How to set up an approval workflow for expense requests?

Mesh offers a robust approval workflow engine that enables customers to design a customized expense request approval process tailored to their organization’s specific requirements.

Follow the steps below to set up an approval workflow for submitted expenses. 

1. Log in to the Mesh platform with your Admin profile. 

2. Navigate to your Company Name and click on Company Settings.

3. Scroll to the Approval Workflows section and click the Approval settings button. 

4. Expand the 'Expenses' menu. 

Note: To enable the Separation of Duties (SoD) feature, click the 'Settings' link, select the 'Enforce separation of duties' checkbox, and then click the 'Save' button to apply your selection.

5. Click the Edit button.

6. Click the + icon to add steps or on one of the existing steps to change its properties.

6a. Select one of the following approval types: Mesh role (e.g., Admin/Pro, Approving Manager, or Travel Manager), an Employee (i.e., a specific user), or a 'Group' of users. 

Note: All members of a designated group will receive a notification, yet only one member needs to take action by either approving or declining the request. You can reuse previously created groups, which become accessible after you create and publish the workflow. Each group can accommodate up to 50 members, and you can create multiple groups as needed.

6b. Select the relevance of the step: 'Always' if the step is applicable in all cases, and 'Conditionally' if the step's execution depends on specific conditions, such as the amount is 'larger than $100', the department being equal to 'sales' or location being 'New York'.

Note: For each condition you can use the 'Is' or 'Is Not' logic. 

For example, if the 'Department' custom field 'Is Not' 'R&D' the 'Approving Manger' is required.

Note: The section in the bottom of this article details the various conditional options in addition to Custom Fields.

6c. After you complete the selections for an approval step, please click on Save to store this step. 

7. You may also click on a step, Delete it, and add other steps instead. 

7a. Click the + icon between steps to add a sequential step. 

7b. Click the + icon of a step to add a parallel step. 

Note: The 'parallel' option distributes the request to all parties involved in the step simultaneously. For instance, if three individuals are involved, each will receive the request and can approve it at their own pace, independent of others. Progression to the subsequent step within the workflow occurs only after all 'parallel' approvers have completed their tasks. If conditions are applied to the 'parallel' step, only the pertinent approvers are prompted to take action, effectively introducing branching within the process.

8. You can modify the step name to facilitate a clearer comprehension of the approval process for anyone reviewing the request. The updated name will reflect across all forms containing the list of approvers.

9. After defining all the steps to mimic your organization's approval process, Publish the approval workflow. Here is an example of such an approval flow.

As you can see in the following example, several conditions were used to establish an approval workflow for expenses. 

10. The published workflow will be used when users submit reimbursement requests. 

Conditions: 

In addition to the 'Amount' and 'Custom Fields' conditions, the Expenses approval workflow offers unique conditional options, which are outlined below. You may consider using the following options as criteria for triggering specific approval steps:

a. Flag Reason

b. Expense is Personal 

c. Receipt 

d. Expense type.

• Travel Management Company (TMC): Refers to agents or service providers that manage travel arrangements on behalf of your organization.
• AMEX: Denotes an integration provided by Mesh for American Express-related expense processing.
• External Card: Enables uploading expenses in bulk using a corporate card statement.
• Out-of-Pocket and Mileage Expenses: Submitting and managing Out-of-pocket and milages expenses.

e. Reimbursable

Disclaimer: The approval workflow editor is robust and flexible, allowing users with an Administrator profile to replicate their company's card/budget approval process. Mesh Payments does not provide recommendations for approval workflows. As a result, we cannot be held responsible for approval workflows created by customers. This includes card/budget approval workflows that may be considered 'non-logical' or ones where steps were intentionally or unintentionally omitted.