How an approval flow picks approvers when an expense arrives

The order CLVR follows when an expense report or a benefit purchase is submitted: which flow applies, when it is approved straight away, who is asked first, and why a reviewer may not be notified or an expense may clear with no review.

When an employee uploads an expense report or buys a benefit, CLVR works out which approval flow applies and then either approves it straight away or asks the first reviewers. The same rules run every time, so the result is predictable once you know the order. This article traces those rules, then covers the two questions they raise most often: why an expected reviewer was not notified, and why an expense was approved with no review.

Which flow applies

For an uploaded expense report, CLVR uses the first of these that exists:

1. The flow picked for the expense's category in Benefit settings.
2. Your company's default flow for uploaded expenses, if you have one. On the Flows tab, that flow's Used by line lists the categories that have no flow of their own for uploads.
3. No flow: the Standard approvers review it, and each of them has to approve.

For a benefit purchase, CLVR uses the flow picked for that benefit in Benefit settings. If none is picked, the benefit's own default applies: either it is approved automatically, or it waits for HR on the Expenses page.

Flows that approve straight away

If the flow approves automatically, or has no steps, the expense is approved the moment it is submitted. Nobody is asked to review it.

Asking the first step

Otherwise CLVR goes through the flow's steps from the top and stops at the first step that has at least one person in it:

• Manager: the submitting employee's own manager. If they have no manager, the people in HR are asked instead.
• HR: everyone with the HR role at your company, shown on the Approvers tab. CLVR sets who has it.
• Your own groups: the people in that group.

Everyone in that step is asked at once. When a step holds several groups, the people in all of them are asked at the same time, and the groups can approve in any order. A group with nobody in it is left out of its step, and the other groups in the step are still asked. A step is skipped only when none of its groups has anyone in it. If no step in the flow has anyone, the expense is approved without review.

What reviewers receive

Each person asked in the current step gets:

• an in-app notification, Please review [name]'s expense report (or benefit purchase), tagged Awaiting your review, and
• an email with a link to the review.

People in later steps get nothing yet. They are asked only when the expense reaches their step.

Later steps

When the current step's rule is met (any one, all, or at least a set number of approvals), the people in that step who have not answered are skipped and the next step that has people in it is asked. Empty steps in between are skipped. Each step's groups are read when the expense reaches it, so it uses the groups' members at that moment.

In a step with several groups, each group has its own rule. With All must approve, the step is done once every group has met its rule. With Any one can approve, the first group to meet its rule completes the step. If HR added an approver to the current step by hand, that person has to approve too.

After the last step, the expense is approved and the employee is told. One decline at any step declines the whole expense straight away. The requests to everyone else who was still asked are withdrawn, and later steps never start.

When an expense comes back after changes

If a reviewer asks for changes on an expense report in a flow, the flow starts again from step 1 when the employee resubmits it. The first step's reviewers are asked again, and the expense goes through every step once more. Approvals from the earlier round stay visible on the expense's Approval card, as short dated lines under their step.

While the expense waits for the employee, the Approval card says what will happen, for example "When Axel resubmits, approval starts again from the first step: Manager."

See who is next

Open the expense. The header shows which step it is at, for example "Step 2 of 3". The Approval card lists every step in order, from Submitted to Payroll, each with its group:

• A step that is done shows who approved it and when.
• The current step shows who is being asked and since when.
• A step still to come reads Not asked yet. Its reviewers are picked from its group when the expense reaches it, so the card does not name them in advance. To see who is in a group today, open the Approvers tab.
• A step the expense skipped because nobody was in it reads Not needed.

A step with several groups is named after them, such as "HR + Finance", or "HR or Finance" when any one group is enough, with an Any order or Any one chip. While it is the current step, it opens in a dashed frame with a row for each group: the group's rule, its status, and who is asked or who approved. When all groups must approve, the step also shows how many groups are done, such as "1 of 2". Once the step is done, it shows one line per group, such as "Finance: Marta Bergfalk · 13 Aug". A group that was no longer needed reads, for example, "HR: not needed, request withdrawn".

When a reviewer is not notified

The cause is almost always one of these:

• Their step has not started. Reviewers are asked step by step. Check "Step N of M" in the header, or the Approval card, to see which step the expense is at.
• They were not in the group when the step started. A step asks the people who are in the group when the expense reaches it. Someone added to the group later is not added to expenses already past that point.
• The group was empty, so the step was skipped. In a step with several groups, only the empty group was left out. Add people to the group on the Approvers tab. New expenses will then ask that group.
• It was a Manager step and the employee has no manager. The step went to the people in HR instead. Set the employee's manager on their profile.

When an expense is approved with no review

An expense is approved without anyone reviewing it when:

• the flow approves automatically, or the flow has no steps,
• every step in the flow had nobody in it when the expense reached it (for a Manager step: the employee had no manager and HR was empty),
• it is a benefit purchase with no flow picked, and that benefit's default is to approve automatically, or
• Auto-approve expense reports is turned on in AI settings, and the AI approved an uploaded receipt.

An uploaded expense report with no flow is never approved automatically. It goes to the Standard approvers, or to HR if no standard approvers are marked. If HR is empty too, it waits until someone is added as its approver.

Troubleshooting

• An expense was approved with no reviewer. Check the flow picked for its category or benefit on the Flows tab. It may approve automatically, have no steps, or use groups with nobody in them.
• Only some employees' expenses skip review. A Manager step depends on each employee. An employee with no manager goes to HR, and if HR is empty too, that step is skipped. Check those employees' managers and keep someone in HR.
• A later reviewer was not notified. Their step has not started yet, so it reads Not asked yet on the Approval card. That is expected.
• A step on the Approval card reads Not needed. That step's group had nobody in it, or a Manager step found no manager and HR was empty. Add people on the Approvers tab.
• The wrong group reviewed it first. Open the flow on the Flows tab and check the order of the steps.
• Only one group in a step was asked. The other group in that step had nobody in it when the expense reached the step, so it was left out. Add people to it on the Approvers tab.
• An expense started again at the first step. It was sent back for changes and the employee resubmitted it. In a flow, that starts approval again from step 1. Earlier approvals stay on the Approval card.