Why do purchases I submit need approval?
This article explains why purchases submitted in ExpensePlus need approval if your organisation uses approvals (which most organisations do).
Summary of the approval process
When a purchase is submitted:
- It will automatically go to the category approver of the expenditure category the purchase is submitted against
- Where the submitter is the category approver OR the submitter is set as a spouse/relation of the caategory approver, if a backup approver has been set, the purchase will automatically go to that person for approval instead (EXCEPT where the submitter is set as a spouse/relation of the backup category approver)
- Where the submitter is set as a spouse/relation of the backup category approver, no approver will be set, but the purchase will still require someone with permission to 'approve on behalf of others' within their user role to approve the purchase
- However, organisations can set that approval should be skipped in this case.
Budget and expenditure approval is a key part of a church or charity having good financial controls, and so whilst it is possible to change your charity's approval settings, so that not all purchases require approval, it's highly recommended you think carefully before doing so.
Your independent examiner or auditor may query purchases that have either been self-approved / auto-approved.
Changing approval settings
Finance team users can change an organisation's approval settings.
By default, approval is required for all purchases except for 'Direct Debits' and 'Bank/Payment Processor Fees' which never require approval within ExpensePlus.
This help guide article covers how you can customise the approval settings for your organisation.
Approvals FAQ answers further questions.
This help guide article gives a full list of auto-approval reasons and what each means.
Any changes to your approval settings will apply immediately and any purchases awaiting approval that no longer require approval as a result of the settings that have been updated will be auto-approved.
Whilst you can if you have permission to temporarily update your system settings to enable purchase to bypass approval, this is not typically recommended (and the reason for the purchase being auto-approved will be displayed within the purchase approvals report within ExpensePlus)
To help you better understand the Approvals module, please visit the module overview page here.