Approve Reimbursable Expenses

Submitted reimbursable expenses must be reviewed and approved by managers, assigned approvers, and administrators based on your organization's approval routing.

As a manager or administrator, you can review, edit, approve, return, or deny submitted reimbursable expenses in Emburse Spend. You can approve expenses on the Emburse Spend website or in the mobile app.

Approve Submitted Reimbursable Expenses on the Website

Submitted reimbursable expenses require review before approval. On the Emburse Spend website, you can open an expense to review its details, policy warnings, comments, and approval insights before approving or denying it. You can also take action directly from the Reimbursements screen when appropriate.

Review Submitted Expenses

  1. In the Manager or Admin menu, select Reimbursements.

The Needs Review tab displays by default.

You can also filter transactions by Needs Manager Review, Pending Submission, Denied, or Completed. To learn how to create and save custom filters, see Available Advanced Filters for Expenses and Transactions.
Reimbursements screen showing submitted expenses awaiting review
  1. Select an expense.

The View Details screen displays.

  1. Review the expense information, paying attention to any insights and warnings.

Review Policy-Response Comments

If your organization requires users to respond to policy warnings or violations before submission, submitted expenses may include policy-response comments.

Review the Activity Log section in the View Details screen to view any comments submitted with the expense.

View Details screen displaying expense information and approval insights
Emburse AI uses generative AI to provide automated insights beneath each expense. These insights highlight potential anomalies or relevant details to help approvers make faster, more consistent decisions without changing existing approval rules. If no issues are detected, no AI insight appears.

Approve or Deny an Expense

  1. Approve or deny the expense using one of the following methods:
    • Use the keyboard shortcuts at the top of the View Details screen.

    • Select APPROVE or DENY at the bottom of the View Details screen.

      Approval and denial actions available from the View Details screen
  2. To move to the next expense requiring review, use the navigation arrows at the top of the screen or the keyboard shortcuts.

Approve an Expense from the Reimbursements Screen

To approve an individual expense directly from the Reimbursements screen, select Approve in the Action column.

Approve button in the Reimbursements list

Manage Expenses from the Reimbursements Screen

In addition to reviewing expenses individually, you can take actions directly from the Reimbursements screen. Depending on the number of expenses selected, you can edit, deny, approve, or reassign expenses without opening the View Details screen.

Use the More Actions Menu to Edit or Deny an Expense

Use the More Actions menu to update expense details or return an expense to the submitter for correction.

  1. Select More Actions.

    More Actions menu for editing or denying an expense
  2. Select Edit to update expense details, or select Deny to return the expense to the submitter.
  3. If you selected Edit, update the information as needed and select Save.
  4. If you selected Deny, enter a note and choose one of the following options:
    • Send Back to return the expense to the submitter so they can update and resubmit it.

    • Permanently Deny to prevent the expense from being resubmitted.

      Deny Transactions window showing Send Back and Permanently Deny options
  5. Select DENY.
For information about reassigning transactions, see How to Reassign a Manager for Expense Approval.

Approve, Deny, Edit, or Reassign Multiple Expenses

When you select one or more expenses, a bulk actions toolbar displays above the expense list. Use this toolbar to approve, deny, edit, or reassign multiple expenses at the same time.

  1. Select the checkbox next to each expense.

  2. Select APPROVE, DENY, REASSIGN or EDIT.

    Multiple expenses selected for bulk approval, denial, reassignment, or editing

After an expense is approved, it displays on the Completed tab. Denied expenses display on the Denied tab. Editing an expense saves your changes without advancing it in the approval process. Reassigning an expense removes it from your review queue and assigns it to another approver.

Deny or Unapprove Reimbursable Expenses

Reimbursable expenses can be denied during the approval process. If an expense is approved, the final approver's action typically triggers reimbursement for the submitter. By default, reimbursements are processed nightly, although your organization may use a different payout schedule. See Payout Schedules for more information. Administrators can also reverse an approval if reimbursement processing has not yet begun.

The Unapprove button is available only if the expense has not been approved or if payment has not yet been initiated. After the payment process begins, Emburse Spend cannot reverse the reimbursement, and any reconciliation of an expense approved in error must take place outside of Emburse Spend. See FAQ: Can I Reverse or Stop a Reimbursement?

Approve Expenses in the Mobile App

  1. Open the menu and navigate to the expense approval screen:
    • On iOS, tap Approve Expenses.

    • On Android, tap the Team tab.

      Approve Expenses option in the mobile app account menu
The navigation labels and approval options may differ slightly between iOS and Android.
  1. Review the submitted expenses.

  2. Approve expenses using one of the following methods:

    IOS

    • Swipe left on an expense to approve it.

    • Swipe left on the Swipe to Approve All banner at the top of the screen to approve the 20 expenses displayed by default in the list view.

      Swipe to Approve All option for approving multiple submitted transactions

    Android

    • Tap the double check mark button in the upper-right corner to approve multiple expenses at once.
  3. To review expense details before approving:
    1. Tap the expense.
    2. Review the details.

    3. Tap Approve.

      Expense details screen with the Approve button

Submitted expenses may include policy-response comments from the submitter. Review the expense details before approving the expense.

Allow Administrators to Approve Their Own Expenses

By default, Emburse Spend prevents administrators from approving their own expenses. To allow administrators to approve their own expenses, a final-approval administrator can disable this rule.

  1. In the Admin menu, select Expense Policies.

    Global Expense Rules setting that allows administrators to approve their own expenses
  2. In the Global Expense Rules section, turn off Prevent admins or managers from approving their own expenses.

Administrators can now approve their own expenses.

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