When an employee resubmits a declined expense
Why a declined expense can reappear in your queue as a fresh Pending item, and how the review starts over.
A decline is not always the end of an expense. From their own view, the employee can edit a declined report and send it back for review, at which point it returns to your queue as a brand-new Pending item and the review starts over from the beginning. This article explains how that resubmission works, what gets cleared, and how to treat the report when it lands back with you.
How the employee resubmits
When you decline a report, the employee sees a red This expense has been rejected notice on their copy, with an Edit and Resubmit button underneath it. Selecting it opens an edit form where they can update the report details, swap receipt files, and send it for review again. They are acting on the feedback you gave, not starting a fresh upload, so it stays the same expense throughout.
This option only appears while the report is Declined. If you used Request changes instead of Decline, the employee follows a slightly different path (see how an employee adjusts and resubmits after changes are requested).
What happens when it comes back
Submitting the edits brings the report straight back into review as if it were new:
- The status returns to Pending, so it reappears in your expense queue.
- The previous reviewers are cleared. CLVR removes the old approver decisions (including the decline) and re-applies your company's approval flow from scratch, or assigns the standard reviewers and the employee's manager if no flow covers the category.
- Any earlier automatic (AI) decision is cleared, so nothing from the previous round carries a verdict into the new one.
A resubmitted report is judged on its updated details, not its history. Because the approvers and any AI decision are reset, the report comes back as a clean review rather than a declined one with notes attached.
AI may evaluate it again
If your company uses AI auto-approval, the resubmitted report can be re-evaluated automatically. A clear wellness (friskvĂĄrd) claim that now meets the rules can be auto-approved again within seconds, with the usual confidence threshold applied. If the AI defers or the category is not eligible, the report waits for a person, exactly like any other Pending item.
How you will notice it
You and your HR team get an in-app notification that the employee updated the report, with a prompt to continue the review. The notification links straight to the expense. In the queue it simply shows up again as Pending, ready for a fresh decision.
Open the expense and check the Approval card. The resubmission shows as a dated line under Submitted, for example "Anna Berg resubmitted · 3 Jun", so you can see exactly when the employee acted and follow what happens next.
Treat it as a new review
Review the resubmitted report on its current contents: the updated amount, category, provider, and receipt. Because the earlier reviewers and any AI decision were cleared on resubmission, there is no leftover decline to undo. Approve, request changes, or decline again as the updated details warrant.
Troubleshooting
- A declined expense is back as Pending. The employee selected Edit and Resubmit after the decline. Review the updated version as a new submission.
- The old reviewers are gone. That is expected. A declined resubmit clears the previous approvers and re-applies the approval flow, so the review starts fresh.
- It was auto-approved on resubmission. A clear wellness claim can clear automatically once the employee fixes it. The Approval card shows the decision as an AI review step. Revert it if you want a person to look instead.
- I meant to ask for a fix, not reject it. Next time, use Request changes instead of Decline. It keeps the same review open instead of closing it. Without an approval flow, the existing approvals stay intact too. In an approval flow, approval starts again from the first step when the employee resubmits, and earlier approvals stay visible on the Approval card.