Help Center / Approvals

Approving or declining reimbursements

When a team member submits an expense for reimbursement, you might be asked to review and approve it. Approval tasks only appear on your Tasks page when your company's expense submission workflow assigns them to you—by default, Light's AI agent reviews submitted expenses against your company's policies automatically. Here's how to check expenses and decide whether to approve or decline.

Review the expense details

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

  • Employee name — Who submitted the expense
  • Receipt — An image or PDF of the receipt
  • Amount — How much they're asking to be reimbursed
  • Category — Type of expense (travel, meals, supplies, etc.)
  • Description — What the expense was for
  • Date — When the purchase happened

Check against your expense policy

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

  • The expense category is allowed
  • The amount is reasonable and within any limits
  • The purchase was business-related
  • The receipt is clear and shows the date and amount

If your company has specific rules (like a per-meal limit or pre-approval for certain purchases), verify those too.

Approve the expense

If everything checks out, click Approve. You can add an optional note with your decision. The employee will be notified and the reimbursement will be paid out through a payment batch to the bank details in their reimbursement profile.

Decline the expense

Click Decline if the expense doesn't meet your company's policy. Always add a note explaining why—the employee is notified with the reason and receives a link to reset their expense report. Resetting moves the expenses 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 is not business-related
  • Amount exceeds policy limits
  • Receipt is illegible or missing
  • Category is not approved for reimbursement

Tips for reviewing expenses

  • Look at the receipt details, not just the total
  • If anything seems off, ask for clarification before declining
  • Be consistent—apply your policy the same way for everyone
  • Remember you're helping your team stay compliant

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