How the SAP Concur Approval Workflow Works: Routing and Troubleshooting

An expense report can be submitted successfully and still remain pending if it has not reached the right approver or an approval action is outstanding. To investigate the path, follow the report's current status and approval history, then compare the assigned approver and next step with your organization's configured policy.

This guide explains the typical workflow and practical checks for stuck or misrouted items. Exact routing depends on your organization's configuration, such as approval rules, limits, organizational assignments, and delegation settings.

01How the approval workflow moves

A submitter completes and submits an expense report. SAP Concur evaluates the configured routing rules and sends the report for review. The assigned approver reviews the details and takes an available action, such as approving or sending the report back for changes. If more approval steps are configured, the report continues through those steps before it proceeds to the next business process.

The workflow is a sequence of states and decisions, rather than a single approval event. A report may be waiting for an approver, returned to the submitter, or approved for a downstream process. Use the report's status and history to identify its present state before taking action.

The approval history is the practical starting point for diagnosing a delay: it helps establish which actions have already occurred and where the report is waiting.

02What the approver role does

An approver is responsible for reviewing the report assigned to them and taking the appropriate action under company policy. Depending on the configured process, review can include checking business purpose, required documentation, policy exceptions, amounts, and coding information. The approver should record a clear reason when returning an item or requesting a correction so the submitter knows what to address.

Assignment and access are related but distinct operational checks. A person may have access to SAP Concur yet not be the approver selected for a particular report. For administration tasks, review the organization's role and assignment practices in SAP Concur admin role basics.

03Investigate a report that is still pending

Start with the report's current status and approval history. Note the last recorded action, the step currently awaiting review, and the assigned approver shown in the available report details. Then confirm with the approver or process owner whether the item is waiting for action, has been redirected, or needs correction by the submitter.

If the named approver cannot act, follow the organization's delegation or reassignment procedure. Confirm that the substitute is authorized for the relevant work and that the report is visible to them. Avoid asking a user to approve through another person's access; preserve an attributable action history.

Check escalation behavior against the configured policy. Escalation can depend on organizational rules and timing settings, so use the established process owner's configuration and records to confirm when it should occur. For event timing questions, compare the report history with the time-handling considerations in SAP Concur timestamps.

04Common routing and delay checks

• No expected approver appears: Verify that the report was submitted and inspect its status and history. Ask the process owner to check the applicable routing rule and the submitter's organizational details.
• The wrong person is assigned: Compare the assignment with the policy's intended routing conditions. Have an administrator review the relevant approval rule and organizational data before changing the report or rule.
• An approver cannot see the item: Confirm the approver identity and their access to the relevant workflow task. Check whether the assignment changed or a delegate is expected to act.
• The report has been returned: Read the approver's comments, correct the requested information, and resubmit according to the normal process. Review the history to confirm that the new submission entered the intended next step.
• The report is approved but has not reached the finance system: Treat approval and downstream transfer as separate checkpoints. Review the integration handoff and its monitoring records with the integration owner. The SAP Concur ERP integration overview provides background on that boundary.

Keep a concise incident record: report reference, current status, last workflow action, assigned approver, timestamps, and any relevant integration message or owner response. Share only the information needed by the people investigating the issue.

05Operate changes safely

When routing appears incorrect, first capture an example and identify the rule or data condition that should have selected the approver. Test proposed changes with representative cases, including normal routing, a report requiring another approval step, and an unavailable approver. Confirm the resulting history and downstream handoff before applying a change broadly.

After a policy or assignment change, monitor a small set of newly submitted reports and confirm that each reaches the intended approver. Keep the process owner, administrator, and integration owner aligned when a change affects both approval routing and downstream finance processing.