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Approval workflow

In short​

When an employee submits an expense, TEM determines who must approve it by combining two things: the Approval Policy assigned to the expense category in the employee's Employee Profile, and the approver assigned on the Employee Card. Policies add levels, conditions, and overrides on top of the default single-approver routing.

Why it matters​

Without understanding how policies and profiles interact, you can misconfigure the workflow so expenses go to the wrong person, skip required approvers, or get auto-approved when they shouldn't be. Every expense follows exactly the rules set at submission time; retroactive changes to policies do not affect in-flight expenses.

How it works​

Default routing (no policy)​

If no Approval Policy is assigned, the expense goes to the Employee's Approver set on the Employee Card. That approver approves or rejects it. Done.

With an Approval Policy​

An Approval Policy defines up to three levels:

WhatHow configured
Base approversEmployee's Approver and/or Project Approver, each placed at Level 1, 2, or 3
Fixed approverA named person always added at a specific level
Amount-based approverAn extra approver added only when the expense exceeds a threshold
Auto-approveBypass all approval when the amount is below a threshold

All approvers at the same level must approve before the expense moves to the next level.

Example​

Policy MANAGEMENT:

  • Level 1: Employee's Approver
  • Level 2: Fixed Approver = CFO (always)
  • Auto-approve if amount < £50

An employee submits a £200 entertainment expense:

  1. Goes to the employee's assigned approver (Level 1)
  2. After Level 1 approves, goes to the CFO (Level 2)
  3. Both levels approved → expense is ready to post

An employee submits a £30 sundry expense:

  • Auto-approved immediately, no manual review

How policies attach to employees​

Policies do not attach to employees directly. They attach to Employee Profiles at the category level:

Employee → Employee Profile → Category Setting → Approval Policy

So MANAGEMENT profile might apply the MANAGEMENT policy only for ENTERTAINMENT expenses, while STANDARD policy applies to all other categories for the same employee.

Approval from the portal or mobile app​

Approvers see pending items in the Approval section of the web portal or under Account → Approval in the mobile app. They can open each item to review receipt and details, or select multiple items and bulk-approve.