Review and approve expense reports

[This article is prerelease documentation and is subject to change.]

When the approval workflow is enabled, submitted expense reports require approval before they can be posted. Managers review the business purpose and policy compliance. When VAT reclaim is enabled, accountants also review the VAT calculation and make the final reclaim decision. This article explains both reviews in Business Central.

Important

• This is a production-ready preview feature.
• Production-ready previews are subject to supplemental terms of use.

View reports awaiting approval

1. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Manager Expense Reports, and then choose the related link.

The list shows expense reports that are pending your review. If the approval workflow limits visibility, you see only reports assigned to you for approval.

Review an expense report

1. On the Manager Expense Reports page, select a report and open it.
2. Review the expense lines in the report subpage. Each line shows the expense category, date, amount, and description.
3. Review the Rule Violations FactBox on the right side for any policy violations.
4. Review the Expense Report Statistics FactBox for totals and reimbursable amounts.
5. Use the Expense FactBox to access attached receipts.

Review VAT reclaim

When VAT reclaim is enabled, an accountant must approve or reject every VAT reclaim suggestion before posting. Report approval doesn't replace this tax review.

1. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Accountant Expense Reports, and then choose the related link.
2. Find a report where Has VAT Specification is turned on.
3. Select the report, and then choose VAT Specification.
4. Compare the VAT specification lines with the receipt. Review the expense category and subcategory, VAT posting groups, VAT percentage, VAT base, VAT amount, reclaim percentage, reclaim reason, source, and confidence.
5. Correct the VAT details or reclaim percentage when needed.
6. For each VAT specification line, choose Approve Reclaim or Reject Reclaim. To approve all pending VAT rows for the selected expense report line, choose Approve All Reclaims.

An approved reclaim keeps the current reclaim percentage. A rejected reclaim sets the reclaim percentage and reclaim amount to zero. If the reclaim percentage changes, its status returns to Pending and requires another decision.

Important

Business Central blocks posting while any VAT specification line has the Pending reclaim status.

Approve an expense report

1. On the Manager Expense Report card, choose the Approve action.

The report status changes to Approved. The report is now ready to be posted.

Reject an expense report

If the report doesn't meet requirements, you can reject it and send it back to the submitter with a comment.

1. On the Manager Expense Report card, choose the Reject action.
2. Enter a comment explaining why the report is being rejected.

The report status changes to Rejected. The submitter can view your comment in the Approver Comment section on their expense report, make corrections, and resubmit.

Reopen an approved or rejected report

If you need to reconsider a decision, you can reopen a report.

1. On the Manager Expense Report card, choose Reopen Approved.

The report returns to a status where it can be processed again.

Next steps

Post expense reports

Related information

Create and submit expense reports
Set up expense management
Manage employee expenses

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