Delegating Expense Approvals to Multiple People

[ahuynh23]

Hello Community,

I have a situation that need your clarification regarding Expense Delegation.

• The approval workflow is that only the line manager is required to approve expense reports
• Line Manager A is a Head of Dept & has 20 people under his direct report (flat hierarchy)
• However, Line Manager A has 4 'sub-heads' and 16 'normal' team members

Question 1) Is it possible for Delegator (A) to Delegate to all 4 of his 'sub-heads' so that 1 of the 4 'sub-heads' can approve for the 16 'normal' team members?

Question 2) If yes to above, does it mean if any of the 16 'normal' team members submits then ANY of the 4 'sub-heads' will be able to see the expense report and any of the 4 can also approve it?

Question 3) If any of the 16 'normal' team members submits - the Line Manager A (Head) will still receive email notifications & can approve if he wants?

Question 4) If any of the 4 'sub-heads' submits their own expense reports, then (1) will the other 3 be able to approve also or only the Line Manager A (Head) can approve? (I assume self-approval is never allowed in any circumstances

Many thanks in advance!

[KevinD]

@ahuynh23 see my responses in red below.

Question 1) Is it possible for Delegator (A) to Delegate to all 4 of his 'sub-heads' so that 1 of the 4 'sub-heads' can approve for the 16 'normal' team members? Yes, Line Manager A can add the four sub-heads as approving delegates. However, the assumptions are that the 16 normal team members, when they submit their reports, have them go to Line Manager A and the four sub-heads have been given the Expense Approver permission.

Question 2) If yes to above, does it mean if any of the 16 'normal' team members submits then ANY of the 4 'sub-heads' will be able to see the expense report and any of the 4 can also approve it? That is correct, but refer to second assumption I mentioned in my answer to your first question. 

Question 3) If any of the 16 'normal' team members submits - the Line Manager A (Head) will still receive email notifications & can approve if he wants? 100% correct.

Question 4) If any of the 4 'sub-heads' submits their own expense reports, then (1) will the other 3 be able to approve also or only the Line Manager A (Head) can approve? (I assume self-approval is never allowed in any circumstances Self approval is never allowed. However, if if a sub-head submits then the other three would be able to approve.

Lastly, all of the above are true if your company is not using the Authorized Approver option. If you are using the Authorized Approver option, it is likely that Line Manager A has a higher approval limit than the four sub-heads. There is a setting that would not allow someone with a lower approval limit to approve for someone with a higher limit. Although, I think this option is off by default.

[travelexpexpert]

I have a clarifying question to this comprehensive advice.

Self approval is never allowed. - are you saying that Concur Expense cannot handle an approval structure where an employee can approve their own reports and an employee/approver can approve their own reports? So two use cases we are facing 

Best, Ole

[KevinD]

@travelexpexpert The system will not allow someone to approve their own report. Also, the system does not allow for someone to approve a report they created as a delegate. That is why I do not recommend a person add their manager as a delegate who can create reports for them. When they submit, the report would get "stuck" because it wouldn't then let the manager/approver approve since they were the one who created the report.

Did I explain it clearly? 🙂

[ahuynh23]

Hi @KevinD - many thanks for your response/confirmation. I can confirm our company approval workflow 'only' requires line manager to approve (i.e., all have the 'unlimited' approval authority) until it goes to our Finance/Accounting Team.

Thank you!