Based on the defined approval workflows at your company, you may be designated as an approver for request types and will need to approve requests submitted by your teammates.
As an approver, you will automatically receive a notification in your Payhawk Inbox when a request is reviewed or submitted if the review step has not been set as required. Any documents that have already been uploaded, such as draft contracts, quotes, or supplier emails, will also be visible within the request.
If you have requests awaiting your approval, the system will automatically send you a daily email reminder indicating the number of pending requests.
Specifics
You can delete and return requests to the submitter only if they haven't been approved yet.
You can return a request for review only if the review step has been included in your company's approval workflows for requests.
If you return or delete an expense, the submitter 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 is logged in the Activity section of the request. It shows as a comment when Comments is selected in the Show filter, and as a workflow entry when Workflow is selected.
Accessing requests and purchase orders for approval
You can access a request in your Payhawk Inbox by clicking on the link provided in the email notification you received.
Alternatively, you can access a request from your Inbox > Requests > Pending.
You can also approve, return, and delete requests directly from the Requests app in the Payhawk Web Portal.
Payhawk notification emails come from
no-reply@payhawk.com. Before you click on a link in an email, check the full email address of the sender, not only the sender name.If you don't see the request from the email under Inbox > Requests to me > Pending, don't click on any links in the email and don’t reply to it. Contact Payhawk Support through the chat.
Approving requests associated with budgets
If you are a Budget owner, you can view budget details in the request and, from there, navigate to both the budget and the request 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 requests
If a request 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 request.
Approving requests
To approve a request from your Payhawk Inbox in the Payhawk Mobile App:
Go to Inbox > Requests > Pending.
Select the desired purchase request.
Tap Approve.
To approve a request from your Payhawk Inbox in the Payhawk Web Portal:
Go to Inbox > Requests to me > Pending.
Select the desired expense.
Click on Approve.
Returning requests to the employee
To return a request to the requester from your Payhawk Inbox in the Payhawk 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 request back to the requester.
Under Note, enter the reason for your action and any details you expect the employee to provide before resubmitting the request.
Tap Return.
To return a request to the requester from your Payhawk Inbox in the Payhawk Web Portal:
Go to Inbox > Requests to me > Pending.
Select the desired 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 request back to the requester.
Under Note, enter the reason for your action and any details you expect the employee to provide before resubmitting the purchase.
Click on Return.
Rejecting requests
The Reject option will reject and remove the request if it hasn't been approved yet.
To reject a request from your Payhawk Inbox in the Payhawk Mobile App:
Go to Inbox > Requests > Pending.
Select the desired request and tap Decline.
In the dialog that opens:
Tap Reject.
Under Note, enter the reason for your action.
Select the checkbox to confirm that you understand the request will be deleted and that this action cannot be undone.
Tap Reject.
To reject a request from your Payhawk Inbox in the Payhawk Web Portal:
Go to Inbox > Requests to me > Pending.
Select the desired request and click on Decline.
In the dialog that opens:
Tap Reject.
Under Note, enter the reason for your action.
Select the checkbox to confirm that you understand the request will be deleted and that this action cannot be undone.
Click on Reject.
Returning requests for review
To return a request for review from the Payhawk Web Portal:
Go to Requests and select the desired request.
Click on its three-dot menu and select Return for review.
Useful resources