For: Requesters
At Spendesk, our mission is to remove the friction of spending at work and give you autonomy to pay for what you need.
But with great power comes great responsibility: you need to provide receipts and explanations for every purchase you make. That's a legal obligation.
Our feature Play By the Rules helps you keep track of which receipts needs to be attached and adopt good habits by providing the receipts regularly. But if you don't follow the rules, then you might lose access to your autonomous method of payments such as virtual cards and your physical cards. Don't worry, you can always unblock yourself by providing the receipts and required information.
Additionally, subscription cards tied to ongoing services are exempt from this blocking policy under "Play By the Rules," ensuring uninterrupted essential services.
Understand your rules
As a Requester, head to the right of the Home page / Requestor Dashboard and look for Your rules -> Learn more.
Read carefully how many receipts late you are allowed to have before being blocked.
For your information, an invalid receipt may count in the "rules" as an overdue receipt, but a receipt marked as "cannot be provided" will not count as an overdue receipt.
Managing Receipts During Temporary Unavailability
If you anticipate being unavailable to submit receipts:
Delegate Receipt Submission: Assign the task to someone trusted.
Use "Cannot Be Provided" Option: Declare missing receipts and sign the required acknowledgment.
Adjust Deadlines for Recurring Payments: Activate options for deferred submissions aligned with supplier practices.
The quickest way to unblock yourself when you are in breach of the rules is to simply upload the receipts / required information.
In cases where you believe the status to be incorrect, contact Spendesk at support@spendesk.com.
Understand your dashboard
Your dashboard displays the status of your outstanding receipts and spend information. Depending on receipts' status (missing, provided or late), it will appear differently.
You will not be able to use physical cards nor virtual cards. However, active/existing subscriptions will still be running to avoid issues with main suppliers. Subscription cards associated with recurring payments are specifically exempt from blocking policies under "Play By the Rules," protecting essential services from interruptions even when receipt thresholds are exceeded.
You can unblock yourself by uploading late receipts and required information.
Unblock your account
If you are in breach of the rules and find yourself blocked, to unblock yourself you can:
Provide receipts and all required info - head to the payment(s) and upload the required information as soon as possible
Declare your receipt as 'cannot be provided' - you can do this on the payment and will need to sign a legally binding lost receipt declaration
Delegate submission to a trusted individual if you are unavailable
Change in your control rules
If your rules are changed by your Finance team, you will receive an email just like this one:
Important: If you had missing info prior to the change or rules, new rules now apply only on the receipts and info of the payments made after the change.
Let's say you're allowed 4 payments with missing receipt in the prior rules, and have 3 receipts late. If your Finance team changes the rules to a limit of 3 payments late, your account will not be suspended. However, if you end up with 7 payments without a receipt, you will: simply upload a receipt to unblock yourself!
Troubleshooting
Symptom: Your card is still blocked even after you uploaded all the receipts and information you could see were missing.
Cause: Another payment may still be flagged as late or missing info elsewhere on your dashboard, or the unblock hasn't refreshed yet.
Resolution: Check the Payments tab for any other flagged payment, complete it, and wait a few minutes for your access to refresh.
Symptom: You marked a receipt as "Cannot be provided," but your card is still blocked.
Cause: The declaration only clears the block once it's fully submitted and signed, an incomplete declaration still counts as a late receipt.
Resolution: Reopen the payment and confirm you completed and signed the "Cannot be provided" declaration.
Symptom: Your Administrator lowered the receipt deadline or late-payment limit, but you weren't blocked immediately.
Cause: New rules only apply to payments made after the change. Your existing payments keep their original deadline.
Resolution: No action needed. You'll only be blocked if a new payment, made after the rule change, goes past the new limit.
FAQ
Does a "Cannot be provided" declaration count as a late receipt?
No. Only an invalid or missing receipt counts as late; a completed "Cannot be provided" declaration doesn't.
Are subscription cards affected by these rules?
No. Subscription cards are exempt so your recurring tools and services aren't disrupted.
How do I know if I'm at risk of being blocked?
You'll receive alerts by email, mobile notification, and/or Slack before you reach your limit, with instructions on how to stay unblocked.