How do I setup and complete project expense approvals?

Question

How do I setup and complete project expense approvals?

Answer

 

Here are some steps to achieve project expense approvals:

 

Setup changes:

1. A Project Approval security permission level might already be setup to do Expense approvals.
2. If a user with this permission were to click on the Expenses tab to do these approvals, they would currently get a warning that they are not assigned to any employee groups to access expense entries to approve
3. This is because both the Project Approval permissions are set to: Can approve, Limited. The approval permission for Expense approvals is driven by being assigned as the Project approval level (Level 1) in an employee profile for Expense Sheet approvals, or an approval must be assigned with this permission to an employee group.
4. To allow these permission to view All expenses to start, change Project > Can Approve Limited to All.   

Project expense approver steps:

1. Navigate to the Expenses tab
2. Click on the Tools button (the downward blue arrow on the right side) 
3. At first, this page will default to View Sheets.
4. Click on View Entries to change from Sheets to Entries mode for approvals.
5. Once changed to View Entries, the system will remember that this is your primary mode of expense approvals. 
6. Click on the Advanced link to view advanced search options.
7. Begin typing the name of the project for your search.
8. Note that the system will auto-complete a pick list of project that include the text of your project name. 
9. You can click on the project name in the list to retain it for search.
10. Then click on the Search button to complete your search.
11. The page will filter in all expense entries coded against that project.
12. To approve these entries one by one click the left most checkbox of the appropriate expense row, or
13. After viewing all project expense entries, you can summary approve by clicking on the summary check box to the left of the Date header.    
14. Then click on the Approve button.
15. As this user only has permission to approve at the Project Approver (Level 1) level, a dialog will open with Project Approved as the only active option.
16. Click on the Project Approved checkbox and then click the Approve button to complete the Project Approval.
17. Note that the Project Approved (Level 1 level) column on the dashboard will now have a green check mark indicating these entries are Project Approved.
18. You can hover over the green check mark and see that the system has recorded the Date/Time Stamp and Approver name.
19. Repeat the process until all your projects are approved.