This article is for: admins and finance teams.
Change who approves expenses, add a second approver or auto-approve small ones, without chasing people. Your approval flow decides who reviews an expense, and when. You describe your rules in your own words to One, our AI assistant, and One drafts the flow for you to review and save. Looking for Approvals and smart rules or approval groups? They are now this Approval flow page.
Approval flow
Overview
Set it up when you start using Expenses, and edit it whenever your approval policy changes. Nothing changes until you click Save.
What you need: the Can access expense settings permission, and One enabled in your company. Setting up and editing the approval flow with One is free: it doesn't use One credits.
How to use
- Go to Settings > Expenses. In the left menu, under Configuration, click Approval flow.
- Click Edit. One opens, tells you how your flow works today and asks what you'd like to change, with a few suggestions.
- Pick a suggestion, or type your own answer, for example "Require my manager to approve expenses over £500" or "Auto-approve expenses under £20".
- One shows the draft on the page as numbered rules and explains each one in the chat. Keep chatting to adjust it.
- Click Save. You'll see "Saved successfully". The flow applies to expenses submitted from then on.
To change it later, click Edit, tell One what to change and click Save.
How the flow decides: rules are checked from top to bottom and the first match applies. Expenses that match none follow the last rule (All other expenses). Reviewers get the request in their Factorial Inbox and by email.
Approve automatically with Expense checks. Ask One, for example: "Auto-approve expenses that pass the expense checks, send warnings to the employee's manager, and send anything out of policy to finance." Expenses in policy then don't wait in anyone's inbox.
Send a pending expense through the new flow. Expenses already waiting keep their route. In Spending > Employee expenses, open the expense's actions menu (⋯) and click Reset approval flow: it goes back to Pending at the first step.
Tips and Best Practices
- Put your most specific rules first. The first rule that matches wins, so a broad rule above a specific one catches the expense first.
- Use roles, not names. "The employee's manager" keeps working when people change teams; a named person doesn't.
- Decide what happens to expenses that couldn't be checked, so nothing is approved without a review by mistake.
- Related: How do I check expenses against my expense policy? · How do I approve, reject or send back an expense? · Why is an expense stuck in Pending or with the wrong approver?
Troubleshooting and FAQ
Troubleshooting
- An expense went to the wrong person. Check the order of your rules: the first match wins. If the rule uses "the employee's manager", check that the employee has a manager in their profile. If the expense was submitted before you changed the flow, it kept the old route: use Reset approval flow. Not sure why? Ask One "explain my approval flow".
- An expense has been pending for a long time and nobody has it to review. Open the expense and check who it's waiting for. If no reviewer is shown, use Reset approval flow. If it's still stuck, contact our support team with the link to the expense.
- One doesn't answer on the Approval flow page. Reload the page and try again. If it persists, contact our support team.
- One stops answering while I edit the flow. Editing the flow doesn't use credits, but if your company has used up its One credits for other work, One may stop answering. Your Account Manager can confirm what your plan includes.
- "This workflow couldn't be saved." One's draft didn't pass validation. Ask One to refine it and try again.
- I don't see the Edit button on the Approval flow page. Check that One is enabled for your company and that you have the Can access expense settings permission.
FAQ
1. How do I change who approves an expense, or add a second approver?
In Settings > Expenses > Approval flow, click Edit and tell One who should approve, for example "Send expenses from the sales team to Anna Ruiz" or "Add finance as a second approver for expenses over £1,000". One shows the new rules; click Save. You can name a person, the employee's manager or a team. If One can't build a rule, it tells you. The change applies to expenses sent after you save.
2. Can I set up or edit the approval flow without One?
No. One is the only way to set up the approval flow. You still review every change and decide whether to save it.
3. Does setting up the approval flow use One credits?
No. Setting up and editing the approval flow with One is free and doesn't use One credits. Only other requests in the same chat, such as asking for a report, use credits.
4. What rules can my approval flow have?
You're not limited to preset options. Describe rules by amount, category, team, project, legal entity, merchant, cost center, or a mix of them, with as many steps as your process has. Ask One what else it can use.
5. What can I ask One to do in the approval flow?
You can ask One to send an expense for review to the employee's manager, a specific person, or a team such as finance (for example "Send travel expenses to finance for review"). You can also auto-approve expenses that meet a condition, such as a low amount, and auto-reject expenses that break a rule. Approvers on leave are still asked by default; ask One to skip them or use their time-off delegate ("Change how approvers on leave are handled").
6. What does One show when I click Edit on the Approval flow page?
The One chat tells you how your flow works today (for example "Your current flow sends expenses to the employee's manager for review, due within 5 days") and asks "What would you like to change?" with a few suggestions that fit your flow, such as Change who reviews expenses, Change the review deadline, Add conditional approval rules and Change how reviewers on leave are handled, plus a box for your own answer. The page itself says "Set the steps and assign the people in charge of approving expenses."
7. What does a drafted approval flow look like?
A Single-step flow is shown as a list of numbered rules, for example 1 Checks passed and amount under €100, 2 Expense owner's manager is set, 3 All other expenses · No manager: CEO review. A Multi-step flow that can't be shown as a list appears as the full definition One wrote. Ask One "explain my approval flow" to get any flow in plain words.
8. Does the approval flow apply to drafts?
No. The approval flow starts when an employee submits an expense. Drafts aren't affected.
9. Do I need to update the flow when someone joins, changes team or leaves?
Not if your rules point to roles, like "the employee's manager", and not to specific people. A person who left is never asked to review new expenses; if nobody else is set for that step, it goes to a company admin.
10. Do I need Expense checks to use the approval flow?
No. The flow works on its own. Expense checks add a policy result your flow can use to approve or reject automatically. You set the checks up in Settings > Expenses > Automations > Expense checks, for example with a policy like "People can spend at most £100 a week on meals".
11. What can the approval flow do with each Expense checks result?
In policy (the expense meets your policy): you could approve it automatically. Warning (something needs a look, but it isn't a hard breach): send it to the employee's manager. Out of policy (it breaks a hard rule): reject it, or send it to finance. Couldn't be checked (Expense checks are off, didn't apply, or couldn't run): follow your usual review.
12. Does the approval flow wait for Expense checks to finish?
Yes, for up to 1 hour. If the checks haven't finished by then, the approval starts anyway and the expense shows it couldn't be checked.
13. Do changes to the approval flow apply to expenses already waiting for approval?
No. Changes apply to expenses submitted after you save. Expenses already waiting keep their current route until you use Reset approval flow on them.
14. Who can reset an expense's approval flow, and on which expenses?
You need permission to reset the expense approval flow (ask your admin who has it). It works on Pending, Approved and Rejected expenses, not on expenses that are In payroll, Sent to pay or Paid. The expense goes back to Pending and starts again from the first step with your current flow. Approvals already given are cleared.
15. One didn't get my policy right. What should I do?
Keep chatting and tell it what to change. If you're still stuck, contact our support team and we'll help you set it up.
16. Does One change my flow on its own?
No. Changes only take effect when you click Save.
17. Can the approval flow notify someone, for example finance when a large expense is approved?
No. The approval flow can ask people to review, approve or reject automatically, wait, and branch on conditions, but it has no step that only notifies someone. If you ask One for it, One says so and offers a review step instead, which makes that person approve the expense rather than just be informed.
18. What happened to my approval groups and "Approvals and smart rules"?
They've been turned into your approval flow, so expenses keep following the same rules. To see or change them, open Approval flow or ask One.