Expense approval workflows control who needs to review an expense before it is approved and synced to QuickBooks. Use workflows to route expenses by amount, job, vendor, cost code, account, budget condition, card holder, and other rules.
1. Understand Expense Statuses
The Expenses page includes three main tabs:
Draft: Expenses that still need review, coding, or submission.
For review: Expenses that have been sent into the review or approval process.
All: All expenses, including approved, synced, archived, and in-progress expenses.
Expenses move from Draft to For review when you click Send for approval.
Note: If you only see your own expenses, check your permissions. Some users are limited to expenses they created or are assigned to. Admins can update permissions if broader expense visibility is needed.
2. Open Approval Workflow Settings
To manage expense approval workflows:
Go to Automations.
Open the Approvals tab.
Review existing approval workflows and fallback workflows.
From this page, you can add, edit, copy, deactivate, or delete workflows.
3. Create an Expense Approval Workflow
To create a new workflow:
Click Add workflow.
Enter a Title.
Under Applies to, select Expenses.
4. Add Workflow Conditions
Conditions determine which expenses the workflow applies to.
Available expense workflow conditions can include:
Amount
Cost code
Job
Vendor
Vendor type
Account
Budget
Card holder
Card transaction
Class, if class tracking is enabled for your company
For example, you can create a workflow for expenses over a certain amount, expenses tied to specific jobs, or expenses from specific vendors.
5. Choose Approvers
In The following people should approve the transaction, choose the approval rule for the first step.
Approval options include:
Require all: Every selected approver must approve.
Require either: Any one selected approver can approve.
Auto-approve: Expenses matching the workflow are approved automatically.
Then select the users or roles who should approve the expense.
Note: Auto-approve can only be used as the first step and cannot be combined with additional approval steps.
6. Add Additional Approval Steps
Use Add step when expenses need multiple rounds of approval.
For example:
Step 1: Require either the Project Manager or Bookkeeper.
Step 2: Require all selected company admins.
Adaptive routes the expense through each step in order. An expense stays in For review until all required approval steps are complete.
7. Save the Workflow
Click Save when the workflow is ready.
Adaptive asks whether to apply the workflow to:
All existing drafts
Only new transactions
Choose All existing drafts if you want the workflow to evaluate expenses that are already in Draft. Choose Only new transactions if the workflow should apply only going forward.
8. Create a Fallback Workflow
A fallback workflow is the default approval path for expenses that do not match any other workflow.
To create one:
Go to Automations.
Open the Approvals tab.
Find the fallback workflow section.
Click Add fallback workflow.
Select the users or roles who should approve unmatched expenses.
Click Save.
Important: A fallback workflow helps prevent expenses from being approved without review when no specific workflow rule applies.
9. Send an Expense for Approval
To send one expense for approval:
Go to Expenses.
Open the Draft tab.
Open the expense.
Review the expense details and line items.
Click Send for approval.
If you are an approver and want to approve immediately, you may also see Send for approval & approve.
After submission, the expense moves to For review.
10. Approve or Reject an Expense
To approve an expense:
Go to Expenses.
Open the For review tab.
Use Requires my approval to filter to expenses waiting on you.
Open the expense.
Click Approve.
If more approvers are still required, Adaptive keeps the expense in For review and notifies you that other people still need to review it.
To reject an expense:
Open the expense from For review.
Click Reject.
Add a comment explaining what needs to be fixed.
Confirm the rejection.
Rejected expenses move back to Draft so they can be corrected and sent for approval again.
11. Bypass Approvals
Users with permission to bypass approval workflows may see Bypass approvals.
Use this only when an expense should be approved even though other approvers are still expected to review it.
To bypass approvals:
Open the expense from For review.
Open the actions menu.
Select Bypass approvals.
Confirm Bypass other approvals.
Adaptive records the bypass action in the expense activity.
12. Bulk Send, Approve, or Reject Expenses
You can manage multiple expenses from the expense table.
To bulk send expenses for approval:
Go to the Draft tab.
Select the expenses.
Click Actions.
Select Send for approval.
To bulk approve or reject expenses:
Go to the For review tab.
Filter for expenses that require your approval, if needed.
Select the expenses.
Click Actions.
Select Approve or Reject.
Bulk actions only apply to expenses where the selected action is allowed for your user and the expense's current status.
13. Troubleshoot Workflow Issues
If an expense is assigned to the wrong reviewer, check:
The workflow's Applies to value is set to Expenses.
The workflow conditions match the intended expenses.
The approver step uses the correct users or roles.
A fallback workflow is not routing unmatched expenses unexpectedly.
Multiple workflows are not overlapping in a way that changes the expected approval path.
The user has permission to view or approve the expense.
If the workflow should stop applying, edit it and turn it Inactive, or delete it if it is no longer needed.
If you have questions that aren’t answered in our Knowledge Base, please reach out to us at [email protected].