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Approvals and policy

Approvals and policy controls that mirror how you really work

Approval workflows reflect your organisation's actual structure: per person, per stage, per category. Detailed control that stays easy to administer.

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Approval Records

Assign each person a record with as many stages as you need, each to named approvers or a dynamic Line Manager stage.

Category overrides

Give a category its own Approval Record and it overrides the claimant's workflow for that line only. Blank means fall back to the default.

Policy where it bites

Spend limits by user, department, cost centre, category or organisation, with alerts as warnings or mandatory stops.

How routing works

Rules that are simple to explain and hard to get wrong

Approval Records are normally assigned to users. Each record can contain multiple stages, and each stage can be assigned to named approvers or to a Line Manager stage that dynamically uses the manager on the claimant's profile. Categories can carry their own Approval Record, which overrides the user's workflow for that expense line. Categories without one fall back to the user's record.

  • Multi-level and conditional approval by amount and policy
  • Line manager or multi-person approval at each stage
  • Centralised approval across linked organisations
  • Out-of-office delegation so nothing waits for a holiday
Approval stages

Jonny Dowell

Claim 145

£48.10

11 February 2025

  1. Stage 1

    Jonny D

    Approved
  2. SB

    Stage 2

    Sophie B

    Pending
  3. SS

    Finance

    Susannah S

    Pending
Out of office

Enable Out of Office

Delegate Expense Approval to (includes existing approvers only)

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Only During the Following Date Range: 17 Feb 2025 to 27 Feb 2025

Spend controls

Limits and alerts at the point of claim

Configure limits down to an individual, then let the platform enforce them. Alerts appear on the expense line as it is built, colour-coded for priority, as a warning or a hard stop. Approvers see the same alerts, so decisions are quick and consistent.

  • Limits by user, department, cost centre, category or organisation
  • Country-based rates and subsistence limits
  • Fixed and custom alert labels, in multiple languages
app.captureexpense.com
Draft expenses with policy alerts on each line: duplicate receipt, receipt mismatch, advance exceeded, over three months and weekend

Approving

Approve anywhere, with the context you need

Approvers get bundled notifications, in-app alerts and copilot messages, and can approve on mobile, on the web, or straight from Teams and WhatsApp. Receipts, alerts, history and Smart Audit reasons sit next to every line. Approval audit exports show timestamps for every stage so you can measure cycle times.

  • Approve, reject with a reason, send back or send a reminder
  • Approval insights highlight patterns and anomalies
  • Auditor role with read-only access to everything
Let Smart Audit handle the routine
Approving a claim on mobile with the approve and reject actions

Book a demo

See approvals and policy on your own process in 30 minutes

Bring a couple of real claims and your finance system. We will show you how each one flows from receipt to ledger.

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In detail

Everything in approvals and policy

  • Multi-level approvals

    For expenses, pre-approvals, documents and timesheets.

  • Line manager stage

    Dynamic routing from the claimant's profile.

  • Category workflows

    Per-category Approval Records that override the default.

  • Out of office

    Delegate approvals for a date range.

  • Company policies

    Distribute policy documents and capture declarations.

  • Approval audit

    Timestamped exports for cycle time and bottleneck analysis.

Trusted by finance teams across the UK and Ireland

  • National Education Union
  • Lagardère Travel Retail UK
  • Macfarlane Group
  • Monotype
  • Soil Association
  • FRP Advisory
  • SMMT
  • Nichols plc
  • Cromwell
  • Usborne Publishing
  • Innis & Gunn
  • Ipswich Town Football Club
  • Pizza Pilgrims
  • Pasta Evangelists
  • Wain Homes
  • Cifas
  • World Nuclear Association
  • Screen Ireland
  • All Souls College, Oxford
  • SSAB
  • Citizens Advice
  • Carnival
  • Leighton
  • Edinburgh Science
  • London Stone
  • Autex Acoustics
  • B&H Worldwide
  • WBPS

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Can't find what you're looking for? Talk to us and we'll answer within a working day.

What happens when a manager changes?
Update the line manager on the person's profile, or import the change from your HR or payroll system, and every Line Manager stage follows automatically. No workflows to rebuild.
Can a category route to a different approver?
Yes. Assign an Approval Record to the category, for example entertainment to a director, and that record overrides the claimant's normal workflow for that line only. Leave it blank and the line uses the claimant's record.
How do approvers keep up without being spammed?
Notifications are bundled hourly, daily, weekly or monthly, and each person controls their own cadence. Copilot messages in Teams or WhatsApp include a link straight to the claim.

Works with

Related parts of the platform

Smart Audit

AI checks every claim against policy, VAT rules and history, then approves, rejects or escalates with the reasons attached.

Learn more

Multi-entity

One platform for groups with several legal entities, currencies, charts of accounts and approval chains.

Learn more

Expense management

Receipts, claims, reimbursements and mileage without the admin, on web, mobile or chat.

Learn more

From the blog

Further reading

Model your approval structure in the demo

Tell us how approvals work today and we will show you the same structure, running, in 30 minutes.

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