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How to decline or request changes on an approval

  • Updated

Decline comments let you explain why you're declining or requesting changes on an Approval, so submitters know what to fix and can resubmit without back-and-forth.

Before you start

  • You're the approver assigned to the item.
  • Your business is on the Premium plan or above (Enterprise businesses also have access).
  • Decline comments and resubmission is on by default. If it's off, an Admin can turn it on in Settings > AI and automations. If your plan doesn't include the feature, this toggle is locked with a prompt to upgrade.

On the Weel web app

  1. Go to the Approvals page.
  2. Open the item awaiting your approval and select Decline. This opens the How would you like to proceed? dialog (titled Why have you declined this request? for a budget top-up request).
  3. Choose your response.
    • For invoice payments, reimbursements, and card transactions, select Request changes if the expense is valid but needs a fix, or the decline option if it shouldn't go ahead: Decline and archive for invoices and reimbursements, or Mark as declined for card transactions.
    • For purchase orders, batch payments, and budget top-up requests, there's no choice to make. The dialog goes straight to an optional comment box and a single Decline and archive button, the only outcome for these three item types.
  4. Add a comment explaining your decision (optional).
  5. Select the confirm button. It matches your choice: Request changes, Decline and archive, or Mark as declined.

On the Weel mobile app

  1. Open the Weel mobile app and tap the Approvals tab. Purchase orders and batch payments don't appear here at all. Approve or decline those from the web app instead.
  2. Open the item awaiting your approval and select Decline. The same choice opens in a bottom sheet.
  3. For invoice payments, reimbursements, and card transactions, choose Request changes or the decline option (budget top-up requests only offer the decline outcome, the same as on web).
  4. Add a comment explaining your decision (optional).
  5. Select the confirm button matching your choice.
decline-comments-mobile.png

What happens next

If you selected Request changes:

  • The submitter gets an email (and a push notification, on mobile) with your comments.
  • The item shows as incomplete until they update and resubmit it.
  • On resubmission, the item goes through the entire approval rule again as a fresh approval. It doesn't pick up partway through.

If you declined the item:

  • The submitter is notified with your comments.
  • An invoice payment, reimbursement, purchase order, or batch payment is archived and not paid.
  • A top-up request is archived and the budget limit isn't increased.
  • A card payment has already processed, so it can't be archived. It's marked as declined in Weel, and the expense report exports to your accounting software if you have an integration connected.

If Card Blocking is on for your business, declining an overdue card transaction with Request changes can re-trigger card blocking for the submitter until they resubmit the expense.

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