For: Account Owners, Team approvers, and Cost Center approvers.
Before you start
You need the Account Owner, Team approver, or Cost Center approver role to approve or reject expense claims.
Approvers cannot self-approve their own requests unless your company's spending policy allows it.
Once a claim reaches the Expense Claims > Review tab, it moves on to Controllers and Account Owners for validation and reimbursement.
👥 Only Account Owners, Team approvers, and Cost Center approvers can approve or reject expense claim requests.
Approve or reject an expense claim
Go to Expenditures > Requests > To approve.
Select the expense claim you want to review.
Review the information provided by the requester.
Amend the description or any other field if needed.
Click Edit amount to reimburse if you want to change the reimbursement amount.
Click Approve Request to accept the claim, or click Deny Request to reject it.
Enter a reason when denying a request. This field is mandatory.
Approvers also receive a weekly email listing pending expense claims. You can approve or reject claims directly from the Spendesk mobile app.
Ask a requester to edit a claim
If part of a claim (for example, the receipt or an amount) is incorrect, you can invite the requester to edit it instead of rejecting it outright. This saves time because the requester doesn't need to fill in all the fields again.
Go to the Requests page.
Select the expense claim with the incorrect information.
Invite the requester to edit and resubmit the claim.
What happens after approval?
Once you approve a claim, it moves to the Expense Claims > Review tab. Controllers and Account Owners review and reimburse it there. After reimbursement, the claim moves to the Prepare and All payments tabs at the same time.
⚠️ Once a Controller validates a claim in the Review tab, it cannot be sent back, edited, or reverted, even before reimbursement. Double-check the amount and details before approving.
Troubleshooting
Symptom: The expense claim is no longer visible in the To approve tab.
Cause: Another approver in the approval flow, or the Account Owner, already accepted or rejected the request.
Resolution: Check the Expense Claims > Review tab (if approved) or ask the requester about the claim's current status.
Symptom: You approved the wrong claim in a batch and want to undo it.
Cause: Spendesk doesn't currently support sending an approved or reviewed expense claim back to a previous step.
Resolution: Contact the requester to resubmit a corrected claim, or contact Spendesk support to discuss your options before the claim is reimbursed.