Configuring Expense Approvals

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
  • Access expense approvals.
  • Explain different types of approval routing and configure an approval workflow.

Path to Access Expense Approvals

How to Access Expense Approvals

Go to the Settings section of the Expense Admin page. Under the Policy section, select Edit on the Expense Approvals tile.

The SAP Concur settings page under the Expense Settings section. The page is titled Settings and includes a Policy section with four options: Expense Approvals, Travel Allowances, Expense Compliance, and Cash Advances. Each option has a brief description and an Edit button. The Expense Approvals option is highlighted with a yellow border. The top right corner shows the selected product as Expense with an option to View Basic Settings.

How to Configure an Approval Routing

This option lets you select the five approval routing workflows available by default for the expense reports.

Follow these steps to configure an Expense Routing. We'll walk you through each part of the process, complete with detailed instructions and screenshots to help you along the way.

Once you complete these steps, a demo video is available at the end to reinforce what you've learned and provide a quick recap.

Steps

  1. On the Approval Routing page, select an approval routing.

    The Approval Routing page with Step 1. Select your approval routing highlighted. This section asks, After your employees submit an expense report for approval who should it go to? Five radio button options are available. For all five options is available the link Show me an example. At the top of the page, there are navigation options for Expense Settings and Company. The Save button is prominently displayed to save the settings.Options available for selection:

    Processor

    Transition from an Employee to a Processor. The employee is depicted on the left side, and the processor is depicted on the right side, with an arrow pointing from the employee to the processor, indicating a change or progression.

    This default setting simplifies the approval process by sending all reports directly to the processor upon submission. This setting is ideal for small businesses. Manager approval is not required. If manager approval is required, there is an option to include it.

    Manager - Processor

    A workflow process with three stages. The first stage is labeled Employee, the second stage is labeled Manager, and the third stage is labeled Processor. Arrows indicate the progression from Employee to Manager to Processor. Each stage is represented by a person in business attire.

    This is the most common approval workflow option. After manager approval, the expense report is sent directly to the Processor. Each employee must have a manager assigned.

    Manager - Authorized Approver - Processor

    A workflow process with four stages. The first stage is labeled Employee, the second stage is labeled Manager, the third stage is labeled Authorized Approver, and the forth stage is labeled Processor. Arrows indicate the progression from Employee to Manager to Authorized Approver and to Processor. Each stage is represented by a person in business attire.

    Each employee must have a manager with an approval limit. If the expense report exceeds the manager's approval limit, it is sent from the manager to a person authorized to approve expense reports and then to the processor. The manager can select the authorized approver from a list available (if there are several in the system). If the report is within the manager's limits, it will go directly to the processor after the manager's approval.

    Caution

    Assign approval limits in the User Accounts section.

    Manager - Second Approver - Processor

    A workflow process with four stages. The first stage is labeled Employee, the second stage is labeled Manager, the third stage is labeled Second Approver, and the forth stage is labeled Processor. Arrows indicate the progression from Employee to Manager to Second Approver and to Processor. Each stage is represented by a person in business attire.

    Each employee must have a designated manager for approval, and optionally a second approver. The expense report is initially sent to the manager for approval, then to a second manager for further approval, before being forwarded to the processor. This ensures that each expense report undergoes scrutiny from two managers, allowing them to be peers. If there is any delay by the first approver, the report will be automatically forwarded to the second approver for prompt action.

    Manager - Manager's Manager (up to five levels) - Processor

    A workflow process with four stages. The first stage is labeled Employee, the second stage is labeled Manager, the third stage is labeled Manager's Manger (up to 5 levels), and the forth stage is labeled Processor. Arrows indicate the progression from Employee to Manager to Manager's Manager (up to 5 levels) and to Processor. Each stage is represented by a person in business attire.

    Each employee must have a manager with an approval limit. The expense report is routed through the management chain. The report is tentatively approved along the way until it reaches a manager with an appropriate approval limit for the expense amount (up to five levels). When a manager with the proper approval limits approves the report, it goes directly to the processor. This option ensures high approval limits for final managers to cover all reports.

    Caution

    Assign approval limits in the User Accounts section.

  2. Choose the workflow preferences.

    The highlighted Step 2 section of the Approval Routing page focuses on choosing workflow preferences for situations when expense reports need approval from managers outside the regular route. It provides options for allowing employees, managers, or both to select additional approvers, with four checkboxes available: allowing managers or employees to add an approver, rerouting to an approver's manager if a report remains pending for 8 days, and allowing employees to recall reports. The page also includes navigation options for Expense Settings and Company, with a prominent Save button to apply the changes.

    Options available for selection:

    Allow Managers to Add Another Approver to the List

    Select the first checkbox to allow managers to add additional approvers to the workflow for an expense report. This allows managers who approve an expense report to send it to another manager for approval. For example, if a user charges expenses to different departments, causing expenses to hit different department budgets.

    Allow Employees to Add Another Approver to the List

    Select the second checkbox to allow the users to add additional approvers to the workflow for an expense report. This allows employees submitting an expense report to send it to a manager other than their own. For example, if a user charges expenses to different departments, they have the option to select the managers of those departments as approvers for the report.

    Reroute to Approver's Manager If report Stays Pending Approval for This Many Days

    Select the third checkbox to allow the report to move to the approver's manager, if the report has been pending for several days. This automatically allows the report to be sent to the approver's manager if the approver takes no action in the number of days indicated in the box. By using this option, it prevents expenses from being left in the system without any action. Such as when a manager is traveling, offline, or away from work for an extended time.

    Allow Employees to Recall reports

    Select the fourth checkbox to allow users to recall a report that has been submitted. This feature allows employees to recall any expense reports that have been submitted but not yet approved by a processor. The employee can then edit, resubmit, or delete the expense report.

    Note

    Create a custom workflow if you require routing options other than those listed in the previous section.

Result

Summary

Thank you for completing this unit!

Throughout these lessons, you have learned how to set up and manage expense approval workflows to ensure that expense reports are reviewed and approved efficiently, and are in compliance with your company's policies. This unit provided an in-depth look at the full cycle of expense report handling, starting from exploring the basics of expense approvals to configuring the approval workflows.

Before you move on from this unit, there is a knowledge check to help reinforce and assess what you've learned.

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