ExpenseIn's ad hoc module allows you to configure approval flows at 3 different levels:
User Settings (this is assigned within the Ad Hoc Settings area)
Department
Project
The approval flow allocated to an expense is decided at the point of submission and will depend on your Ad Hoc User Settings, the user's assigned department, or the project that has been selected on the expense form.
How does ExpenseIn decide which approval flow to use?
If a project has been selected, the system will first check if an approval flow has been assigned to that project.
If not, the system then checks if an approval flow has been assigned to the department to which the expense has been allocated. The department is the user’s assigned department.
Finally, if the system does not find an approval flow then the approval flow assigned at the User Settings level is used. ExpenseIn will not “chain” approval flows together and looks for a single approval flow based on the defined approval flow order.
How do approval flows with multiple stages work?
ExpenseIn does not limit how many stages or levels you can create within an approval flow and you can use the available approval conditions to control when an expense needs to go to each level.
By default, the condition is Always, but you can trigger stages based on expense amount, policy exceptions, and whether or not the expense is reimbursable, reconcilable, or billable. The expense must pass through all required stages before it's approved.
When will an expense skip approval?
If there is no matching approval flow or no further stages have been found, the expenses will be automatically approved. If an expense does not meet the conditions for the approval stage it will skip that approval stage.
How can I ensure expenses are always approved?
When using project or department-level approval, we recommend that you also assign a User Settings level approval flow for your ad hoc users. The User Settings level approval flow will act as the default fallback approval flow and ensures that expenses will always require approval, even if the project and department approval flows have been skipped.