Approval Workflow

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abaker
abaker Expensify Customer Posts: 1 Expensify Newcomer
in Day to Day

I wonder if anyone can help me get my head round this - for the advanced approval worflow:

I need to verify and approve all expenses - so I am the first approver.

Employee A submits to me (AKB) and I forward for final approval to Head of Sales
Employee B submits to me (AKB) and I forward for final approval to Head of Sales

Employee C submits to me (AKB) and I forward for final approval to Managing Director Employee D submits to me (AKB) and I forward for final approval to Managing Director

Head of Sales submits to me (AKB) and I forward to Managing Director
Managing Director submits to me (AKB) and I forward to Associate Director

Associate Director submits to me (AKB) and I forward to Managing Director
I submit to Associate Director and they forward to Managing Director

How do I avoid a continuous approval loop?

Alexander

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Answers

  • Karisa Latta
    Karisa Latta Expensify Success Coach - Admin, Expensify Team Posts: 147 Expensify Team
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    Hey @abaker !

    All of this boils down to the answer to, "Do you want to use Workflow Enforcement?" Workflow Enforcement is a feature that strictly locks the flow of all report submitters and approvers. If you want this feature enabled, your flows described above will need separate policies. If you are ok without this feature, your flows described above will need to be handled manually per report.

    Here is an example I share with folks to show you how Advanced Approval works:

    Correct Logic:
    Email (A) --- Submits To (B) --- Approves To (C)
    A --- A submits personal reports to B --- A approves employee reports to C
    So, each column refers back to the email/A entry and not to the entry just before it.

    Example:
    Employee 1 Submits To Manager 1
    Employee 2 Submits To Manager 1
    Employee 3 Submits To Manager 2
    Employee 4 Submits To Manager 2
    Employee 5 Submits To Manager 3
    Manager 1 Submits To CEO and Approves To CEO
    Manager 2 Submits To CEO and Approves To CEO
    Manager 3 Submits To CEO and Approves To CEO
    CEO Submits To Accounting and Approves to Accounting
    Accounting Submits To Accounting and approves to no one (ends the approval chain)

    You can have dynamic middle approvers, as many levels as you need. But if the final approver for a specific employee is not the same as the other employees, you'll be better off with a separate policy for those cases.

    In your example, with Workflow Enforcement enabled, these folks would need their own separate policy to allow the approval flow you describe:

    • Employee A and B can share a policy together since their final approver is the same person.
    • Employee C, Employee D, Associate Director, and Head of Sales can share a policy together since their final approver is the same person.
    • Managing Director
    • Yourself

    Without Workflow Enforcement enabled, any report approver can forward a report to any other final approver they prefer. Also, any employee can submit their report to any first approver they prefer. In this case, you can enjoy one single policy for all users but the approval flow will need to be handled manually for each report. Each employee will need to know who they Submit To and each approver will need to know which final approver should get that employee's reports. Then, everyone manually enters email addresses into the To field when submitting or approving reports.

    I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have more questions.

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