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Support for Multi-Level Approval Workflows

If your organization is like most, certain large purchases may require multiple approvals. You may have policies to dictate which departments, groups, or individuals need to sign off, depending on the amount, cardholder group, or tag value of the transaction, reimbursement, or funding request. Configuring Approval Policies through the Dashboard will allow you to set the conditions for items that need approval in your organization. Approval policies can be set for transactions, funding, reimbursement, spend rule, and card unblocking requests.  Watch a step-by-step demonstration here! 

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How to Configure Approval Policies

Approval Policies consist of a set of custom rules based on amount thresholds, cardholder groups or tags, and the approver(s) required to approve workflow items (transactions, fund requests, card unblocking requests, or reimbursements). 

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Create Approval Groups

The first step in configuring an Approval Policy is to create groups of approvers based on the hierarchy in your organization (job level, role, department, tags, etc). Approval groups should consist of one or more admins with permission to approve transactions, reimbursement, or funding requests.
1
To create a group, navigate to the ‘Team Members’ page from the sidebar menu.
2
Select the ‘Group’ tab and click ‘Create New Group.’
3
Choose ‘User’ for the group type.
4
Enter a name for the group.
5
Select one or more users that you would like to add to the group.
6
Click ‘Create’ to save and create the Approval Policy.
  • Creating a policy will not affect your approval workflows until you enable it in the next step.
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To enable an Approval Policy, toggle the ‘Status’ to ‘Active’ from the ‘Approval Policies’ screen.
  • Your Approval Policy will now apply to all future items specified in the policy’s workflow type.

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Create Approval Policies

Now that you’ve added at least one group of approvers, the next step is to create an Approval Policy that you can apply to your approval workflows.
1
Navigate to ‘Business Settings’ from the sidebar menu.
2
Select the Approval Policies tab.
3
Click ‘Create New Policy.’
4
Select the type of policy that you would like to create from the drop-down.
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Enter a name for the Approval Policy.
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Select the workflow type(s) that you would like this policy to apply to. There are four types of policy: threshold-based, tag-based, group-based, and advanced approval policies. You can apply a policy to transactions, funding requests, etc.
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Enable the auto-approval toggle if you want items below the specified threshold to be automatically approved.
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Enable the ‘Set up approvals in sequence’ toggle if you want the approval route to be built in sequence.
Note:Email notifications are dispatched to the relevant approver at each stage, keeping your team informed and engaged throughout the workflow.
9
Click ‘Create’ to save and create the Approval Policy.
  • Creating a policy will not make any changes to your approval workflows until you enable it in the next step.
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To enable an Approval Policy, toggle the ‘Status’ to ‘Active’ from the ‘Approval Policies’ screen.
  • Your Approval Policy will now apply to all future items specified in the policy’s workflow type.
Threshold-based: set specific approvers based on the threshold. 
  • Create a rule by entering the first threshold amount that will require approval from a certain admin group.
  • For the threshold-based policy, you can configure “Auto-approve all items with an amount lower than the first rule” so that all items (depending on the workflow types you selected in the previous step) below the first threshold amount will be auto-approved. If the check box is unchecked, all items will require one approval from any admin with the needed permissions.
  • Select user group(s) that will be required to approve for this threshold.
  • All rules are independent of each other until there is a sequential approval set up.
  • You can select multiple approval groups for one threshold.
  • There is no sequence in approvals set up by default.
  • To enable sequential approval, check the ‘Set up approvals in sequence’ toggle on the policy configuration page.
  • To delete an approver group from a rule, click the red ‘X’ next to the group.
In the example below, this rule means that all items greater than or equal to $20 will require approval from the user group ‘Managers’ and ‘Super Approvers’.All items less than $20 will require approval from any admin with the necessary permissions. 
image.png
  • In the example below, this rule means that all items greater than or equal to $30 will require approval from the user group ‘Managers.’ All items less than $30 will be auto-approved.
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In the example below, where the ‘Set up approvals in sequence’ toggle is selected, those rules mean that the approval route will be built in the following sequence:
1. Managers
2. Accounting
3. Controlling
4. CFO (only for items that are greater than $5000)
Notifications will be sent accordingly 
Group-based policy: set specific approvers based on the cardholder group. 
Note:You are required to have the CH Groups feature enabled to access the Group-based approval policy on your dashboard.
  • Create cardholder groups Learn more
  • Create a rule by selecting the cardholder group that will require approval from a certain user group(s).
  • Select user group(s) that will be required to approve items from the selected cardholder group.
  • All rules are independent of each other.
  • You can select multiple approval groups for one cardholder group.
  • There is no sequence in approvals set up by default.
  • To enable sequential approval, check the ‘Set up approvals in sequence’ toggle on the policy configuration page.
  • To delete an approver group from a rule, click the red ‘X’ next to the group.
In the example below, these rules mean that all items from the ‘Operational’ cardholder group will require approval from the user group ‘Managers’ and ‘Head of Operational department’. All items from the ‘New Cardholder Group’ will require approval from the user group ‘Super approvers’. 
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Tag-based policy: set specific approvers based on tags.
Note:This type of policy is enabled only for workflows with items that have tags enabled.
  • Create tags with Tag Manager. Learn more
  • Create a rule by selecting the tag name and tag value that will require approval from a certain admin group(s).
  • Select user group(s) that will be required to approve items associated with selected tag values.
  • All rules are independent of each other until you set up the sequential approval.
  • You can select multiple approval groups for one tag.
  • There is no sequence in approvals set up by default.
  • To enable sequential approval, check the ‘Set up approvals in sequence’ toggle on the policy configuration page.
  • To delete an approver group from a rule, click the red ‘X’ next to the group.
In the example below, these rules mean that items associated with the ‘Finance’ tag value will require approval from the admin group ‘Head of Finance’ and ‘Head of Operational Department’. All items with the ‘Engineering’ tag value will require approval from the admin group ‘Head of Engineering’. If there is a transaction with split tags that has both ‘Finance’ and ‘Engineering’ tag values, it will require approvals from the  ‘Head of Finance’,  ‘Head of Operational Department’, and  ‘Head of Engineering’​​​​​​.
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Advanced approval policy:  set specific approvers based on threshold, tags, and groups.
Note:This type of policy is enabled only for workflows with more than one configurable approval policy type.
You are required to have both the CH Groups and Tags features enabled to access the Advanced approval policy on your dashboard.
  • You can combine multiple types of approval rules (tag, threshold, or group-based) within the same approval policy.
  • The ‘Auto-approval’ checkbox is available based on a specified threshold. For example, if you create an auto-approval rule for the ‘transactions’ workflow, all transactions below the specified amount will be automatically approved, regardless of other tag, group, or threshold rules.
  • To enable other types of approval rules, turn on the toggles against those rules.
  • To disable some types of approval rules, turn off the toggles against those rules.
  • All rules are independent of each other.
  • You can select multiple approval groups for one tag/group or threshold.
  • There is no sequence in approvals set up by default.
  • To enable sequential approval, check the ‘Set up approvals in sequence’ toggle on the policy configuration page.
  • To delete an approver group/ tag/ tag value from a rule, click the ‘X’  icon next to the group.
  • To delete an approval rule, click the red ‘X’ next to the rule.
  • Tag-based approval rule is available for transactions and reimbursement request workflows.
  • The items will require approval from all approvers covered by policy rules (tag, group, or threshold-based), and you can`t skip approvals.
In the example below, these rules mean that:
  • Items with an amount lower than $50, will be automatically approved regardless of the other rules.
  • Items with an amount over $50 and up to $5,000:
    • come from the ‘Operational’ cardholder group, will require approval from the ‘Head of Operational’ group.
    • tagged with the ‘expense account’ tag will require approval from the ‘Finance’ user group.
    • come from the ‘Operational’ cardholder group that are also tagged with the ‘expense account’ tag will require approval from the ‘Head of Operational’ and ‘Finance’ groups
  • Items with an amount over $5,000 will require approval from the ‘Head of Finance’ user group

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FAQ

  • Yes, you can add admins to multiple groups.
  • Yes – please select the “Group-based approval” policy.
  • There is no limit. You can add as many rules as needed to your spend policy.
  • Notification preferences need to be enabled under ‘My Profile.’ When an item is ready for review and, per an Approval Policy, certain approval groups are required to approve, all admins with approval permissions in these groups will be notified via email.
  • Yes, there is a toggle on the approval policy creation/updating page to set up sequential approval.
  • Email and push notifications will be dispatched to the relevant approver at each stage.
  • Yes, open the policy details page and enable the sequential approval toggle. After you update the policy, the change will apply to all future items.
  • Yes, transactions and funding requests can be approved on mobile by an admin with appropriate permissions.
  • Yes, all levels of approvers will need to approve the item in order for it to obtain ‘Approved’ status. However, there is no sequence in approvals until you enable the sequential approval toggle.
  • Approver history will be visible by clicking into Transaction details or Funding Request details.
  • Transaction statuses
    • Blank – transaction is missing a receipt or required tags
    • ‘Not Reviewed’ – transaction is ready for review and has not yet been approved by one or more of the required groups
    • ‘Awaiting Approval’ – transaction has been approved by one (or more) approvers but is still pending additional approval from another group
    • ‘Approved’ – transaction has been approved by all required groups
    • ‘Rejected’ – transaction has been rejected by an admin
  • Funding Request statuses
    • ‘Rejected’ – funding request has been denied
    • ‘Cancelled’ – cardholder has cancelled their funding request
    • ‘Awaiting Approval’ – funding request has been approved by one (or more) approvers but is still pending additional approval from another group
    • ‘Approved’ – funding request has been approved by all required groups
  • No, the newly created policy will only apply to transactions/requests that have a receipt uploaded and enter ‘Not Reviewed’ status going forward.
Note:If you disable an approval policy when you still have pending approvals, the approvals will not be canceled or rejected – you will still see the required approvers on the Transaction/Funding Request details.
  • You can create more than one approval policy, but only one policy can be enabled at a time for each workflow type (Transactions, Funding Requests).
Last modified on April 23, 2026