Expenses in Roubler – Overview for Managers – Know Roubler

Audience

This article is for managers and supervisors who approve or manage employee expense claims in Roubler, including:

Reviewing and approving/declining expense claims.
Editing claims or submitting them on behalf of employees where appropriate.
Helping team members understand how expenses and approvals work.

Before you start

Before managing expenses in Roubler, make sure that:

You understand your organisation’s Expense Policy, including:
- What can / cannot be claimed.
- Spend limits and approval rules.
- Receipt requirements and document standards.
You know which departments or projects should be used for your team, if your organisation uses them.
Your Roubler administrator or HR/Payroll team has confirmed you have the correct:
- Permission group with access to expenses (for example, “Manager”, “Manager with Finance/Payroll”, or a custom manager group).
- Location access for the employees whose expenses you approve (matching their primary location).
- If managers must create expenses on behalf of staff, you have Create & Update Expense Requests as well as Approve Expense Requests enabled.
Your organisation has enabled the Expenses feature for employees and decided how it should be used (for example, one expense per receipt vs multi-line claims).

If you believe you should be approving expenses but cannot see any expense options, contact your internal support team or HR/Payroll team to review your permissions and configuration.

How Expenses work

Overview of the expense process

At a high level, the expense workflow is:

Employees submit expense claims from the Expenses area in Roubler, attaching receipts and details such as date, type, amount, description and any coding
Roubler routes the claim to the appropriate manager(s) based on:
- The employee’s primary location and manager-level access at that location; and
- Any configured reporting hierarchy / direct reports and notification settings.
Managers review and either approve, decline, or send back the claim for correction. The employee is notified by email and/or in-app notification when the status changes.
Approved expenses flow through to your organisation’s payroll process. When the payroll team imports and pays them, the status updates to something like Paid / Reimbursed, and the employee may receive a “Your expense request has been paid” email.

Common statuses you’ll see include:

Draft – created by the employee but not submitted.
Submitted / Pending approval – waiting for manager review.
Approved – approved and awaiting payment.
Paid / Reimbursed – processed via payroll or another payment method.
Returned / Sent back / Declined – manager has rejected or requested changes.

Where managers manage expense claims

On the web portal, managers typically manage expenses from the Payroll > Expenses area, which shows a list of submitted expense claims ready for review and processing.

Note: Menu labels may differ slightly depending on configuration (for example, “Expenses”, “Expense claims”, or similar).

Viewing and filtering expense claims

On the Expense Claims Management page:

You’ll see a list of expense claims, usually including key details such as employee, date, amount, and status.
Use the available filters (for example, status, date range, employee, location) to narrow down claims, according to your organisation’s setup.

Approving an expense claim

Use this when a claim is valid, correctly documented, and within policy:

Go to Payroll > Expenses.
Find the expense claim you want to approve.
Open the claim to review:
- Date, type/category, amount and coding.
- Description / business purpose.
- Attached receipt(s) – confirm they are clear, legible and match the claim.
If everything is in order, click Approve and confirm when prompted.
The claim status updates to Approved, and the employee is notified.

Declining or sending back an expense claim

Use this when the claim does not meet policy or needs clarification/correction:

Go to Payroll > Expenses and locate the claim.
Click Decline (or the equivalent “Return/Sent back” option, depending on your configuration).
Enter a clear reason – for example:
- “Missing receipt – please attach tax invoice.”
- “Wrong expense type – this should be coded to Travel, not Miscellaneous.”
- “Amount doesn’t match receipt – please correct or explain.”
Confirm. The claim status will change to Declined / Returned / Sent back, and the employee is notified and can edit and re-submit if appropriate.

Editing an expense claim (before approval)

If a claim is awaiting your approval and has a minor issue you can safely fix yourself (in line with your policy), you may be able to edit it:

On the Expense Claims page, click Edit on the relevant claim.
Adjust fields such as:
- Date, amount, or category.
- Description, to better explain business purpose.
- Replace or add a clearer receipt.
Click Save, then Approve if the claim is now correct.

Important: Follow your internal policy. Some organisations prefer managers to send claims back to the employee rather than editing on their behalf.

Once a claim is approved or paid, it can usually no longer be edited from the Expenses screen. Any corrections then need to go through HR/Payroll following your internal procedure.

Submitting an expense on an employee’s behalf

Use this only where your organisation allows managers to lodge claims for employees (for example, for team expenses or where employees cannot access Roubler):

Go to Payroll > Expenses.
Click the Add / + button on the page.
Complete the expense form:
- Select the employee.
- Enter date, type/category, amount, description, and any required coding.
- Attach supporting receipt(s).
Click Save.
Approve the expense as normal so it can flow through to payroll.

How approved expenses reach payroll and payment

Once Approved, expenses are available for your payroll team to import into a pay run in the connected payroll system (for example, as reimbursable expense lines).
When the pay run including those expenses is finalised and paid, the expense status typically updates to Paid / Reimbursed, and the employee may receive a payment confirmation email.

If there appears to be a mismatch between Approved status in Roubler and actual payment, see the FAQ section below and escalate to your HR/Payroll team if needed.

Frequently asked questions and troubleshooting

1. My team member cannot see the Expenses menu

Possible causes:

Your organisation may not be using Roubler for expenses.
The employee’s permission group does not include expense self-service.
The employee’s primary location and access have not been set correctly.

What to do:

Confirm internally that the employee is meant to use Roubler for expenses.
Ask your internal Roubler administrator or HR/Payroll team to:
- Check that the employee has the correct permission group including “View own employee expenses”.
- Ensure their primary location and location access are correctly configured.

2. I can’t see an employee’s expense claim to approve

Common reasons:

The employee has saved the claim as Draft, not Submitted.
The employee’s primary location does not match any location where you have manager-level permissions, so you’re not in their manager list.
Another manager (for example, at a different location) has responsibility for that employee’s expenses.

What to do:

Ask the employee to confirm the claim status is Submitted / Pending approval, not Draft.
If you should be their approver, ask HR/Payroll or your internal Roubler administrator to:
- Check the employee’s primary location.
- Confirm you have a manager-level permission group for that location.

3. Too many managers are getting expense notifications

This usually means multiple managers have manager-level access to the employee’s primary location and/or notification settings are too broad.

What to do:

Review who actually needs to approve expenses for that location.
Ask your internal Roubler administrator or HR/Payroll team to:
- Remove unnecessary manager-level access to the location.
- Adjust notification settings so only the correct managers receive expense emails.

4. An expense is Approved in Roubler but not appearing in the pay run

Possible causes include:

The expense date is outside the pay period of the current pay run.
The employee is not included in that particular pay run (for example, wrong pay group/entity).
The expense’s description is too long or contains characters that fail validation. Long, complex descriptions can prevent some integrations from importing the claim.
The expense type is not correctly mapped to a pay item in payroll.

What to do as a manager:

Check the expense date and compare it to the pay run dates; if necessary, coordinate with payroll on whether to include it now or next cycle.
Ask your HR/Payroll team to:
- Confirm the employee is part of that pay run.
- Check for any import errors or mapping issues with that expense type.
- If needed, have the employee or payroll re-create the claim with a shorter, cleaner description (ideally under 250 characters, avoiding unusual symbols).

5. An expense shows as “Paid” but wasn’t actually paid in payroll

Sometimes a notification such as “Expense request paid” means the claim was successfully sent to the payroll engine, not that your organisation has completed payment in a specific pay run.

What to do:

Check which pay run the payroll team used to process expenses for that period.
Ask your HR/Payroll team to:
- Confirm whether the expense was included in a pay run.
- Arrange any necessary correction in payroll if it was missed or duplicated.

6. I need to correct an expense that is already Approved or Paid

Once a claim is Approved / Paid, it is usually locked from normal editing in the Expense management view.

If there is an error (wrong amount, wrong employee, wrong coding, or it has been paid twice), do not try to fix this solely by changing Roubler expense data. Instead:

Escalate to your HR/Payroll team.
They will follow your organisation’s payroll correction process (for example, adjustments in the next pay run, reversals, or manual corrections), and, if necessary, coordinate with the internal Roubler administrator on any system changes.

7. I need receipts for a terminated employee’s expenses

Access to a terminated employee’s records may be restricted depending on configuration.

If you need receipts for audit or accounting:

Contact your HR/Payroll team or internal Roubler administrator and provide:
- Employee name.
- Approximate dates and amounts.
They can retrieve the necessary information or follow your internal process to temporarily adjust access and obtain the documents.

Who to contact for help

If you need help with expense management in Roubler, please contact:

Your internal support team or internal Roubler administrator for:
- Issues with access, permissions, or menus (for example, you or your staff cannot see Expenses).
- Questions about how expense approvals, notifications, or workflows are configured.
- System errors when viewing, approving, or editing expense claims.
Your HR/Payroll team for:
- Questions about payment timing or reimbursement amounts.
- Issues where an Approved expense is not appearing in or matching a pay run.
- Guidance on policy application, corrections to Approved/Paid claims, or tax/accounting treatment of expenses.
Your own manager or finance lead for:
- Clarification on whether a particular expense is appropriate or should be approved, especially for edge cases (e.g. borderline claims, exceptions to policy).

Your organisation is responsible for configuring Roubler, defining and applying its expense policies, and managing any escalations.