Set up approvals for reimbursements

Learn recommended approval setups for reimbursements in Pleo to keep reimbursements fast, consistent, and controlled.

What you can achieve with reimbursement approvals

Approvals help you balance speed and control when paying people back for:

• Out-of-pocket expenses
• Mileage claims
• Per diem claims

With the right setup, you can:

• Reduce the risk of incorrect or non-compliant reimbursements
• Keep spending ownership close to the right reviewer (manager, budget owner, finance)
• Speed up the month-end by catching issues earlier
• Improve employee trust with a consistent, transparent process

Review options (and when each works best)

Team review (manager/team lead review)

Best for

• Day-to-day control and visibility for line managers or team leads
• Keeping reimbursements aligned with team budgets and expectations

Key benefits

• Clear ownership: The reviewer usually knows the context (project, trip, team norms)
• Faster decisions: Managers can approve common cases quickly
• Better governance without bottlenecks: Finance doesn’t need to review every reimbursement
• Scales with company growth: Teams own their own approvals instead of centralising everything

When to use it: Use this as your default review layer for most reimbursements, especially in larger organisations.

Tag review (budget/project/client-based review)

Best for: Approvals that depend on what the reimbursement is for (e.g., client, project, cost centre, location, department)

Key benefits

• Approvals follow the cost, not the person: The right budget owner reviews reimbursements tied to their tag
• Consistent governance for shared teams: Useful when multiple teams spend against the same project or client budget
• Stronger allocation accuracy: Encourages correct tagging because approvals depend on it

Tag review applies to all reimbursements with that tag (it isn’t threshold-based), so reviewer workload can increase if tags are used broadly.

When to use it: Use tag review when budget ownership is complex (matrix organisations, agencies/consultancies, project-based work).

Company review (finance-level review)

Best for: A final control layer where finance (or a central team) authorises reimbursements across the whole company

Key benefits

• Strong compliance and policy control: Ensures reimbursements meet company rules before money goes out
• Consistency across teams: Helpful if team-level decisions vary or policy needs tighter enforcement
• Audit readiness: Adds an extra checkpoint for sensitive categories or higher-risk reimbursements

When to use it

• Higher-value reimbursements (set thresholds so finance reviews what matters most)
• When multi-layer approval is required by company policy

Sequential reviews (recommended when you have multiple layers)

If you use company review alongside team and/or tag review, enable sequential reviews so reviews happen in a logical order.

Key benefits

• Predictable order of reviews: Team/tag reviewers approve first, finance reviews last
• Fewer back-and-forth loops: Issues can be resolved earlier in the chain
• Clearer accountability: Everyone knows where they sit in the process

How to choose the right setup (recommended setups)

Setup A: Fast and scalable (most common)

• Team review for standard reimbursements
• Optional: Company review only for higher-value reimbursements (threshold-based)

Why it works: Keeps routine approvals close to the team, while finance focuses on exceptions.

Setup B: Budget-owner control

• Tag review for reimbursements tied to projects/clients/cost centres
• Optional: Company review for high-value reimbursements

Why it works: Ensures the person responsible for the budget signs off, regardless of who submitted.

Setup C: High-control / high-compliance

• Team review or tag review (or both) + company review
• Enable sequential reviews

Why it works: Strong governance best when policy adherence matters more than speed.