Opening an expense to review the details

A tour of the expense panel: the header and previous and next, the receipt, the amount and cost breakdown, the automatic checks, approvals, the timeline, and how a company approval flow changes what you see.

When you open an expense, it opens in a panel docked beside the page, and the table narrows to date, employee, amount and status so you keep your place. The columns come back when you close the panel. Everything you need for a decision is in the panel: who sent it in, the receipt, the amount and how it splits, automatic checks, who has to approve it, and what has happened so far. This article walks through each part, how to read the Approval card, which is the expense's timeline, and how a company approval flow changes the review.

Open an expense

Click a row on the HR Expenses page to open that expense. A notification or a link from the CLVR Assistant opens it the same way. As HR, expense links open on the Expenses page; for everyone else they open on their Me page.

The header

The header reads Expense with the expense ID next to it. The ID is handy to quote if you contact CLVR about a specific expense.

• The previous and next buttons step through the list you opened it from, in its current order. Ctrl + ← → does the same from the keyboard.
• The close button, or Escape, closes the panel.

Under it you see the person's name and avatar, the expense type (Expense Report, Purchase or Adjusted by System) and its status. The header also shows how far the review has come: "Step 2 of 3" when an approval flow runs the expense ("3 of 3 steps" once it is approved), or "1 of 2 approved" on an expense without a flow. A yellow Payroll deduction tag shows when part of the cost falls outside the allowance.

Resize the panel

Drag the panel's left edge to make it wider or narrower: the grip sits in the middle of the edge. The page beside it adapts as you drag. Double-click the edge to go back to the default width. The width you choose is remembered in this browser. Dragging only changes the width: whether the receipt is a tab or sits beside the details is up to Side by side.

The receipt

On a screen 1600 pixels or wider, an expense report opens with the receipt beside the details. If that is too much at once, select Side by side in the panel's header to tuck the receipt into its own tab; select it again to bring it back. Your choice is saved to your account, so it stays the same on any device. On a smaller screen the receipt and the details are always two tabs, Expense and Receipt. The toolbar above it can zoom in and out, rotate, reset, open the file in a new tab, and download it. Zoom and rotate are for photos; a PDF keeps its own page controls.

If the employee attached no file, the receipt area reads No receipt attached, and while you can decide on it, Ask for the receipt opens Request changes with a ready-made request for the file.

The details

Top to bottom, the details show:

• The AI decision, when CLVR's automatic review decided on the expense, with Revert AI Decision if you want to review it yourself. See understanding AI auto-approval decisions.
• Amount, with a line for the VAT it includes, Expense date, and Category, with the provider name under it. On an approved expense report, HR can move it to another category with the Change category link under the category.
• Cost breakdown: select it to show the receipt cost incl. VAT, the cost excl. VAT, the VAT, the social fee where it applies, what is deducted from the allowance, what comes from salary over the tax-free limit, and what is not covered by the allowance. See reading the expense cost breakdown.
• Automatic checks: on an expense report, Receipt attached (or No receipt), the VAT rate, and Covered by allowance; a purchase or adjustment only gets the allowance check. A check that needs a look is highlighted and opens in place with what it means. No receipt says there is nothing to check the amount against, and while the decision is yours, Ask for the receipt opens Request changes with a ready-made request for the file. 0% VAT is uncommon asks you to double-check with the employee that 0% is correct. When the allowance did not cover everything, the check says how much is not reimbursed, or on a purchase how much is deducted from salary.
• Approval: the expense's timeline, from Submitted through each approval step to Payroll (below). As HR you add and remove approvers here; see managing approvers on an expense.
• Details: Employee, Email and Merchant org. ID.

A purchase also shows its purchase details and Payment Breakdown, and an adjustment shows its Manual Expense Details.

Decide from the footer

When the decision is yours (you are a pending approver, or you are HR and nobody is assigned), a footer at the bottom of the panel shows Decline, Request changes and Approve. See deciding on an expense report.

Read the Approval card

The Approval card is the expense's timeline: what has happened to it and what comes next, in order from top to bottom. It is the quickest way to understand why an expense is in its current state.

What each step tells you

Depending on what the expense has been through, you may see:

• Submitted. Always first, showing who sent it in and when.
• AI review. When automatic review approved or declined the expense on its own.
• Each approval step. In order. A step that is done shows who approved it and when. A step that declined or asked for changes shows who and when, with the decline reason or the request as a comment under it. The current step shows who is being asked and since when, and reads Waiting on you when it is you. A step still to come reads Not asked yet.
• A step with several groups. Named after its groups, 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, it shows how many 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".
• Payroll. Last. Before approval it says "Paid out in the next payroll run". Once the expense is approved it names the payroll it goes into, for example "In the October payroll". A declined expense ends at the step that declined it.

Smaller events sit as short grey lines under the step they happened in, each with its date: a reminder sent, an earlier request for changes (from a person or from AI), the employee's resubmission, one colleague taking over from another, and a category changed after approval.

Using the card before you act

• Has anyone already reviewed this? Look for steps that are done, and for an AI review step.
• Why is it back in front of me? A request for changes followed by a resubmission line tells you the employee responded and the expense is waiting again.
• What happens when I approve? In a step with several groups, a purple note under the steps tells you when your approval completes the step, for example "Finance has approved. Your approval completes step 2, then Salary is asked."
• Was this handled automatically? An AI review step means automatic review made the call. If you need to change it, you can revert that decision (see reverting an AI decision).

The card only shows decisions that still stand. If an AI decision was reverted, its AI review step drops off, so what you see is the current history.

How a company approval flow changes the review

Most expenses are reviewed by approvers you add by hand in the Approval card. When your company has set up an approval flow for a benefit or category, that flow takes over: it decides who reviews the expense, in what order, and how the decision moves from one group to the next.

How you can tell a flow is active

On a flow-driven expense, the Approval card names the flow under its title, with View flow, which opens Approval settings, and its steps are the flow's steps, in order. Instead of Add approver, HR sees Add approver to this step while a step is waiting. The header shows "Step N of M". In the table the expense shows as In approval while it waits on someone else.

Reading the steps

Each step is one approval group, or several groups asked at the same time, in the order the flow runs them, for example Manager, then HR + Finance, then Salary. (Other possible group labels are Salary and any custom group your company defined.) Under each group name you see who decided, or on the active step who is being asked.

Each step shows where it stands:

• Pending (or Waiting on you): this step is active and waiting for a reviewer to respond.
• Approved: this step is approved.
• Changes requested: a reviewer at this step asked the employee for changes.
• Declined: a reviewer at this step declined.
• Not asked yet: this step has not started. Its reviewers are picked when the expense reaches it, so no names show yet.
• Not needed: the expense skipped this step because nobody was in its group.

How the flow moves between steps

The steps run strictly in order. An earlier step has to be approved before the reviewers in the next step are asked. While a step is active, only its reviewers can act; a later step reads Not asked yet until its turn.

When a step has more than one reviewer, everyone in it is asked at once, and the step follows the rule set for it in the flow: Any 1 of [number] approves, All [number] approve, or At least a set number. Once the rule is met, the reviewers in that step who have not answered yet are skipped, and the flow moves on to the next step automatically.

In a step with several groups, every group is asked at once and they can approve in any order. Each group follows its own rule, and the step is done when every group has met its rule, or, when the step is set so that any one group can approve, as soon as one has. If the same person is in two of the groups, their one approval counts for both.

What finishes the flow

• Final approval. Once the last step's rule is met, the expense is marked Approved and moves to reimbursement through payroll, the same as any other approved expense.
• A decline at any step. If any reviewer declines at any step, the whole expense is finalised as Declined straight away. The requests to everyone else who was still asked are withdrawn, and later steps are never asked.
• Changes requested. A reviewer can send the expense back to the employee instead. When the employee resubmits, the flow starts again from the first step. While it waits, the card says so, for example "When Axel resubmits, approval starts again from the first step: Manager." Approvals from the earlier round stay on the card as short dated lines under their step.

You cannot change the flow's groups for one expense. As HR, you can add a one-off approver to the step that is waiting with Add approver to this step: they are asked straight away and have to approve too before the step is done. See managing approvers on an expense. To use a different set of reviewers for a benefit or category, change the flow on the Flows tab of Approval settings (under Settings in the HR menu), or pick another flow for the benefit or category in Benefit settings.

Troubleshooting

• The receipt and details are tabs, not side by side. Select Side by side in the panel's header. If you don't see it, the window is narrower than 1600 pixels: switch between Expense and Receipt instead.
• The panel is too wide or too narrow. Drag its left edge, or double-click the edge to reset the width.
• Previous and next skip expenses I expected. They step through the list you opened the expense from, as it is filtered and sorted, on the current page.
• There is no decision footer. It only shows while the expense is pending and the decision is yours: you are a pending approver, or you are HR and nobody is assigned.
• Zoom and rotate do nothing. They are for photos. A PDF has its own page controls.
• Open in new tab does nothing. Check whether a new tab opened behind the current one, or whether a pop-up blocker held it back.
• There is no AI review step. Reverted AI decisions are removed from the Approval card so the history reflects the current status.
• A flow step is approved but the expense is not approved yet. That step is done and the flow is waiting on a later step. The expense is only Approved once the final step's rule is met.
• One group in a step has approved, but the step is still open. All groups in that step must approve. The step shows how many are done, such as "1 of 2".
• A reviewer cannot respond. Only the active step can act. If their step reads Not asked yet, it is not their turn yet; if it already reads Approved or Declined, the step is finished.