, the people who can review have already been added. Use the reviewer list in the Expense Status card to track their decisions.

The owner cannot review their own expense. The employee who submitted the expense is its owner and can never be added as their own approver. They are left out of the reviewer picker on purpose, and the card notes that "Owners of the expense report cannot be added as approver." This keeps reviews independent.