This article is for: employees, approvers and finance teams.
Every expense shows where it is, from draft to paid, so you know whether to act or just wait. Alerts add information for the reviewer but never change the status or block anything.
Expense statuses
Overview
An expense always has exactly one status, shown at the top of the expense and in My spending > My expenses (yours) or Spending > Employee expenses (expenses you manage).
| Status | What it means | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Created, not sent. Card expenses start here. | Edit it, add the receipt, send it, or delete it (card expenses can't be deleted). |
| Pending | Waiting for approval. Shows who it's waiting for. | Employee: wait, or take it back with Reset to draft. Approver: approve, reject or ask for changes. |
| Changes requested | A reviewer asked for a fix. Their reason is on the expense. | Edit it and click Send for approval again. |
| Rejected | Approval ended in a rejection. The reason is on the expense. | It can't be edited. Create a new one, or ask your admin or finance team to reset its approval flow if it was a mistake. |
| Approved | Waiting to be paid back. | Nothing: finance pays it. |
| In payroll | Added to your payslip as a reimbursement. | Nothing: it's paid with your salary. |
| Sent to pay | In a bank transfer (SEPA) to you. | Nothing: the money is on its way. |
| Paid | Paid back, or settled. | Nothing. |
| Payment reversed | The merchant reversed the card payment behind a card expense, or it expired. | Nothing: Factorial sets it automatically. |
Expense checks results
Overview
If your company uses Expense checks, One, our AI assistant, checks each draft against your company's policy. The result shows at the top of the expense and in the Alerts column of the list. It's a recommendation, never a block. The messages and what they mean are listed in the last question below. See also How do I check expenses against my expense policy?.
Other alerts
Overview
Factorial adds these alerts by itself.
| Alert | What it means | Who sees it |
|---|---|---|
| Duplicate (Potential duplicate expense) | Looks like an expense already submitted: the same receipt, a card and a manual expense for the same payment, or two per diems for the same days. | Only people who see the whole company's expenses. See How do I handle duplicate expenses?. |
| Category conflict | A per diem and an expense in the Meals or Refreshments category on the same days. | People who can see the expense. |
| Mileage modified (shown as Modified in the Alerts column) | The distance Factorial calculated was changed by hand. | People who can see the expense. |
If your company uses Expense checks, One's recommendation also takes these alerts into account: a Duplicate or Category conflict alert leads to "Rejection recommended", and a Mileage modified alert on its own to "Review recommended". The reviewer still decides. See How does Factorial catch duplicates and other mistakes automatically?.
Tips and Best Practices
- Fix warnings before you send. A draft is the cheapest moment to add a missing receipt or explanation.
- Approvers: read One's explanation before deciding. You can approve an expense with a warning, or reject one in policy.
- Related: How do I edit or take back an expense? · How do I handle duplicate expenses? · How do I check expenses against my expense policy? · How does Factorial catch duplicates and other mistakes automatically?
Troubleshooting and FAQ
Troubleshooting
My expense has been Pending for a long time.
Open it to see who it's waiting for. If nobody is shown, ask your admin to use Reset approval flow on it. See Why is an expense stuck in Pending or with the wrong approver?.
The expense says it couldn't be checked.
The check may not be available for your company right now, or it didn't finish in time. Your approver reviews it as usual. Editing the expense runs the check again.
FAQ
1. Does an alert mean my expense will be rejected?
No. Alerts and Expense checks results are recommendations. Your approver decides.
2. Is "Duplicate" a status?
No. Duplicate is an alert on an expense that keeps its normal status, for example Pending.
3. How long from Approved to Paid?
It depends on how your company pays expenses back: with your payslip (In payroll), by bank transfer (Sent to pay), or by marking it as paid. Ask your finance team for their schedule.
4. How do I resubmit a rejected expense?
You can't send the same expense again. Create a new one with the corrections (you can reuse the receipt). If the rejection was a mistake, ask your admin or finance team to reset its approval flow. See How do I fix an expense that was sent back or rejected?.
5. Can I turn off the policy message on my expense?
No, your company's admins decide whether Expense checks are on. The message is there to tell you what to fix before you send.
6. How are my expenses grouped on the mobile app?
On the mobile app, your expenses are grouped into To do, Sent and Done, and each one shows its status.
7. Can I send an expense while One is still checking it?
Yes. While the policy check runs (usually a few seconds), the expense shows "Checking your company's policy...", and you can send it anyway.
8. How are policy deadlines checked on a draft?
While an expense is a draft, deadlines are measured from today, so a rule like "submit within 30 days" warns you before you send.
9. Do Expense checks run again when I change an expense?
Yes. Expense checks run again when you edit the expense.
10. Can I filter the expenses list by alert?
Yes. Besides the Alerts column, the expenses list has an Alerts filter, for example to list expenses flagged as Duplicate expense.
11. Do alerts stop an expense from being sent or approved?
No. Alerts, like Expense checks results, only inform the reviewer and never block sending or approving.
12. What do Within budget, Budget risk and Over budget mean on an expense?
If the expense uses a budget, the budget shows Within budget, Budget risk or Over budget, so you can see how the expense affects it.
13. What do the Expense checks messages mean, such as "Worth a look before you send"?
- In policy: the employee sees "Good to send", the reviewer "Approval recommended".
- Warning: the employee sees "Worth a look before you send" on a draft, or "Your approver may ask about this" once it's sent. The reviewer sees "Review recommended".
- Out of policy: the employee sees "This is likely to come back to you", the reviewer "Rejection recommended".
- Couldn't be checked: both see "Policy checks couldn't run", and the reviewer checks the expense manually.