Expenses - Multiple levels of approval
We need to upload an Approval Matrix/Approval hierarchy with a scope depending on "Location" and "Total amount" with 2 levels of approvers for "Expense claims" (EC) & "Purchase Orders" (PO).
With that, we are looking for automation on sending the EC & PO automatically by the system to the correspondent Approver depending on the scope through email.

Thanks for your idea, Micaela. Expenses and Purchase Orders are quite different transactions types in Xero.
We try to keep one idea per thread here so we can get a true view of the interest for that specific functionality. I've slightly adjusted the title of your idea to represent Expense Claims but welcome you to start another for Purchase Orders specifically where we can track that too 🙂
-
John Dyett commented
Would agree being able to have an approval structure for:
Bills
Purchase Orders
Expenses
is important, as the larger a company gets then these structures need to be put in place. Not having this functionality may cause the Finance function to want to look for an alternative system. -
Richard Coventry commented
Absolutely vital to have this control for employee expenses - very surprised that not built in to xero. I am sincerely hoping that Xero are looking to implement this.
-
Paul Drummond commented
Critical
-
Bianca Kasselman commented
We need to be able to allow certain people to approve only to a limited amount and then require additional approval. Is this possible with xero expenses?
-
Elmondt Kapp commented
2 step approval would be great in Expense claims and actually with any Bill posted to Xero. Now we use ApprovalMax for Bills, but for expense claims need to use Expensify. Would be great to have all within Xero
-
Emma Rosenblatt (Accounts) commented
Expense claims need to have department managers sign off.
Secondly, Purchasing authority within Xero needs to be more complex and customizable. Certain roles should have a max amount they can approve a PO for and certain amounts should require a manager's approval/employee with a higher limit.
-
Rita Lewis commented
We cannot have approvers accessing everyone's expenses.
The ability for a line manager to be able to review just their team is a must for us. -
Melissa Chan commented
This would be handy to have in Xero as, in our organisation, expenses over a certain amount needs a second level of approval.
-
Anne Benison commented
It makes no sense that a Manager in a medium sized company cannot receive expenses from their team to authorise before they come to us in accounts. The set up currently assumes that all employees have spending rights on their projects with no line manager approval required, and that is only the case with very small companies.
-
Chris Curlett commented
The approval system needs to cater for all levels of approval throughout the system. This should also extend to what people see so staff access is much better managed.
This is basic as the current levels of permissions are woefully inadequate.
-
Karen Foster commented
Levels of Approver would be invaluable, so a team manager can approve for their team only and have their own expenses approved by their line manager and so on.
Very frustrating this isn't an option -
Ivan Woods commented
Very much agree - I have several clients who have asked the same question
-
Sisi Tian commented
Have two people to approve expenses is essential for our business to allow us to continue using Xero Expenses...
-
Yvonne Phillipson commented
Dual authorisation for expenses is crucial for us especially when it comes to VAT as employees dont understand this and also dual authorisation is required so that it may be reviewed by finance before being posted into the ledger
-
Craig Keith commented
I agree with this. Our company is looking at alternative systems as the authorising capability isn't really evolved enough for a company of more than a few staff.
On a separate subject, I'm interested to hear that you use Xero in France. I didn't think it was licenced there. How do you manage to work around the issues?
-
Heinrich Badenhorst commented
Our company has locations in in London, France, Germany, and the US and has a Xero entity set up for each.
I onboarded all employees to Xero Expenses 2 months ago and staff are happy with the mechanics of the process.
The challenge I have is the approval hierarchy. All expense approvals sit with me. This needs to change as each line manager/ department/ team head should be responsible for approving their teams’ expenses.
We have a tracking option for “Department” which can be used to pool employees in their respective teams.
I would then like to add approvers for each “Department” that controls their teams’ expenses and be the first line of approval.
The finance team and MDs are responsible for the final (second-tiered approval).Hope this can be implemented and this scenario is prevalent elsewhere. Xero expenses work really well, we just need it to be scalable from a hierarchical perspective.
-
Heinrich Badenhorst commented
Our company has locations in in London, France, Germany, and the US and has a Xero entity set up for each.
I onboarded all employees to Xero Expenses 2 months ago and it staff are happy with the mechanics of the process.
The challenge I have is the approval hierarchy. All expense approvals sit with me. This needs to change as each line manager/ department/ team head should be responsible for approving their teams’ expenses.
We have a tracking option for “Department” which can be used to pool employees in their respective teams.
I would then like to add approvers for each “Department” that controls their teams’ expenses and be the first line of approval.
The finance team and MD's are responsible for final (second tiered approval).Hope this can be implemented and this scenario is prevalent elsewhere. Xero expenses works really well, we just need it to be scalable from a hierarchial perspective.
-
Rudy Botha commented
Wont add expense claims as without the extra approvers feature there is no way this can be implemented in our company. We will have to struggle with Xero integration with Expensify until this feature is added
-
Kim Webster commented
This is important to us as we require different approvers and multiple approvers so would be ideal for this to be an option for expense claims.
-
Rebecca Tankard commented
This is an important requirement for us, we have varying levels of approvers in the business. We need to be able to give approvers rules as to which other employees expenses they can view