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Refunds — Workflow

Overview

The Refunds workflow is a three-stage approval and payment pipeline. A collaborator submits an out-of-pocket expense, their manager reviews and approves it, and a finance staff member records the actual payment. Rejected requests can be corrected and resubmitted without creating a new record.

Note

This feature follows SARA's standard record lifecycle model. See: Workflows & Pipelines

Roles involved

  • Collaborator — submits expense reimbursement requests and corrects rejected ones.
  • Manager — reviews submitted refunds for their department or project; approves or rejects.
  • Finance staff — records the actual payment for approved refunds.

Status lifecycle

  • PEND — Submitted by the collaborator, pending manager review.
  • REJC — Rejected by the manager. The collaborator can correct and resubmit.
  • APPR — Approved by the manager, pending payment by finance.
  • PAID — Paid. The reimbursement has been recorded and is complete.
  • CANC — Cancelled. Legacy status present on some older records.

Info

For system-wide status guidance, see: Status

Status diagram

stateDiagram-v2
    [*] --> PEND : Submitted
    PEND --> APPR : Approved (manager)
    PEND --> REJC : Rejected (manager)
    REJC --> PEND : Corrected and resubmitted
    APPR --> PAID : Paid (finance)
    PAID --> [*]

Workflow

Workflow steps

  1. Collaborator submits an expense reimbursement request.
  2. Manager reviews the request and approves or rejects it.
  3. If rejected, the collaborator corrects and resubmits.
  4. Finance records the payment for approved requests.

Submission

The collaborator opens the + New refund form on the Refunds screen (/refunds) and fills in the expense details: category, amount, tax percentage, currency, expense date, budget source (project or department), payment type, and supporting files. On submit, the record is created at PEND status and becomes visible to the responsible manager in Refunds Administration.

There is no draft state — the form goes directly to PEND when submitted.

Manager review

The manager opens the Review modal for a PEND record in Refunds Administration and chooses one of two actions:

  • Approve — before setting the record to APPR, the system checks the available budget for department-assigned refunds. The refund amount is converted to the department budget's currency using the exchange rate for the expense date. If the amount exceeds the remaining available budget for the assigned item, the approval is blocked and an error message is shown. The manager must contact the submitter to reassign the refund to a different budget item. On a successful approval, the collaborator receives a status notification email.
  • Reject — the manager enters a rejection reason (free text). The record moves to REJC and the collaborator receives an email notification containing the reason.

The manager can also update the internal company on a PEND record from within the Review modal before approving, if the assignment needs to be corrected.

Note

The Review button is only visible to users who are the direct manager of the refund's assigned department or project, or who have the Project approvation permission. The edit permission is also required.

Correction and resubmission

When a record is REJC, the Refunds screen shows a Review row action. Opening it shows the rejection reason and the full form pre-filled with the previous data. The collaborator corrects any fields, deletes outdated files individually if needed, optionally uploads new supporting documents, and resubmits. The record returns to PEND and re-enters the manager review queue.

Payment

A finance staff member with the payment permission sees the APPR record in Refunds Administration and opens its Review modal. The Pay form collects:

  • Payment method (Credit card, Debit card, Cash, Check, or Transfer)
  • Paying company (internal company making the payment)
  • Optional details / notes
  • Proof of payment file (PDF, optional)

On submit, the record moves to PAID.

Warning

No email notification is sent to the collaborator when a refund is marked as paid.

Notifications

Event Recipient Channel
Refund approved (→ APPR) Submitting collaborator (company email) Email
Refund rejected (→ REJC) Submitting collaborator (company email) Email with rejection reason

Note

For global notification behavior, see: Notifications & Alerts

Setup & dependencies

  • The collaborator must have an active internal company assignment in their collaborator profile to submit refunds. If no active assignment is found, the New refund form displays an informational message instead of the form.
  • For department-linked refunds, the assigned department item must have an active budget record for the current year. The approval step is blocked if no budget record exists or if the available amount is insufficient.
  • For project-linked refunds, a project budget item must be selected at submission. No budget availability check is performed at the approval step.

Permissions

Permissions

Access and actions are permission-driven. See: Permissions