Understand the Expense Policies Page in Emburse Spend
The Emburse Spend Expense Policies page helps you control how expenses are reviewed, approved, and enforced in Emburse Spend. As an administrator, you use this page to define policy checks, automate low-risk approvals, and route expenses or card requests to the right approvers. It also includes optional controls that affect how employees submit and classify expenses. This overview explains what each section does and where to go for detailed setup steps.
To access the Expense Policies page, go to the Admin tab, then select Expense Policies from the left navigation menu.
Policy Overview
This section shows the read-only policy guidance that employees see on the Expense Policies page. As an administrator, you can customize this section to share general expectations, explain how your expense policy works, and give employees context before they submit expenses.
Rules
Use the Rules section to create policy checks that help enforce your company’s expense requirements. You can create Requirement, Budget, and Time limit rules, and configure each one as either a warning or a blocking rule. These rules help you require important details, control spending, and enforce submission timing, including requirements for receipts, categories, locations, and business purpose, so employees follow your expense policy more consistently and approvers can review expenses more efficiently, see Create an Expense Policy.
| Setting / Field Name | Description | Impact / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Prevent administrators from ever approving their own expenses | Prevents admins from approving expenses they submitted | Supports separation of duties and stronger internal controls |
| Prevent non-admins from editing their expenses after they have been approved | Stops employees from changing approved expenses | Helps preserve approval integrity and audit consistency |
| Comment Required | Determines whether users must enter a comment when responding to a policy check | Off by default. When enabled, users must enter a comment to submit expenses that trigger warning policy checks. Blocking rules prevent submission and do not allow comments. Emburse Assurance rules always require a comment |
| Add | Creates a new rule | Use this to add policy checks based on your organization’s requirements |
| Block | Prevents submission when the expense does not meet the rule | Best for required policy conditions, like a missing category |
| Warn | Alerts the user that the expense may violate policy, but does not stop submission | Useful when you want flexibility with visibility |
| Mileage | Applies a mileage reimbursement rule | Used to define mileage reimbursement behavior and rates |
| Edit (pencil icon) | Updates an existing rule | Use when policy thresholds or requirements change |
| Delete | Removes a rule | Removing a rule stops it from being enforced |
Assurance Rules
Use the Assurance Rules section to manage Emburse Assurance checks for submitted expenses. Powered by Emburse AI, Emburse Assurance helps identify compliance risks that standard policy rules do not catch, including missing itemization, suspicious receipts, alcohol, vendor concerns, unusual amounts, excessive tips, and off-business-hours spending. Depending on the check, Emburse Assurance can run during receipt capture, before submission, or after submission.
Expense Rules enforce policy using defined conditions and actions, such as blocking or warning when a requirement is not met. In contrast, Assurance Rules surface risk signals based on receipt data and spending patterns. These signals help inform reviewers and highlight higher-risk expenses, but they do not block submission or replace your approval routing. Select ADD to create a rule for an Assurance check. Checks without an active rule display Create a rule to activate this check. Active rules display condition cards with edit and delete controls.
Emburse Assurance is an add-on product. See Emburse Assurance Overview for Emburse Spend for more information.
Visibility
Each active Assurance rule displays a visibility badge with an eye icon that shows who can see the Assurance warning generated by the rule. The badge displays Submitters & Approvers when both the submitter and approver can see the warning, or Approver when only approvers can see it. Visibility is configured when you create or edit a rule. For step-by-step guidance, see Configure Emburse Assurance Rules in Emburse Spend.
The following table lists the Emburse Assurance checks available in Emburse Spend. Your organization's policy configuration determines which checks have active rules.
| Emburse Assurance Check | When It Runs | How It Appears | What It Checks | What It Means for Users | What It Means for Approvers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alcohol Detection | Pre-submission and post-submission | Pre-submission review dialog, expense detail warning box | Scans receipt line items to detect alcohol and calculate spend | Provide justification if required by policy | Confirm alcohol policy compliance |
| Excessive Tip Anomaly | Pre-submission and post-submission | Pre-submission review dialog, expense detail warning box | Flags tips that exceed the set threshold | Correct the tip or provide justification | Validate tip compliance before approval |
| Fake Receipt Detection | Post-submission | Expense detail warning box | Detects signs that a receipt may be forged, altered, or suspicious | Provide additional context if requested | Review closely and follow escalation procedures if needed |
| Non-itemized Receipt Check | Mobile, pre-submission, post-submission | Push notification, pre-submission review dialog, expense detail warning box | Detects missing line-item detail on qualifying meal receipts | Attach an itemized receipt or provide required context | Request documentation before approval |
| Off-Business Hours Spend Detection | Post-submission | Expense detail warning box | Flags expenses outside standard business hours, including weekends and holidays | Provide context if prompted about off-hours spending | Review off-hours expenses for policy compliance |
| Unusual Amount/Price Anomaly | Post-submission | Expense detail warning box | Flags amounts that appear unusual based on merchant, category, or location patterns | Confirm accuracy and provide context | Validate business purpose and policy alignment |
| Vendor Legitimacy Verification | Post-submission | Expense detail warning box | Flags vendors that may be suspicious or cannot be validated through public sources | Confirm business purpose if prompted | Request clarification or documentation |
Auto Approval
Use the Auto Approval section to automatically approve expenses that meet the conditions you define. This helps reduce manual review for routine or low-risk expenses, speeds up reimbursement, and lets approvers focus on expenses that need closer review. You can use auto approval rules to streamline your approval process while still keeping higher-risk or policy-sensitive expenses in the standard approval workflow, see Automatically Approve Expenses.
Only final-approval admins can create and manage auto approval rules.
| Setting / Field Name | Description | Impact / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Add | Creates a new auto approval rule | Use this to define which expenses can bypass manual review |
| Edit (pencil icon) | Updates an existing auto approval rule | Use when approval thresholds or conditions change |
| Delete | Removes an auto approval rule | Expenses will no longer approve automatically under that rule |
Expense Approval Routing
Use the Expense Approval Routing section to create approval rules that route expenses to specific approvers based on defined conditions. You can use routing to match your organization’s approval structure, ensure the right approvers review certain expenses, and optionally require manager review before route-based approval begins. This helps support more consistent approvals and stronger policy oversight. See How To Use Expense Approval Routing.
If the approver is both a manager and an admin, that approval is final, and the expense requires only one layer of approval.
| Setting / Field Name | Description | Impact / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Always assign expense to a user’s manager prior to routing | Sends the expense to the submitter’s manager before any configured routing rule | Adds a manager review step before policy-based routing |
| Add | Creates a new routing rule | Use to define who approves specific expense types or conditions |
| Edit (pencil icon) | Updates an existing routing rule | Use when approvers or routing logic change |
| Delete | Removes a routing rule | Matching expenses will no longer follow that approval path |
| Drag handle | Changes the order of routing rules | Rules are evaluated from top to bottom, so the order determines which rule applies first |
Card Request Approval Routing
Use the Card Request Approval Routing section to define how card requests are reviewed before a card is issued. You can require manager review before the request follows additional routing logic, which helps control card issuance and align approvals with spending authority.
This section is separate from expense approval routing because card requests follow their own approval process, see Manage Approval Routing for Emburse Card Requests.
Card Request Approval Routing is available only for supported card programs that issue virtual cards.
| Setting / Field Name | Description | Impact / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Always assign card request to a user’s manager prior to routing | Sends the request to the submitter’s manager before any configured routing rule | Adds an initial manager review for card issuance |
| Add | Creates a new card request routing rule | Use to define card request approval paths by amount or other conditions |
| Edit (pencil icon) | Updates an existing routing rule | Use when card approval ownership changes |
| Delete | Removes a routing rule | Matching requests will no longer follow that approval path |
| Drag handle | Changes the order of routing rules | Rules are evaluated from top to bottom, so the order determines which rule applies first |
Additional Options
Use the Additional Options section to enable supporting controls that affect how expense data is captured and evaluated. These options do not create policy rules by themselves, but they influence what users can submit and how certain calculations work. This section helps you support more detailed expense tracking for group meals, budget calculations, and client-billable expenses.
| Setting / Field Name | Description | Impact / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Enable attendees as an expense field | Adds attendees as a field on expenses | Useful for meals, entertainment, or audit requirements |
| When checking against budget rules, split the expense total by the number of attendees | Divides the total expense by attendee count during budget evaluation | Helps apply budget logic more fairly for shared expeses |
| Billable Expenses | Lets you mark expenses as billable to clients | Supports customer billing or client chargeback workflows |