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Expense Approval Workflow

Example prompt: "When someone submits an expense via our Google Form, send their manager a Slack message to approve or reject. Log approved expenses to the accounting sheet."

How to automate expense approvals with GloriaMundo

The Problem

Expense submissions in most small and mid-sized companies follow an informal process: someone emails a receipt, their manager replies with an approval (or forgets to), and someone in finance manually enters the details into a spreadsheet at the end of the month. Receipts get lost in email threads, approvals are delayed because managers do not prioritise them, and the accounting team spends hours reconciling incomplete records. The lack of a clear trail makes audit time stressful and error-prone.

How GloriaMundo Solves It

We build a workflow that triggers when a new expense is submitted through a Google Form (or any form tool that fires a webhook). An integration step reads the submission details — employee name, amount, category, description, receipt link, and their manager's Slack handle. The workflow sends a Slack message to the manager with the expense details and asks them to approve or reject. A conditional step checks the manager's response. If approved, an integration step logs the expense to the accounting Google Sheet with all relevant fields and a timestamp. If rejected, a notification is sent back to the employee via Slack explaining the outcome. Glass Box preview shows you the approval message and the spreadsheet row that will be written before any action is taken.

Example Workflow Steps

  1. Trigger (webhook): Fires when a new expense is submitted via the Google Form.
  2. Step 1 (integration): Read the form submission — employee name, expense amount, category, description, receipt URL, and manager's name.
  3. Step 2 (integration): Send a Slack message to the designated manager with the expense details and approve/reject options.
  4. Step 3 (conditional): Check the manager's response. If approved, proceed to logging. If rejected, notify the employee.
  5. Step 4 (integration): Log the approved expense to the accounting Google Sheet — date, employee, amount, category, description, receipt link, and approval timestamp.
  6. Step 5 (integration): Send a confirmation to the employee via Slack or Gmail confirming the approval and logging.

Integrations Used

  • Slack — delivers the approval request to the manager and notifications to the employee
  • Google Sheets — accounting ledger where approved expenses are logged with full details
  • Gmail — optional confirmation email to the employee with the approval record

Who This Is For

Finance teams, office managers, and operations staff at companies that handle regular expense submissions and want a clear, auditable approval trail without purchasing dedicated expense management software.

Time & Cost Saved

Manually managing expense approvals — chasing managers for sign-off, logging entries, and reconciling at month end — typically takes 5-10 minutes per submission. For a company processing 30-50 expenses per month, that is 2.5-8 hours of admin work. This workflow reduces the effort to a single click from the manager and automatic logging. Over a quarter, the time saved adds up to 8-25 hours. The workflow uses integration and conditional steps, costing a few credits per submission.