Approvers in Factorial can approve expenses, request changes, reject them, or mark them as paid. Alerts and bulk actions help streamline the process while ensuring compliance with company policies. Once you’ve accessed the expenses pending your review, you can decide the next step for each one. Factorial gives you 4 main options:

1. Approve an expense

1. In your sidebar, go to Spending → Expenses
2. Open the expense from the list
3. Review the receipt, details (amount, date, project, category), and any alerts (Out of policy or Out of budget).
4. If everything is correct, click Approve
5. The expense moves to the next step:
   • Another approval level, if applicable
   • Final approval, if you are the last approver

2. Request changes

1. In your sidebar, go to Spending → Expenses
2. Open the expense from the list
3. Click Request changes if details are missing or incorrect (e.g., wrong category, incomplete receipt)
4. Add a comment explaining what needs to be updated
5. The expense returns to the employee with Changes requested status
6. The employee receive a notification

3. Reject an expense

1. In your sidebar, go to Spending → Expenses
2. Open the expense from the list
3. Use Reject if the expense should not be reimbursed (e.g., it doesn’t meet company policy)
4. Provide a reason in the comment box, so the employee understands the decision
5. The expense will stay visible in the system with a Rejected status

5. Mark as paid

If you’re the final approver, you can close the expense by marking it as Paid.

1. In your sidebar, go to Spending → Expenses
2. Open the expense from the list

Paid expenses are those that have already been reimbursed to the employee through one of the supported methods:

• Payslip reimbursement - the amount is added directly to the employee’s next payroll
• SEPA payment - Finance exports the expense to a SEPA file for direct bank transfer

Handle alerts & exceptions

When reviewing an expense, Factorial automatically highlights issues that may require closer inspection:

• Out of policy - the expense violates one of your company’s expense rules (e.g., exceeds per diem, wrong category).
• Out of budget - the expense would push the project/team/cost center beyond its allocated budget.

Bulk Approvals

Approvers can act on multiple expenses at once:

1. In your sidebar, go to Spending → Expenses
2. Filter for pending approvals
3. Select multiple expenses and apply an action (e.g., Approve all)
4. Factorial will warn you if any selected expenses include alerts (Out of policy or Out of budget). Review these carefully before applying bulk actions.