Help Center / Approvals

Approving or declining reimbursements

What's this page about

How to review a reimbursement request in Light, check it against your expense policy, and approve or decline it correctly.

Reviewing a reimbursement in Light is straightforward: open the task, check it against policy, and approve or decline in a click.

On this page

  • Review the expense details
  • Check against your expense policy
  • Approve the expense
  • Decline the expense
  • Common reasons to decline
  • Tips for reviewing expenses

When a team member submits an expense for reimbursement, Light may route it to you as a task. Reimbursement approvals appear on your Tasks page only when your company's expense workflow assigns them to you. Some companies configure Light's AI agent to review expenses against policy automatically before a task reaches a human reviewer. If you expect a task and don't see it, check your workflow setup.

Review the expense details

Click the reimbursement in your Tasks list in Light. You'll see:

  • Employee: who submitted the expense
  • Entity: the company or subsidiary the expense belongs to
  • Amount and currency: how much they're asking to be reimbursed, and in what currency
  • Expense report number: the report this expense belongs to
  • Description: what the expense was for
  • Dates: when the purchase happened, plus the due and reimbursement dates
  • Receipt: an image or PDF you can view inline in Light

Check against your expense policy

Before you approve, compare the expense against your company's policy. Confirm:

  • The purchase was business-related
  • The amount is reasonable and within any limits
  • The receipt is legible and shows the date and amount
  • Any company-specific rules are met, such as a per-meal cap or pre-approval for certain purchases

Approve the expense

Click Approve in Light. Approving is a single action, with no note field. Light notifies the employee, and the reimbursement goes out in the next payment batch to the bank details on their profile.

Decline the expense

Click Decline in Light if the expense doesn't meet your company's policy. You can add an optional note explaining why, and it's worth doing: the employee is notified with your note and a link to reset their expense report. Resetting moves the expense back to draft so they can fix the issue (for example, attach a clearer receipt or clarify the business purpose) and resubmit.

Common reasons to decline:

  • Expense isn't business-related
  • Amount exceeds policy limits
  • Receipt is illegible or missing

Tips for reviewing expenses

  • Check the receipt details, not just the total
  • Ask for clarification before declining if something looks off
  • Apply your policy the same way for every employee
  • A clear decline note saves the employee a resubmission cycle later

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