Deciding on an expense report

The decisions you make from the expense panel's footer or the table row, approve, decline, request changes, what happens after, and how to fix a wrong amount.

Every decision on an expense happens in the decision footer at the bottom of the expense panel, or, for a quick one, right in the table row. This article walks through approving, sending an expense back for changes and declining, what each does to the expense and the employee, and how to handle a wrong amount, since you cannot edit one yourself.

Where you decide

As HR, open the expense from the HR Expenses page. As an approver without HR access, such as someone's manager, open it from Waiting on you on your dashboard or To review on your Me page (see reviewing your team's expenses). The decision footer shows at the bottom of the panel when the decision is yours:

• You are one of the expense's approvers and have not decided yet, or
• You are HR, and the expense has no approver and no approval flow. The footer then reads Deciding as HR, no approver assigned.

It does not show once the expense is approved, declined or sent back, or while it waits on someone else.

The top line of the footer reads All checks passed, or for example 2 things to check. Click that to jump to the flagged checks. When another expense waits on you, it also says Then opens followed by that expense, which opens after you decide.

Below that are three buttons:

• Decline: turn the expense down. You give a reason, and the decision is final.
• Request changes: send it back to the employee with what to change. Only on expense reports.
• Approve: approve it as submitted. Ctrl + Enter does the same. A report without a receipt says Approve anyway instead.

Approve the report

Select Approve, or press Ctrl + Enter. Approving takes no comment. A message confirms Expense approved, and the panel opens the next expense waiting on you, if there is one.

When a report has several approvers, your approval is recorded straight away, but the report is not finished yet. It stays in review until every approver has decided.

• Once all approvers have approved, the report is finalised as Approved.
• If any approver declines, the whole report is declined, even if others approved.

In an approval flow, your approval counts toward your step's rule, and the expense moves on once the step is done. In a step where several groups approve at the same time, a purple note on the Approval card tells you when your approval completes the step, for example "Finance has approved. Your approval completes step 2, then Salary is asked." If you are in more than one of the step's groups, your one approval counts for all of them.

When the report becomes Approved (because you were the only or last approver, or because HR decided it directly):

• The employee gets an in-app notification that their expense report was approved.
• An approval email is sent to the employee, in their preferred language.
• The employee's pending allowance is recalculated so their remaining balance reflects the approved report.

The approved report then carries through to the payroll figures for that employee, so there is nothing extra to mark as done.

Request changes from the employee

When a report is almost right but needs a fix (a missing receipt, the wrong category, a blurry image), you do not have to decline it. Send it back so the employee can adjust and resubmit without starting over. Request changes is only offered on an expense report, not on benefit purchases or adjustments.

A message confirms Sent back for changes. The expense now shows as Sent back for changes for you and Changes requested for the employee. The employee gets an in-app notification marked as needing action and an email with your instructions. On their Me page the expense is pinned at the top of My expenses under Needs your changes, with your comment and an Edit and Resubmit button.

In your panel the Approval card shows your step as Changes requested, with your comment under it, followed by "Waiting for [name]" until they update and resubmit.

If an approval flow runs the expense, approval starts again from the first step when the employee resubmits, and the card says so while it waits, for example "When Axel resubmits, approval starts again from the first step: Manager." Approvals already given stay on the card as short dated lines, but every step is asked again.

If your instructions need updating

Once an expense is sent back, the decision footer is gone until the employee resubmits, and the panel has no way to send a new message on it. The employee keeps seeing your comment in the panel and in My expenses until they resubmit. If the report comes back without what you needed, send it back again with clearer instructions. Each earlier request stays on the Approval card as a short dated line, so the whole back and forth stays visible.

Fix a wrong amount

The amounts in the panel are read only. CLVR does not let you edit the receipt total, VAT rate, category, expense date or attached files of someone else's report. That is by design: only the employee who submitted the expense can change its details, so the figures that go through to payroll always match what the person claimed.

So when the amount, VAT rate, category or a receipt file needs fixing, use Request changes rather than approving or declining, and write exactly what should change, for example "The receipt total should be 950 kr, not 9 500 kr" or "Set the VAT rate to 25%."

The employee opens the report and edits it under Update your expense report. They can change the Receipt cost, VAT rate, Benefit category, expense date and receipt files, then send it back for review. When they resubmit, CLVR recalculates everything automatically:

• The cost breakdown is recomputed from the corrected figures.
• The split between what the allowance covers and anything above the remaining balance is updated.
• The report returns to your queue for a fresh review.

You do not re-enter any numbers. You just review the corrected report when it comes back.

Decline the report

When an expense cannot be reimbursed at all, decline it. The reason you write is sent to the employee, so a clear sentence saves a back-and-forth.

Select Decline. A box opens titled Why is this expense declined?, with the hint that the employee is notified with your reason and that declining is final. Write your reason, then select Decline expense. The button stays disabled until you have written something.

As soon as you decline, the employee gets an in-app notification and a decline email that includes your reason. In the panel, the Approval card ends at your step, marked Declined, with your name, the date and your reason under it, for you and for the employee.

A declined report is not a dead end. In their own view of the expense, the employee can select Edit and Resubmit. Updating the report and sending it again resets it to a fresh pending expense and restarts the review from the beginning. The original decline and your reason stay in the expense history, so treat a resubmitted report as a new review.

Troubleshooting

• I do not see the decision footer. It only shows when the decision is yours. If the expense is approved, declined or sent back, there is nothing to decide. If you are one of several approvers and have already decided, your part is done. If someone else is assigned, it waits on them.
• Send back or Decline expense is greyed out. Write a short message first; both need one.
• I approved but the report still shows in review. Other approvers have not decided yet. The report finalises only once everyone has approved. In an approval flow, your step may need more approvals, another group in your step may still have to approve, or the expense has moved on to the next step.
• I cannot find Request changes. Check that you are looking at an expense report, not a purchase or an adjustment. Those only offer Approve and Decline.
• I want to approve with a comment. Approving takes no comment for now. If something needs saying, send the report back instead.
• A different expense opened after I decided. After a decision the panel opens the next expense waiting on you, if there is one. The footer's Then opens line tells you which.
• I do not see an edit field for the amount. That is expected. Use Request changes so the employee can correct it.
• The employee changed more than I asked. When they resubmit, the whole report is recalculated and comes back to your queue, so review the updated figures before approving.
• The amount is fine but should not be paid. Decline the report with a reason rather than requesting changes.
• The expense came back as pending. The employee edited and resubmitted it after a decline or change request. Review the updated version; the earlier decision is preserved in the history.