Managing approvers on an expense
Add approvers to an open expense from the Approval card in the expense panel, add a one-off approver to the current step of an approval flow, remove them again, and understand the Needs approvers state that flags an expense with no one to review it.
When you open an expense as HR, the panel shows an Approval card. That card is where you decide who reviews the expense: add one or more colleagues as approvers, see how each one is responding, and remove anyone you added by mistake. On an expense that follows a company approval flow, you can add a one-off approver to the step that is waiting. This article covers all of these, explains the Needs approvers state you see in the table, and the few rules that apply.
Open the expense
Go to Expenses in the HR area and click the expense you want to work on. It opens in the panel beside the table, and the Approval card sits below the amount and the checks.
Without a company approval flow, everyone you add sits together in one Approvers step, and each of them has to approve. While the step is open, it lists the approvers who have not decided yet, with a cross next to each, and anyone who has already approved shows as a short grey line under it with the date. The card's heading shows how many have approved, for example "1 of 2 approved". When nobody is assigned, the step reads "No approvers are assigned. Add one, or decide on it yourself as HR."
With a company approval flow, the card shows the flow's steps instead, and the button reads Add approver to this step. See "Add an approver to a step of an approval flow" below.
Add an approver
In the Approval card, select Add approver.
In the Add approvers picker, start typing a name to search, then select one or more colleagues. You can add several at once.
Select the plus button next to the picker to assign them. You see a confirmation, and the new approvers appear in the card.
Cancel closes the picker without adding anyone.
Each person you add gets an in-app notification asking them to review the expense, and an email with a link to it. You do not need to message them separately.
Add an approver to a step of an approval flow
When a company approval flow runs the expense, the flow decides who is asked at each step. If one expense needs an extra reviewer, you can add them to the step that is waiting:
In the Approval card, select Add approver to this step under the step that is waiting.
Pick one or more colleagues in the picker, then select the plus button.
The people you add are asked straight away, with the same notification and email as any other reviewer. They are one-off approvers for this expense only: the flow itself does not change. The step is not done until each of them has approved, on top of the step's own rule. While they have not decided, they show under the step with a cross next to their name, so you can remove them again.
Remove an approver
Next to an approver who has not decided yet, select the cross (Remove approver). On an expense in an approval flow, only approvers you added by hand have a cross. A confirmation says they were removed, and the card updates straight away. Removing someone does not delete any decision already recorded on the Approval card.
What Needs approvers means
In the HR expenses table, the Status column shows Needs approvers when an expense is still waiting for a decision but no one has been assigned to review it, so it cannot move forward on its own. Its second line reads "No approver, since" followed by the date it was sent in, and the row has an Add approver button that opens the expense. These expenses are also on the Needs approvers tab.
It shows when both of these are true:
- The expense is still pending (no one has approved, declined, or requested changes yet), and
- It has no approvers and is not following a company approval flow.
It is part of the HR view only, so employees do not act on it.
Expenses that run through a company approval flow never show Needs approvers for this reason, because their reviewers are set automatically.
Two ways to clear it
- Add approvers. Use Add approver in the Approval card, as above. Once an approver is saved, the expense shows In approval (or Waiting on you, if you added yourself) and follows their progress.
- Decide it yourself. If the expense does not need a separate reviewer, decide it from the decision footer at the bottom of the panel, which reads Deciding as HR, no approver assigned. Approve clears it, Request changes sends it back to the employee with your comment (on expense reports), and Decline turns it down with your reason. See deciding on an expense report.
Rules to know
- The owner cannot review their own expense. The person who submitted it is left out of the picker, and the card says "[name] owns this expense and cannot be an approver."
- No one left to add. If there is no one available to pick and no approvers yet, the picker shows There are no available reviewers.
- An approval flow decides the steps. If a company approval flow runs the expense, it decides the reviewers at each step, and the Approval card shows the flow's steps. Add approver is replaced by Add approver to this step, which adds a one-off approver to the step that is waiting. That person has to approve too.
- Only open expenses take changes. Once an expense is approved, declined or sent back for changes, Add approver and the remove buttons are gone.
Troubleshooting
- I cannot find Add approver. If the expense is on an approval flow, the button reads Add approver to this step. If there is no button at all, the expense is already approved, declined or sent back. 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. Decide the expense yourself from the decision footer instead.
- I added the wrong person. Select the cross next to their name to remove them, then add the right colleague.
- There is no cross next to an approver. They have already decided. Only approvers who are still pending can be removed.
- I added someone to a flow step and the step did not move on. A one-off approver has to approve before the step is done, even if the step's own rule is already met. Ask them to decide, or remove them with the cross if they are no longer needed.
- There is no cross next to a flow reviewer. Only approvers you added by hand have a cross. The people the flow asked come from its groups. To change them, change the group or the flow in Approval settings.
Why I cannot add approvers to an expense
A company approval flow is running this expense. The flow decides who reviews the expense and in what order. The Approval card names the flow and shows its steps in order, each with the group or groups reviewing it (for example Manager, HR + Finance or Salary) and where it stands. You can't replace the flow's reviewers on one expense, but you can add a one-off approver to the step that is waiting with Add approver to this step. To change who reviews under a flow, change the flow itself, not the individual expense.
The expense is no longer open. Approvers can only be added while an expense is waiting for a decision. Once it is approved or declined, the decision has been made. If an expense was declined and the employee needs another look, they can fix it and resubmit, which starts a fresh review. An expense sent back for changes takes approvers again once the employee resubmits it.
There is no one left to add. You can add each colleague once. When every other employee is already an approver on the expense, the picker has no one left and shows "There are no available reviewers."
The owner cannot review their own expense. The employee who submitted the expense can never be its approver. This keeps reviews independent.
A reviewer pool of just one other person plus the owner is a common reason "There are no available reviewers" appears: the only other employee may already be added, and the owner is never eligible.