To approve an expense claim, open Expense claims, find the claim on the Submitted tab and click Approve. To send it back, click Reject and give a reason. Once you have paid the claimant back, open the approved claim and click Mark as paid, then enter the date and, if you like, a payment reference. SparkReceipt records the payment but doesn't move the money itself.
Supervisors, Admins and the Owner can approve, reject and mark as paid other people's claims. Admins and the Owner can also approve their own. See How do expense claims work in SparkReceipt? for the full roles table.
Find claims waiting for you
When someone submits a claim, everyone who can approve it gets a push notification and an email ("Expense claim to review"). In the web app, open Expense claims from the left sidebar and click the Submitted tab.
Open a claim to see its items, the receipts behind them, the claimant's notes, the History and the Pay to details the claimant gave.
Approve a claim
- From the claim. Click Approve. In Approve this claim?, click Approve.
- From the list. Click Approve in the claim's row.
The claimant gets a notification that the claim is approved. The claim is now locked: it can't be changed or deleted. An approved claim can be published to your accounting software. See How do I publish an expense claim to my accounting software?
Reject a claim
Click Reject. In Reject this claim, write the Reason: what needs to change before you can approve it. A reason is required. Click Reject claim.
The claimant gets a notification with your reason, sees it on the claim, and can reopen the claim to fix it and submit it again.
Mark a claim as paid
Pay the claimant back the way you normally do, such as a bank transfer or through payroll. Then open the approved claim and click Mark as paid. The dialog shows the claim, its total and the Pay to details. Fill in:
- Paid on: the day you paid the claimant back. It starts as today.
- Payment reference (optional): for example a bank transfer ID.
Click Mark as paid. The claimant gets a notification with the date and reference, and the claim moves to the Paid tab.
Marking a claim as paid doesn't create a payment in your accounting software. If you published the claim, its bill stays open there until you record the payment there.
When the date is in a closed period
If your books are closed for the date you pick, the dialog says "This date is in a closed period". Pick another date. Admins, the Owner and accountants can also choose Mark paid anyway. Other approvers see a note to ask an admin or your accountant to mark it paid.
Approve your own claim
If you are an Admin or the Owner, you can approve your own claim. After you submit it, the claim shows "You can approve your own claim. Approve it, then mark it as paid once the money is paid back." Click Approve, and once the business has paid you back, Mark as paid. These are separate steps, so the claim's history shows each one.
A Supervisor can't approve their own claim. An Admin or the Owner approves it instead.