As an approver, you decide what happens to each expense your team sends: approve it, send it back so the employee can fix it, or reject it. Clear decisions with a short reason mean fewer questions, fewer resubmissions and faster reimbursements.

Decide on an expense

Overview

You decide on Pending expenses waiting for your step of the approval flow. Request changes is how you send an expense back. With Expense checks, One's recommendation (such as "Approval recommended") is advice: you decide.

How to use

1. Open the expense from your Inbox or Spending > Employee expenses (see How do I find the expenses I need to approve?).
2. Check the receipt, amount, date, category, project, and alerts such as Out of policy (and Duplicate, if you can see all company expenses).
3. Decide:
   • Approve when everything is right and follows your policy: click Approve. You'll see "Approved successfully."
     

     

   • Request changes when something is missing or wrong but the expense is fine (a blurry receipt, the wrong category, a missing project or attendees): click the arrow next to Approve, choose Request changes, write what to fix and click Request changes.
     

     

   • Reject only when the company shouldn't pay it at all (it's personal, a duplicate, or clearly against your policy): click the arrow, choose Reject, explain why under Rejection reasons and click Reject. You'll see “Rejected successfully.”
     

     

      

Quicker from the Inbox: hover over a request in the list and click Approve (or Reject) without opening it.

Several at once: in Spending > Employee expenses, filter by Pending approvals > Mine, tick the expenses and click Approve (or Reject) in the bar at the bottom. Approving applies straight away, without a confirmation.

Approve for the whole flow (Global approve)

With the Global Approver for Expenses permission (usually finance), you can approve any pending expense even when it isn't your turn, for example when the approver is away. Open the expense, click Global approve (in the Approve dropdown if it's also your turn) and confirm. This skips all other approval steps.

Tips and Best Practices

Troubleshooting and FAQ

Troubleshooting

The Approve button is greyed out.
If your company uses Expense checks, the approval starts once the checks finish, at most 1 hour after the expense was sent. Reload the page later.

I can't approve an expense, and it shows a message about a problem with it.
Factorial checks the expense again when you approve, with the same rules as when it was sent. If something no longer passes (for example, the reimbursable amount is above the receipt total), approving is refused. Click Request changes so the employee can fix it.

I approved (or rejected) an expense, but it still says Pending.
The page can take a few seconds to show the new status. Wait a moment or reload the page: the Approval history already shows your step as Completed.

I don't see Approve, Reject or Request changes.
The expense isn't waiting for you: it's waiting for another approver, already decided, or back with the employee. Its status shows which.

"Failed to approve the expense. Reload to see its current status."
Someone else decided on it, or its status changed while you had it open. Reload the page.

I can't send back just one expense from a group.
On the group page you approve or reject the whole group. To send back one expense, open that expense from the group and click Request changes there.

Some expenses weren't approved when I approved several at once.
If you can't approve some of the selected expenses (for example, they're waiting for someone else), Factorial approves the others and tells you which ones it skipped.

FAQ

1. Is a reason required when I reject or request changes?

On screen it's optional, but always add one, for example "Please add the itemized invoice with VAT." The employee sees it in the expense details, can only fix what they know about, and it saves a round of questions. Through One a reason is required: One asks for it if you don't give one.

2. Where does my reason appear after I request changes?

After you click Request changes, you'll see "Changes requested successfully", and your reason appears at the top of the expense. From Spending > Employee expenses, a Request changes window asks for the Reason before you confirm.

3. What happens after I request changes?

The expense goes back to the employee as Changes requested, with your reason. When they fix it and click Send for approval, it comes back to you as Pending.

4. What happens after I approve an expense?

The employee is notified, and the expense can no longer be edited. If the flow has another step, the next approver gets the request. If you were the last one, the expense becomes Approved and your finance team pays it back (see How do I pay back expenses through payroll?, How do I pay back expenses with a SEPA file? and How do I mark an expense as paid, or undo it?).

5. What happens after I reject an expense?

A rejection ends the approval. The expense becomes Rejected, the employee is notified with your reason, and the employee can't edit a rejected expense. Rejected it by mistake? See How do I fix an expense that was sent back or rejected?.

6. An expense has an "Out of policy" alert. Can I still approve it?

Yes. Alerts and Expense checks never stop you from deciding. Add a comment so the employee and finance understand why.

7. Can I undo an approval or a rejection?

Not yourself. Someone with permission to reset the approval flow (usually an admin or finance) can send the expense back to Pending, at the first step of the flow. See How do I fix an expense that was sent back or rejected?.

8. Can I set an expense as paid when I approve it?

Not by default. Paying is a separate step with its own permission, usually held by finance. Your admin can give it to you. See How do I mark an expense as paid, or undo it?.

9. Do I need to approve if I'm also the person who submitted the expense?

No. If you're an approver of a step for your own expense, that step is approved automatically. The same happens if you already approved an earlier step of the same expense, and when you add an expense on behalf of someone whose approver you are.