Approval Workflows and Copilots

alana_garcia89
alana_garcia89 Expensify Customer Posts: 4 Expensify Newcomer

I am working on setting up a more advanced approval workflow and have a general question about whether there is the following approval workflow option: the copilot for cardholder A submits the expense report for approval by Cardholder A. The purpose of this would be for Cardholder A to review the copilot's work and confirm correct coding. Since the copilot is toggling to the Cardholder's account, I wasn't sure if this was possible.

Best Answer

  • Sheena Trepanier
    Sheena Trepanier Expensify Team, Approved! Accountant, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 1,362 Expensify Team
    Answer ✓

    Hi @alana_garcia89, so sorry for the delay getting back to you! I wanted to share a few links, one of which is to an example of Advanced Approval workflows.

    Now, let's cover the workflow examples you shared.

    1. Copilot submits Cardholder A's report>Cardholder A approves>Cardholder A's Supervisor approves>Finance (me) final approves
    • This workflow is entirely possible, all good here.
    1. Copilot submits Cardholder A's report>Cardholder A approves>Finance (me) final approves
    • Another perfectly acceptable workflow!
    1. Cardholder A submits their own report>Cardholder A's Supervisor approves>Finance (me) final approves
    • This is the most common advanced workflow, so you're good here.
    1. Cardholder A submits their own report>Finance (me) final approves
    • This is a very simple single step workflow, no problems here.
    1. So this leads me to another question, is it possible to set up different approval workflows for each Cardholder - as some would need more levels of approval than others?

    Each submitter can submit to a different approver, however, each approver can only be set up to forward to a single email address. For example, let's take a look at the example below:

    Cardholder A submits to Supervisor A --> Supervisor A approves and forwards to Supervisor B --> Supervisor B approves and forwards to Finance for final approval.

    In the above scenario, any reports submitted to Supervisor A will always be directed to Supervisor B, no matter who submits the reports to Supervisor A.

    I hope this helps!

Answers

  • Sheena Trepanier
    Sheena Trepanier Expensify Team, Approved! Accountant, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 1,362 Expensify Team

    @alana_garcia89, great question! Can you tell me a bit more about the full workflow you have in mind? For instance, once the report is approved by the cardholder, what is the rest of the workflow? Do all the reports go to a centralized person for final approval?

  • alana_garcia89
    alana_garcia89 Expensify Customer Posts: 4 Expensify Newcomer

    Hi Sheena - we are still working out what we'd like our workflow to look like (this also depends on the capabilities of Expensify). But here are some of scenarios we have in mind, given that not all of our Cardholder's have copilots, and not all Cardholders would need additional supervisor approval within Expensify. But all would need finance (me) approval within Expensify.

    1. Copilot submits Cardholder A's report>Cardholder A approves>Cardholder A's Supervisor approves>Finance (me) final approves
    2. Copilot submits Cardholder A's report>Cardholder A approves>Finance (me) final approves
    3. Cardholder A submits their own report>Cardholder A's Supervisor approves>Finance (me) final approves
    4. Cardholder A submits their own report>Finance (me) final approves

    So this leads me to another question, is it possible to set up different approval workflows for each Cardholder - as some would need more levels of approval than others?