How do we set up secondary approval for large purchases?
In addition to purchases requiring budget holder approval, you can also specify that purchases over a set amount also require secondary approval.
If enabled, within the approvals screen, an additional secondary approval section will appear.
Once budget holder approval is complete (top section), purchases that require secondary approval will appear within the secondary approval section (bottom section).
Only users who have been set up as secondary approvers can see this section.
Note: finance users not set up with secondary approval permission can also see this section, but won't be able to secondary approve.
This help guide article contains details about how to set up secondary approval, as well as answering some frequently asked questions.
Setting up Secondary Approval
To enable secondary approval, within the system settings screen, in the approval section click the 'edit' button as shown below.
In the popup that appears, change the 'secondary approval' option to 'secondary approval required if more than'.
Enter the threshold amount over which purchases require secondary approval.
Top Tip: if you wish for all purchases to require secondary approval, then set the threshold amount as 0.00.
Finally, enter the users you wish to be secondary approvers.
Note: ExpensePlus prevents secondary approvers from secondary approving purchases where:
- they are the submitter
- they are set as being related to the submitter
- they are the primary approver of the purchase
Therefore, we'd highly recommend you set up 3-4 users as secondary approvers, to avoid purchases requiring secondary approval but having no eligible users to approve.
Note: Secondary approvers must be added as users before they can be permitted to be secondary approvers.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Can a person who approved a purchase also secondary approve the same purchase?
No, ExpensePlus prevents secondary approvers from secondary approving purchases where:
- they are the submitter
- they are set as being related to the submitter
- they are the primary approver of the purchase
For this reason, it is recommended that if you have secondary approval enabled, you set up 3-4 users as secondary approvers, so that you don't end up with purchases requiring secondary approval but no suitable users to provide secondary approval.
Why did secondary approval not get triggered?
If the purchase skipped primary approval for one of the reasons below and was auto-approved, secondary approval will not be triggered.
It is possible for a purchase to skip the primary approval stage for any one of the following reasons:
- you've disabled supplier payments from needing approval
- you've disabled specific categories from needing approval
- you've disabled low-value purchases needing approval
- you've set purchases to skip approval where the submitter is the approver and there is no backup approver
Note: If you have approvals required for salary payments, these salary payments including payments to HMRC and pension payments will not require secondary approval, even if they are above the threshold you have set.
Note: any direct debit purchases and bank/processor fees don't require secondary approval.
To find out more about these system settings, see this separate help guide article.
For more approval FAQs, please see this separate help guide article.