Expense Approval Checklist: 10 Things to Check

At most companies, approving an expense report has shrunk to a click that takes a few seconds. The manager opens the report, glances at the total and approves. The problems surface at month-end in accounting: a receipt that is missing, a dinner entered twice, a hotel stay charged to the wrong cost centre. This article is written for managers who approve expense reports and for the finance teams behind them, with examples from companies in Turkey. It covers the 10 things to check before pressing approve, what counts as a red flag in each, and how these checks run in an expense system.

What should a manager check when approving expenses?

A manager should check that the expense is backed by a receipt, follows company policy, is charged to the right place and has a clear business purpose. The table below summarises the 10 checks at a glance; the details follow.

Receipt, date and amount checks

The first four checks confirm that the expense really happened and that the document is fit to be booked.

1. Is a valid receipt attached?

Every expense line needs a valid document behind it, such as an invoice, an e-Archive invoice or a cash register receipt. In Turkey, Article 227 of Tax Procedure Law No. 213 (Official Gazette: 10 January 1961) requires every entry in the books to be supported by a document. An information slip, a screenshot of an order screen or a meal-card slip is not an expense document; such spending is set aside as KKEG (non-deductible expenses). The photo of the document should show the date, the amount and the vendor's tax number clearly.

2. Is the date within the right period?

The expense date should fall inside the period in which the company accepts expenses. A taxi receipt from three months ago is hard to recall and may land in a period accounting has already closed. If your policy does not answer "within how many days of spending must an expense be submitted?", the approver has the same argument over every late expense.

3. Has the same expense been entered before?

Duplicate expenses are usually not deliberate: an employee attaches the same receipt to last month's and this month's report, or claims a corporate card purchase as cash as well. If the same date, amount and vendor appear on two lines, ask before you approve.

4. Do the amount and VAT match the document?

The amount entered should be exactly the VAT-inclusive total on the document. If the invoice shows VAT separately, make sure the VAT amount is entered separately too; under Turkey's Uniform Chart of Accounts it goes to deductible VAT (191), while the net amount goes to the 7xx expense accounts (e.g. 760, 770). For foreign-currency expenses, the currency amount and the exchange rate used should be visible on the report.

Policy and accounting checks

The next three checks decide whether the expense follows company rules and whether it will land in the right account.

5. Has a policy limit been exceeded?

Going over a limit is not always a reason to reject, but every overrun needs an explanation. For example (sample figures), at a company with a daily meal limit of 750 TRY per person, 2,600 TRY for a client dinner for four is normal; 2,600 TRY for one person needs an explanation. To put limits and exceptions in writing, see our expense policy guide.

6. Is the category right?

The category decides which expense account the cost is booked to. A sales team's client dinner and a head-office internal meeting lunch can go to different accounts (e.g. 760 Marketing, Sales and Distribution Expenses, 770 General Administrative Expenses). A wrong category not caught at approval becomes a line the accountant fixes by hand at month-end.

7. Are the cost centre and project right?

The cost should be charged to the cost centre of the unit the spending served, not the unit of the person who spent it. A trip made for another department's project should carry that project's code; otherwise the project looks cheaper than it was and your budget looks overspent.

Purpose, payment type and authority checks

The last three checks make clear why the money was spent and whether the approval is yours to give.

8. Are the business purpose and attendees written down?

For entertainment and hospitality expenses in particular, the description should say who was hosted and for what business. "Meeting" is not enough; "Annual contract talks with X Trading's purchasing team, 4 people" is. It is the first question an auditor will ask.

9. Is the payment type right?

The payment type decides whether the employee is reimbursed. An expense paid in cash or with a personal card is booked to the employee account (195/320) as a reimbursement; an expense paid with a corporate card is not paid to the employee but matched against the card statement. Entering a corporate card expense as cash leads to the same amount being paid twice.

10. Is there a pre-approval, and is the approval yours to give?

For spending that needs pre-approval, such as a trip or an advance, check that the approved request is linked to the report. If the amount exceeds your approval limit, the report should go to the next approver; to design the approval order and limits, you can use the free approval workflow builder. Do not approve your own expenses or those of an employee who does not report to you. We explain how to hand over approvals while you are on leave in our article on expense approval workflow and delegation.

Approve, reject or ask: which one when?

Reject when the receipt is missing or the expense clearly breaks policy; for fixable issues such as a missing explanation or a wrong category, ask first. A rejected report goes back to the employee and delays reimbursement. A practical rule: document problems mean reject, information problems mean ask. Always leave the reason for a rejection in writing; it is your reference when the same mistake comes back next month.

For tax classification, the KKEG split and document validity, confirm the treatment that applies to your company with your certified public accountant (mali müşavir).

How does it work in Masraff?

In Masraff, employees collect their expenses in an Expense Report and submit it for approval. When an expense is added to the report, period-closing, duplicate, expense policy and mandatory-field checks run, so problems under items 2, 3 and 5 of the list are flagged while the expense is being entered.

• Expense Policy Engine: Limits by category, time and number of attendees, plus rules by payment type, are defined. Each rule gets its own message and a warning type (Info, Warning, Error, Block). Warnings are shown both to the employee while entering the expense and to the approving manager inside the report.
• Last Expense Acceptance Day: The last day on which the company accepts expenses is enforced in the system; late expenses are caught by this rule.
• Advanced Approval: Grade-based approval limits, threshold values and delegation are defined. If the report total exceeds the approver's limit, it goes to the next manager up. Before submitting, the approval flow can be simulated, so it is clear in advance who the report will go to.
• Travel Form + Approval Flow: An approved travel form is linked to the expense report, so the manager sees that the spending belongs to a pre-approved trip.
• Comments and Transaction History: The manager can ask a question on the report before rejecting it. Transaction History in the web portal shows which people approved or rejected the report, and when.

For teams that approve on the go from their phones, see the details on the Masraff mobile approval page.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most common mistake in expense approval?

The most common mistake is approving a report by looking only at the total. An approval given without checking the receipt, category and cost centre pushes the correction work to accounting and to month-end.

Can a manager approve their own expenses?

No. In a sound approval process nobody approves their own expenses. A manager's expenses should go to their own manager or to the finance team.

Should an expense over the policy limit be rejected?

Not always. If the business purpose is explained and the exception is defined in the policy, it can be approved; an overrun without an explanation should be queried first and rejected if needed.

How many days should expense approval take?

The deadline should be written into company policy. For example, a target such as 3 business days from submission (sample) can be set; what matters more than the number is that everyone knows the same target.

Can an expense with a lost receipt be approved?

In Turkey, spending without a document cannot be booked as an expense and counts as KKEG (non-deductible). Even if the company decides to reimburse it, clarify that decision and its rationale with your certified public accountant.