Receipt approval workflows control who needs to review a receipt before it is approved and synced to QuickBooks. Use workflows to route receipts by amount, job, vendor, cost code, account, budget condition, card holder, and other rules.
1. Understand Receipt Approval Statuses
The Receipts page includes three main tabs:
Draft: Receipts that still need review, coding, or submission.
For review: Receipts that have been sent into the review or approval process.
All: All receipts, including approved, synced, archived, and in-progress receipts.
When receipt approvals are enabled, receipts can move from Draft to For review by clicking Send for approval.
Note: If you only see your own receipts, check your permissions. Some users are limited to receipts they created or are assigned to. Admins can update permissions if broader receipt visibility is needed.
2. Open Approval Workflow Settings
To manage receipt 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 a Receipt Approval Workflow
To create a new workflow:
Click Add workflow.
Enter a Title.
Under Applies to, select Expenses.
Important: In workflow settings, receipt workflows are labeled Expenses. Use Expenses when you want the workflow to apply to receipts.
4. Add Workflow Conditions
Conditions determine which receipts the workflow applies to.
Available receipt 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 receipts over a certain amount, receipts tied to specific jobs, or receipts from specific vendors.
5. Choose Approvers
In the section labeled 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: Receipts matching the workflow are approved automatically.
Then select the users or roles who should approve the receipt.
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 receipts 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 receipt through each step in order. A receipt 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 receipts 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 receipts 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 receipts.
Click Save.
Important: A fallback workflow helps prevent receipts from being approved without review when no specific workflow rule applies.
9. Send a Receipt for Approval
To send one receipt for approval:
Go to Receipts.
Open the Draft tab.
Open the receipt.
Review the receipt 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 receipt moves to For review.
10. Approve or Reject a Receipt
To approve a receipt:
Go to Receipts.
Open the For review tab.
Use Requires my approval to filter to receipts waiting on you.
Open the receipt.
Click Approve.
If more approvers are still required, Adaptive keeps the receipt in For review and notifies you that other people still need to review it.
To reject a receipt:
Open the receipt from For review.
Click Reject.
Add a comment explaining what needs to be fixed.
Confirm the rejection.
Rejected receipts 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 a receipt should be approved even though other approvers are still expected to review it.
To bypass approvals:
Open the receipt from For review.
Open the actions menu.
Select Bypass approvals.
Confirm Bypass other approvals.
Adaptive records the bypass action in the receipt activity.
12. Bulk Send, Approve, or Reject Receipts
You can manage multiple receipts from the receipt table.
To bulk send receipts for approval:
Go to the Draft tab.
Select the receipts.
Click Actions.
Select Send for approval.
To bulk approve or reject receipts:
Go to the For review tab.
Filter for receipts that require your approval, if needed.
Select the receipts.
Click Actions.
Select Approve or Reject.
Bulk actions only apply to receipts where the selected action is allowed for your user and the receipt's current status.
13. Troubleshoot Workflow Issues
If a receipt is assigned to the wrong reviewer, check:
The workflow's Applies to value is set to Expenses.
The workflow conditions match the intended receipts.
The approver step uses the correct users or roles.
A fallback workflow is not routing unmatched receipts unexpectedly.
Multiple workflows are not overlapping in a way that changes the expected approval path.
The user has permission to view or approve the receipt.
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].