Your approval flow decides who reviews an expense, and when. In Factorial you build it with One, our AI assistant: describe your approval policy in your own words, One drafts the flow, and you review it and save it.

Why set up your approval flow with One

• Any rule your policy needs. You're not limited to preset options. Approve by amount, category, team, project, legal entity, merchant, cost center, or any mix of them, with as many steps as your process has.
• Approve automatically what's already in policy. If you use Expense checks, One checks every expense against your expense policy before it's reviewed. Your approval flow can act on the result: auto-approve expenses that are in policy, send warnings to a reviewer, and reject or escalate what's out of policy. Your team only spends time on the expenses that need it.
• It keeps working when your company changes. Rules point to roles, like "the employee's manager", not to fixed names. When someone changes team or a manager leaves, the flow keeps sending expenses to the right person, and nobody has to edit it.
• Nothing to learn. No forms to fill in and no settings to work out. Write your policy the way you'd explain it to a colleague, and One sets it up.
• You stay in control. One only drafts. You see the full flow on the page, and nothing changes until you click Save.
• It's free. Setting up and editing your approval flow doesn't use One credits, on any plan.

Where to find approval flows

1. Go to Settings and search for Expenses configuration, or go to Finance > Expenses > Settings.
2. Open the Approval flow section: "Rules that decide who reviews an expense, and when."

Create your approval flow

1. Click Edit approval flow. The One chat opens, already set up to help you with your approval flow.
2. Describe how your company approves expenses, in plain words. For example:
   • "Require a manager to approve expenses over €500"
   • "Auto-approve expenses under €20"
   • "Send travel expenses to finance for review"
3. One drafts the flow and shows it on the page, so you can check it before anything changes.
4. If something isn't right, keep chatting with One to adjust it, for example "also ask the team lead for expenses over €1,000".
5. When the flow looks right, click Save. The new flow applies to expenses submitted from then on.

What you can ask One to do

You can combine rules in the same flow. For example:

• Ask someone to review an expense: a manager, a specific person, or a team such as finance.
• Auto-approve expenses that meet a condition, such as a low amount.
• Auto-reject expenses that break a rule. You choose the message the employee sees.
• Use the result of Expense checks to decide what happens next (see below).
• Base rules on expense details, such as amount, team, legal entity, cost center, merchant, expense group, currency, budget, or dates.

Automate approvals with Expense checks

Expense checks review every submitted expense against your expense policy, for example "People can spend at most €100 a week on meals" or "Meals over €50 need an itemized invoice showing VAT". You set them up with One in the Expense checks section of your expense settings.

Every new company starts with a set of recommended checks already on. To change them, go to Settings > Expenses > Expense checks > Edit checks. Each expense checked uses 2 AI credits. Learn more in Expense checks: how every expense is checked before approval.

Each checked expense gets one of these results, and your approval flow can use it:

For example, ask One: "Auto-approve expenses that pass the expense checks, send warnings to the employee's manager, and send anything out of policy to finance."

The approval flow waits for the checks to finish before it starts, so it always acts on the latest result.

How rules are applied

• The flow starts when an employee submits an expense for review. It doesn't affect drafts.
• Rules are evaluated top to bottom. The first one that matches is the one that applies.
• Expenses that don't match any rule follow the "All other expenses" rule.
• Reviewers get the request in their Factorial inbox and by email. Expenses in the same report are grouped into one request.

Edit your approval flow

1. Go to Approval flow and click Edit approval flow.
2. Tell One what you want to change, for example "remove the finance step for expenses under €100".
3. Review the updated flow and click Save.

Reading your flow on the page

• Simple workflow: shown as a list of rules you can read at a glance.
• Complex workflow: if the flow can't be shown as a simple list, the page shows the full definition One wrote. To understand or change it, ask One in the chat, for example "explain my approval flow".

Troubleshooting & FAQ

Troubleshooting

• "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 approval flow button. Check that One is enabled for your company and that you have permission to customize expense settings.

FAQs

1. Can I still set up the approval flow manually, without One?
   No. One is the only way to set up the approval flow. This is what lets you write any rule your policy needs, instead of choosing from a fixed list of options. You still review every change and decide whether to save it.
   
2. Does setting up the approval flow use my One credits?
   No. Creating and editing the approval flow is free on every plan, including the free One plan.
   
3. Do I need to update the flow when someone joins, changes team or leaves?
   No, as long as your rules point to roles, like "the employee's manager", and not to specific people. The flow picks the right reviewer each time an expense is submitted.
   
4. Do I need Expense checks to use the approval flow?
   No. The approval flow works on its own. Expense checks add a policy result your flow can use to approve or reject expenses automatically.
   
5. One didn't get my policy right. What should I do?
   Keep chatting with One and tell it what to change. If you're still stuck, contact our support team and we'll help you set it up.
   
6. Does One change my flow on its own?
   No. One only drafts. The change takes effect only when you click Save.
   
7. What happens to my old approval groups?
   They've been converted into your new approval flow, so expenses keep following the same rules. To see or change them, open Approval flow or ask One.