Approvals

Learn more about approving expense reports and travel requests in Concur.

Demo: Submitting and Approving Expense Reports


About Approvals

Travel requests and expense reports need approval in Concur. Concur automatically routes them to the appropriate approvers based on document type.

  • Travel requests first route to the traveler’s supervisor for approval (for UCAR employees). Then, they route to the budget approver for each account key to be encumbered. Additionally:
    • If a travel request is for a trip that has already occurred, and therefore doesn’t comply with policy, it will route to the President’s Council or designated delegate for approval. 
    • If the requested airfare amount is $4,500 or more, it will route to the Controller for approval. 
  • Travel and Payment Request expense reports route to the budget approver(s) for approval. If multiple account keys are to be charged, each account key’s budget approver will need to approve. Only approve the activity on your account key(s).
  • P-Card expense reports route to the cardholder’s Approving Official (AO) for approval. If approval for a different account key is needed, that should be obtained by email and attached to the expense.


Additional (Ad Hoc) Approvers

You can add additional approvers on a case-by-case basis – otherwise referred to as an "ad hoc approver" – to the approval workflow. 

Add a Travel Request Approver

From within the travel request, click the Approval Flow tab.

Determine where you want to insert the approval step.

Locate the existing approval step that is immediately below where you want to add an approval.

Click the plus sign to the right of that approver field.

A User-Added Approver field will appear above the approval step where the button was clicked. You can select anyone who is an approver within Concur for this approval step. Search for this approver by last name.

Add an Expense Report Approver

Open your expense report and click on Report Details > Report Timeline. 

Next to Approval Flow, click on Edit. 

Choose where in the workflow you would like to add the ad hoc approver and click + Add Step. Repeat as needed. 

Click Save. You will see your ad hoc approver(s) listed in the Approval Flow as User-Added Approver.