Expense Approval

How Expense Approval Works

Before we get into actual configuration options, let's do a quick overview of how expenses are configured in Projector and how approval works.

Expenses are grouped together on things called Expense Documents. Different types of expense documents fulfill different purposes and we won't get into them here. Typically you'll have multiple expenses on a single document. These expenses are all treated as individuals, despite the fact that they are all on the same document. That means you can have one expense approved and included on an invoice while another has been rejected for corrections.

Each expense must go through three separate approvals. They are

• Workflow Approval - initial approval of the expense. Once initially approved, it is eligible for the next two approval types, payment/reimbursement and include on invoice
• Payment/Reimbursement Approval - this expense can be paid or reimbursed
• Include on Invoice Approval - this expense can be included on an invoice and passed on to a client

The workflow approval stage is necessary before the next two approvals can take place. Those approvals can happen independent of one another. Take a look at the visualization below. See how after initial approval you can approve for either invoicing or payment?

Projector supports this model because in some business cases you may wish to invoice a client despite the fact that you have not issued final approval for payment/reimbursement. 

Configure Expense Approval

Now in terms of our three levels of approval, let's tackle the two easy ones first. Then we'll tackle the workflow approval scenario.

Payment/Reimbursement 

To approve an expense for payment/reimbursement, users need the cost center permission Administer Expense Document Payment Workflow. With that permission, you can approve to pay all expenses associated with your cost centers. How is an expense associated with a cost center? Through its expense document. The expense document an expense sits on has a cost center assigned to it. How that cost center gets assigned depends on the document type. See that help page for further details. 

You can optionally skip this step. A common choice when a single person does all approvals. See Automatically approve expense reports for payment and invoicing on the System Settings Editor Cost Tab. 

You cannot approve to pay an expense for which you are the payee. You cannot trick the system by trying to approve expenses using administrator permissions. You cannot create a proxy user for someone else and approve them. You cannot do it. 

Include on Invoice

To approve an expense for invoicing, users need the cost center permission Administer Expense Document Invoicing Workflow. With that permission, you can approve to invoice all expenses associated with your cost centers. How is an expense associated with a cost center? Through its expense document . The expense document an expense sits on has a cost center assigned to it. How that cost center gets assigned depends on the document type. See that help page for further details. 

You can optionally skip this step. A common choice when a single person does all approvals. See Automatically approve expense reports for payment and invoicing on the System Settings Editor Cost Tab. 

Unlike Payment and Workflow approval, you can approve your own expenses for invoicing.

Workflow

This is where things get complicated. Projector supports a number of workflow approval scenarios to accommodate different organizational needs. I'll outline them here and you can choose the one (or ones) that most accurately model your organization. As hinted in the previous sentence, you don't have to pick just one method. Some projects may track expenses one way, while another tracks them another way. You can even configure projects so that your clients do the approvals. 

The key to understanding approvals is that the project the expense sits on determines how it will be approved.

On every project info tab in Projector there is a dropdown called Expense Approvers. It provides the following approval options:

• The project's acting PM team
• Engagement Manager
• Project Manager
• Project Manager for team, engagement manager for PM
• Find Approver
• Resource/disbursing cost center-based approver(s)

Before we get started looking at each of these in turn, a note about workflow approving your own expenses. You cannot do it. You cannot trick the system by trying to approve expenses using administrator permissions. You cannot create a proxy user for someone else and approve them. You cannot do it. 

Acting PM Team

The PM team consists of the engagement manager, project manager, and anyone marked Can Act as PM. Fallback approval can be triggered if your "team" consists of only one person (one person is the EM, PM, and nobody Can Act as PM). 

Engagement Manager

Obviously just the engagement manager. Fallback approval is triggered when the EM submits their own expenses.

Project Manager

Obviously just the project manager. Fallback approval is triggered when the EM submits their own expenses.

Project Manager for Team, Engagement Manager for PM

The project manager approves all expenses except their own. The engagement manager approves anything submitted by the project manager. Fallback approval is triggered when the engagement manager submits expenses.

Find Approver

If you choose this option, you'll get a search dialog. From the dialog, pick the single user who should make all approvals. Fallback approval is triggered if the single users submits expenses.

Resource/Disbursing Cost Center-Based Approvers

The approvers consist of the following people:

• Users marked as the Direct Manager for Cost on the resource's profile
• Users with the cost center permission Approve Expenses

Client Approval

We don't get into this here, please see our help page Configure Client Based Time and Expense Approval.

Approve Expenses

This section teaches you how to actually go in and do your approvals.

Workflow Approval

As workflow approval must occur before you can get to the next two types of approvals, let's address this one first.

Payment/Reimbursement Approval

You can approve expenses for payment from Cost Management or pointing your browser at http://app.projectorpsa.com/Management//Expense/Costcards, You'll find the following search fields useful and will likely want to make a saved search that uses them.

• Limit to Cards Awaiting My Payment
• Payment Workflow Status

Invoice Approval

You can approve expenses for invoicing from Cost Management or pointing your browser at http://app.projectorpsa.com/Management//Expense/Costcards, You'll find the following search fields useful and will likely want to make a saved search that uses them.

• Limit to Foo
• Invoice Workflow Status

Once an expense is on an issued invoice it cannot be adjusted or changed. You'll need to void the invoice to make changes.