Processor to return Expense to Approver (Not User)

[Snell]

Hi, I'm fairly new to this and just finding my way.

A customer of mine occasionally wants their Processors to return expense claims to their Approver, not their User.

Is this at all possible.  Have I missed something really obvious ? 😉

Thanks

Craig.

[KevinD]

@Snell you ask a great question. The answer is technically no. Notice I didn't say definitively no. 🙂

The Send Back option is to send a report back to the user who created and submitted it. However, on the processor screen there is an option to Send to Approver. You could use this to send it to any approver I believe. This may work for you. 

So, since you are new I'm going to pose a question to get you thinking a bit about SAP Concur best practices for your organization: Why do you want to send the report back to the Approver and not the user?

I'll wait and see your reply and then give you some other food for thought on this topic. 

[Snell]

Kevin, thank you for your prompt response and I'm delighted to see that the company I'm representing could use the 'Send to Approver' option for returning Expenses to the Original Approver. How does this impact the workflow?  Will this mean that when the same approver reviews the expense again, they just approve, and it goes back to the Processor again? Or will it just go straight to Payment ? (which we don't want).

The rational for returning the expense to the Approver.

The company I'm representing require the Approvers to make the final checks to ensure the expense fields are completed in accordance with the company requirements.  The Approvers have the close relationship with the User and often need to talk to them about their expenses.  The Users are not SAP Concur literate or IT literature and therefore it is left to the Approvers to make the judgment call if anything needs changing.

After chatting through the expense with the User the Approvers would then either delete the expense / claim or they would send it on gain to be Processed by the Processor.

I'm told the Processor does not get involved with the Users world and what expenses are related to what activity but is of course responsible for the final check on the details before the final claim is submitted.  If the Processor finds an issue it is easier from a management perspective to return the expense to the Approver for them to resolve and iron out any issues or discrepancies.

Kind regards

Craig.

[KevinD · Accepted solution]

@Snell When the processor uses the Send to Approver option to send the report to the approver who reviewed the report, the system will show a little window that says Approved. This can be a little confusing for the processor, because when the approver gets the report and reviews again and makes changes, they will approve the report. The report goes back into the Processor queue for the Processor to then give final approval. 

[Snell]

Thank you Kevin.  Much appreciated.