Team Approvals - How to Review and Automate Expense Approvals in Toggl Work (Admin View)

Toggl Work FAQ
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Managing expenses for your team doesn’t have to be messy. With Approvals in Toggl Work, you can stay in control - whether you’re reviewing everything manually or setting up automatic rules to speed things up.

Let’s walk through how to use this feature like a pro. :vertical_traffic_light:

:eyes: Where to Find Approvals

Head to the Team section in your left-hand sidebar, and click Approvals.

Once you’re there, you’ll notice two tabs:

  • Overview: where you review and take action on submitted expenses

  • Approval Settings: where you define your approval rules and categories

Let’s start with the Overview.

:receipt: Overview - Reviewing Expenses

This is where all submitted expenses land for review. If you click on the 3 dots icon at the end of an expense line, you can:

  • Approve

  • Reject

  • Or delete any expense from your team

If you’re just getting started, try clicking on Sample Expenses to auto-generate a test entry and explore the flow. Then click Review Expenses (top right corner of the temporary zone above the table) to view the details of any submission.

Once you click Review Expenses, you access the expense details page where you can Approve or Reject it. You can reject by clicking the red button “Reject” or approve by clicking “Approve /Approve and next) s

:bar_chart: Filtering & Sorting the Approvals Table

The Overview tab shows all submitted expenses in one clean table.

You can:

  • Filter by:

    • Date (month and year)

    • Submitter

    • Category

    • State (Submitted, Approved, Rejected)

    • Linked Trip (Team Trip or Solo Trip)

  • Sort the table view by:

    • Date

    • Submitter

    • Category

    • State (Submitted, Approved, rejected)

To open a specific expense, just click on its row - you’ll land back on the full detail view.

:man_detective: How to approve or reject a Submitted Expense

If you want to see an expense detail, simply click on the expense row, a new window will open. Each expense includes:

  • Linked Trip (if any)

  • Category

  • Supplier name

  • Country of the expense

  • Description and any comments added

  • Submission date

  • Amount (shown with tax(included) win original currency and converted into your workspace default)

In there, if some expenses are not approved or rejected already because of they are not part of a category with an auto-approval flow, you will be able to :

  • Click Approve & Next to accept

  • Or hit the red Reject button to decline it

:fire: Quick tip: Hit the R key on your keyboard to instantly reject an expense. A pop-up will ask you to leave a comment explaining the rejection.

Once you’re done reviewing, you’ll be taken back to the main Overview.

:man_detective: How to edit a Submitted Expense

You can only modify your own expenses, that are under a “Submitted” status. The expenses from other members and with an “Approved” or “Rejected” status, can’t be modified.

Click on the expense you wish to edit, and from that new info page you can change every detail of an expense. When you are done editing it, as an admin you can also approve or reject by clicking the corresponding button on the lower part of the screen.

**:brain: Extra Admin Powers**

As an admin, you can:

  • Edit an expense’s details directly

  • Delete an expense by clicking the 3 dots icon at the end of each expense row, then Delete, or via the trash icon within an expense detail page, (on the top right corner of the screen) but only for approved or rejected expenses)

  • In an expense detail page, you can see the Expense History (next to the delete icon), which logs:

    • When it was created and submitted

    • Who approved or rejected it

    • Any updates made to it

    • Expense ID and user details

:gear: Approval Settings - Set the Rules, Let It Flow

Now that we’re done with the Overview tab, head over to the Approval Settings tab (top of the page).

Here you’ll see:

  • A table of all Expense Categories

  • The tables shows:

    • Expense Category name

    • GL code

    • Approval rule (Manual Approval or Automatic Approval)

    • Approval threshold (if automatic approval, enter the max amount for an auto approval to be done)

    • Status (Active or Disabled category)

:magnifying_glass_tilted_right: These categories can be default Toggl ones or custom ones you create.

:hammer_and_wrench: Changing Approval Rules

In the Approval rule column:

  • Click the dropdown to switch between:

    • Manual Approval (default)

    • Automatic Approval

If you select Automatic, you’ll need to define an Approval Threshold - the max value that can be auto-approved.

Example:

If the threshold is set to €100, any expense under €100 in that category will be auto-approved.

:high_voltage: Global Toggles

Below the table, you’ll find two important switches:

  1. “Require admin approval for expenses”

    • Turn it on to have an admin review and approve each submitted expense before it’s processed. You will also be able to set auto-approval rules.

  2. Enable auto-approval

    • Allows you to skip reviews for policy-compliant or low-value expenses, set a threshold and we’ll approve anything below it automatically.

:brain: This is the easiest way to reduce admin overhead without compromising control.

:pencil: Editing or Creating Categories

  • Use the three-dot menu at the end of each row to:

    • Edit the existing categories (change name, emoji, GL code, status (active or disabled))

    • Disable/Enable the category, in this case it will not show in the category list when creating an expense.

    • Delete

  • To create a new category, you need to go back to "the “Approval settings” tab, then :

    1. Click “New Expense Category” above the table on the top right corner part of your screen

    2. A pop-up window will open and from there you can fill in:

      • Emoji

      • Name of the expense category

      • GL code (great for categorising expenses for accounting and reporting)

    3. Click Create Category

    4. It’ll appear at the bottom of the table as Active with default Manual Approval

    5. Use the dropdowns column “approval rule” to update rules

:bullseye: TL;DR — What You Can Do with Approvals

With Approvals in Toggl Work, you can:

  • Review, approve, or reject expenses

  • See full history logs and track who submitted what

  • Define approval logic per category

  • Create auto-approval flows using thresholds

  • Reduce manual admin time for low-risk expenses

  • Customize your categories to fit your workflow

Whether you’re a control freak (respect!) or more into smooth automation - Approvals is your flexible friend.

:speech_balloon: Help & Feedback

In case you need any assistance, reach out in the community. That is also where we’d love to hear your thoughts on Toggl Work - we read all comments and build the product with them in mind.