Understanding expense statuses in the HR queue

What each state in the Status column means, including Waiting on you, Needs approvers and Ready to complete, what its second line tells you, and how the from salary line works.

Every expense in the HR Expenses table shows its state in the Status column as a coloured dot and a name, with a second line underneath saying who it waits on and since when, or who decided and when. The same state shows in the header of the expense panel when you open it. This article explains each state and how to act on it, and what the "from salary" line means.

The states

While an expense is open, its state depends on who it waits on, as seen by you:

• Waiting on you (purple): you are one of its approvers and have not decided yet. The second line reads "You, since 19 Aug". It is also on the Waiting on you tab, and you can Approve or Send back right in the row.
• Needs approvers (orange): nobody is assigned and no approval flow runs it, so it cannot move on its own. The second line reads "No approver, since 15 Aug". Add an approver, or decide on it yourself as HR.
• Ready to complete (orange): every approver has decided, but the expense has not closed. The second line reads "Every approver has decided".
• In approval (grey): it waits on somebody else. The second line names the first approver still to decide, for example "Sara Palmgren, since 16 Aug". When a step of an approval flow waits on several groups at once, it names the groups instead, for example "Waiting on HR, Finance".

Once it leaves review:

• Sent back for changes (grey): a reviewer asked the employee to change something. The second line names the employee and the date it was sent back. The employee sees this state as Changes requested.
• Approved (green): cleared for reimbursement. The second line names who approved it and when, for example "Jonas Ekblad, 22 Aug", or "You, 22 Aug" when it was you.
• Declined (red): turned down. The second line names who declined it and when. Open the expense to read the reason.

Needs approvers and Ready to complete both appear on the Needs approvers tab, so it doubles as HR's to-do list.

Inside the expense

The panel header shows the same state, with 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. The Approval card is the expense's timeline: it starts at Submitted, lists each approval step with who decided and when, and ends at Payroll.

When an approval flow runs the expense, it shows as In approval while it waits on somebody else, and the Approval card shows the flow's steps. See opening an expense to review the details.

Ready to complete

Ready to complete shows when both of these are true:

• The expense has at least one assigned approver, and
• Every approver has left a decision, yet the expense has not moved to Approved or Declined.

The reviewing is done; the expense just needs to be carried over the finish line. An expense with no approvers at all shows Needs approvers instead, which is a separate situation.

To look into one, open it from the Needs approvers tab. The Approval card shows what each approver decided and when. If it needs another decision, add an approver from the Approval card.

The from salary line

When part of a Benefit Store purchase was not covered by the employee's benefit allowance, the Amount column shows "from salary" under the amount, and the panel header shows a yellow Payroll deduction tag: that part is deducted from their salary. In the panel, the allowance check says how much is deducted from salary, and Cost breakdown splits it into From salary, over the tax-free limit and From salary, not covered by the allowance. On an uploaded receipt the uncovered part is not deducted from anyone's salary: it is simply not paid back, so the allowance check says how much is not reimbursed, and Cost breakdown shows it as Not reimbursed, over the tax-free limit and Not reimbursed, the allowance ran out. Either way it is independent of the state: an expense can be pending or approved and still carry it, and the employee sees it on their own list too.

CLVR splits every expense into the part the benefit allowance covers and the part it does not. The from salary line shows on a purchase whenever that second part is greater than zero. The uncovered part comes from two things added together:

• The amount that went past a tax-free threshold for the category (for example, wellness past the yearly tax-free limit).
• The amount that did not fit because the remaining allowance ran out.

Purchases vs uploaded receipts

The line looks the same on every row, but what happens to the uncovered amount depends on the expense type. See understanding expense types for the full picture.

• Benefit Store purchases. The employee ordered through CLVR and did not pay out of pocket, so CLVR or the provider fronts the cost. The uncovered part is recovered by deducting it from the employee's salary. The purchase's Payment Breakdown card shows Paid using allowance and Deducted from paycheck.
• Uploaded receipts. The employee already paid the provider themselves. The uncovered part is not deducted from their salary: it is simply not reimbursed, so it stays the employee's own out-of-pocket cost.

Where salary deductions are handled

Salary deductions for purchase remainders sit outside the standard payroll export files. Those files (the spreadsheet or DTA/PAXML files you download for payroll) report the benefit value the employer credited this period, which is the amount the allowance covered. They deliberately do not include:

• The uncovered remainder of a Benefit Store purchase (the salary deduction).
• The unreimbursed overshoot on an uploaded receipt (the employee's own loss).

So the figure that lands in a payroll file is the allowance-covered amount. The salary deduction for a purchase is handled separately, not through that export.

Troubleshooting

• An expense shows Needs approvers. Nobody is assigned to it. Open it and add an approver, or decide on it yourself from the decision footer.
• An expense shows Ready to complete. Every approver has decided. Open it from the Needs approvers tab and check the Approval card.
• An expense shows In approval and I expected it on my tab. It waits on somebody else, and its second line names who. It only shows Waiting on you while you have a decision to make on it.
• The employee says the status is Changes requested, but I see Sent back for changes. It is the same state, worded for each side.
• An expense shows from salary, but the employee says nothing was taken from their pay. Check the expense type. On an uploaded receipt no salary deduction happens; the uncovered amount was the employee's own out-of-pocket cost.
• The deducted amount is not in my payroll export. That is expected. Salary deductions for purchase remainders are handled outside the export files, which only carry the allowance-covered amount.
• I want the exact figure. Open the expense and select Cost breakdown, or read the allowance check, which says how much is deducted from salary. The line is informational: it does not block approval.