Step 06 - Approval policies
Purpose
Approval Policies define custom approval workflows beyond the default (expense goes to the employee's assigned approver). Use them when you need multiple approval levels, a fixed reviewer for certain categories, an amount threshold that triggers an extra approver, or auto-approval below a threshold.
→ Concept: Approval workflow
Before you start
- Step 02 complete
- Approver employees must exist in Business Central (or be created alongside this step)
Steps
At minimum, TEM works without any custom Approval Policies - expenses route to the employee's assigned approver automatically. Create policies only where the default routing is insufficient.
- From Truvio Expense Management - Overview, select Approval Policies
- Select New
For each policy:
- Code and Description - identifier and plain-language label
Base Approvers - controls the primary routing:
- Employee's Approver - set to Level 1 to route to the approver on the Employee Card (the most common setting)
- Project Approver - routes to the approver on the Business Central project if an expense is linked to a project; assign to a level to activate
Always Add a Fixed Approver - adds a specific person to every approval at the selected level (e.g. an expense controller who must always see submissions)
Amount-Based Approval - adds an extra approver when an expense exceeds a threshold:
- Set Amount Greater Than and choose the additional approver and at which level they appear
Automatic Approval (Auto-Approve Below Amount) - bypasses the approval workflow entirely when an expense is below the threshold. Use for low-risk, low-value categories.
After creating policies, they must be assigned to an Employee Profile (step 07) to take effect.
Decisions that matter here
Level ordering - if Employee's Approver and Project Approver are both at Level 1, both must approve before the expense moves on. Put them on different levels if you want sequential approval.
Auto-approve threshold - auto-approval removes an approval step entirely. Only use this for categories where finance is comfortable posting without human review (e.g. small sundry items under a defined limit).
One policy or many? - start with the minimum needed. A single policy covering 90% of employees is easier to maintain than many similar policies with slight differences. See Approval policy design.
Validate
Create a test expense that triggers each policy rule (e.g. submit one over the amount threshold and confirm it routes to the extra approver).