Based on the defined approval workflows at your company, you may be designated as an approver for purchases submitted by your teammates.
As an approver, you will automatically receive a notification in your Payhawk Inbox when a purchase is reviewed. Any documents that have already been uploaded, such as draft contracts, quotes, or supplier emails, will also be visible within the request.
Specifics
You can delete and return purchases to the employee (requester) only if they haven't been approved yet.
You can return a purchase for review only if the review step has been included in your company's approval workflows for purchases.
If you return or delete an expense, the requester will receive a push notification on their phone and an email.
They can also view the reason for the action in the notification.
The reason for your action will be logged as a comment under Activity > Comments and recorded under Activity > Workflow.
Accessing purchase requests and purchases for approval
You can access a purchase request in your Payhawk Inbox by clicking the link provided in the email notification you received.
Alternatively, you can access a purchase request from your Inbox > Requests > Pending.
You can also approve, return, and delete purchases directly from the Purchases app in the Payhawk web portal.
Approving purchases associated with budgets
If you are a Budget owner, you can view budget details in the purchase request and, from there, navigate to both the budget and the purchase for more information.
If you risk going over the budget or have already done so, the system will display a warning for you to note.
Viewing budgeted amounts from purchases
If a purchase is linked to a budget, Budget owners and authorized users can view a budget overview and navigate to the budget for more details from the Budget tab of the purchase.
Approving purchase requests
To approve a purchase request from your Payhawk Inbox in the mobile app:
Go to Inbox > Requests > Pending.
Select the desired purchase request.
Tap Approve.
To approve a purchase request from your Payhawk Inbox in the web portal:
Go to Inbox > Requests > Pending.
Select the desired expense.
Click on Approve.
Returning purchase requests to the employee
To return a purchase request to the requester from your Payhawk Inbox in the mobile app:
Go to Inbox > Requests > Pending.
Select the desired purchase request and tap Decline.
On the screen that opens:
Select Return to employee.
If the Review step is not included in your company's workflows, only the Return to employee option will be available, allowing you to send the purchase back to the requester.
Under Note, enter the reason for your action and any details you expect the employee to provide before re-submitting the purchase.
Tap Return.
To return a purchase request to the requester from your Payhawk Inbox in the web portal:
Go to Inbox > Requests > Pending.
Select the desired purchase request and click on Decline.
On the screen that opens:
Select Return to employee.
If the Review step is not included in your company's workflows, only the Return to employee option will be available, allowing you to send the purchase back to the requester.
Under Note, enter the reason for your action and any details you expect the employee to provide before re-submitting the purchase.
Click on Return.
Rejecting purchase requests and deleting purchases
The Reject and delete option will reject the purchase request and remove the purchase if it hasn't been approved yet.
To reject a purchase request and delete a purchase from your Payhawk Inbox in the mobile app:
Go to Inbox > Requests > Pending.
Select the desired purchase request and tap Decline.
In the dialog that opens:
Tap Reject and delete.
Under Note, enter the reason for your action.
Tap Reject.
To reject a purchase request and delete a purchase from your Payhawk Inbox in the web portal:
Go to Inbox > Requests > Pending.
Select the desired purchase request and click on Decline.
In the dialog that opens:
Tap Reject and delete.
Under Note, enter the reason for your action.
Click on Reject and delete.
Returning purchases for review
To return a purchase for review from the Payhawk web portal:
Go to Purchases and select the desired purchase.
Click on its three-dot menu and select Return for review.
