Configuring Expense Approval in Bitrix24
A manager pays for a taxi to a client from their own pocket, takes a photo of the receipt, and throws it in the accountant's chat saying "reimburse me please." The accountant loses the message among dozens of others. Two weeks later, the manager reminds them; the accountant searches for the receipt in the chat, can't find it, asks to send again. Expenses without a system are lost documents, unclear budgets, and endless conflicts between employees and accounting.
Expense Approval Process Structure
Expense approval in Bitrix24 is built on a smart process or list with a business process. Each expense is a separate card with fields:
- Amount — numeric field
- Expense category — reference: transportation, representation, supplies, subscriptions, equipment
- Description — text field with justification
- Receipt/Invoice — file field for attaching scans
- Expense date
- Project/Department — for analytics
Approval Route
The route depends on amount and expense category:
| Amount | Route |
|---|---|
| Up to 5,000 | Department manager → Accounting |
| 5,000–50,000 | Department manager → CFO → Accounting |
| Over 50,000 | Department manager → CFO → CEO → Accounting |
Threshold amounts and routes are configured in the business process designer. Conditional branches determine who receives the request at each step.
Each approver sees the expense card with attached receipt and can:
- Approve — request moves to the next in chain
- Reject — request returns to author with comment
- Return for revision — author makes corrections and resubmits
Budget Limits
Each department or project is assigned a monthly budget by expense category. When submitting a request, the business process checks:
- Whether the category limit is exceeded for the current month
- If exceeded—the request still goes for approval but flagged "Budget Exceeded." The approver decides with this info in mind
Department manager sees current budget spending in the report: spent/remaining by each category.
Document Attachment
Employees attach a photo of the receipt or invoice scan directly to the expense card. The file is saved on Bitrix24 Drive in a structured folder: Expenses / 2025 / March / Ivanov. Accounting gets all documents in one place—no need to collect from chats and email.
Reporting
Manager and accounting see:
- Expense summary — by period, department, category
- Request status — how many pending, approved, rejected
- Budget — plan vs. fact by department and category
- Average approval time — to identify bottlenecks in the route
What We Configure
- Smart process with fields for expense requests
- Approval routes with conditional branches by amount and category
- Budget limits by department and category with automatic checking
- Document storage structure on Drive
- Notifications, deadlines, and escalations at each stage
- Reports on expenses and budget execution