How are Approval Rules prioritised?
Approval Rules are applied in order, starting from Rule #1 (highest priority). Only the first matching rule will apply.
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Accounts payable, reimbursements, and budget top-ups – if no rules are met, the fallback rule will apply.
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Card payments – only the first matching rule will apply. If no rules are met, approval is skipped.
Tip: Place more specific rules (with more filters) at the top of your list, and more general rules further down. You can reorder rules by moving them up or down.
What is a fallback rule?
The fallback rule ensures that approvals are still managed if no custom rules apply.
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It cannot have filters added.
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You can customise the approver type.
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It acts as a safety net for top-ups, reimbursements, and accounts payable.
What happens if no rule applies?
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Budget top-ups, accounts payable, reimbursements – the fallback rule will apply.
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Card payments – if no rules are met, approval will not be required and the request will be marked as complete.
What happens if an assigned approver leaves the business or goes on leave?
If an approver leaves:
- If they are the only approver assigned, you must update the Approval Rule before deleting them.
- If they are one of multiple approvers, they can be deleted without updating your Approval Rules.
- Pending approvals will continue with the rules that applied when the approval was triggered.
If an approver is on holiday/extended leave:
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All users have an Approval Delegate by default
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You can change the Approval Delegate at anytime in User Management settings
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Once you have ensured that the Approval Delegate is assigned correctly, you can set your Approver as 'Out-of-office' (Learn more about 'Out-of-office')
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Alternatively, you can add an additional approver to the workflow before they go.
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Set both as “Any” approver so there is always an active Approver available.
What happens if I update Approval Rules while something is pending approval?
Pending approvals will always follow the rules that applied when they were triggered.
If you delete a sole approver with pending approvals, those approvals will automatically redirect to your default approver (as set in the fallback rule).
What happens when an approver submits their own item for approval?
You can control how self-approvals are handled:
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Auto-approve – toggle off “Prevent Self-approval”
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Redirected to a delegate – toggle on “Prevent Self-approval”
To update:
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Go to Approval Rules
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Open the approval type (card, reimbursements, top-ups, etc.)
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Toggle Prevent Self-approval on or off
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Click Update rule
Delegates can be set for each user in User Management.
Is there a way to track changes made to Approval Rules?
Yes. The date and time of the latest update appears on the main dashboard for each approval type.
Is there a way to name or add a description to my Approval Rules?
Yes. Within each approval type, you can add a description to each rule to keep track of them.
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Click into the approval type
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Add a description to the rule
To learn more, read our 'Getting started with our Approval Rule builder' Guide