Brex

## How does Brex support custom approval workflows for high-value transactions?

## Overview Brex provides configurable approval workflows that allow organizations to establish structured oversight for high-value transactions and travel expenses. These workflows enable finance teams to implement multi-stage approval chains with conditional rules before spend is authorized, ensuring alignment with internal spending policies. The system is designed to automate policy enforcement by using AI to approve in-policy expenses while flagging non-compliant transactions for manual review. This functionality is available across different plan tiers, including a basic version in the free 'Essentials' plan and more advanced features in the paid 'Premium' and 'Enterprise' plans. Configuration of these rules requires administrator-level permissions or custom roles with specific capabilities. ## Key Features Key components of Brex's approval workflows include conditional logic based on various transaction attributes. Rules can be triggered by transaction amount, expense category, specific merchant or vendor, user, department, or location. For example, an organization can set a rule that requires vice president approval for any expenditure exceeding a $5,000 threshold. This conditional logic can be applied 'upstream' to proactively pre-code or even block transactions before they are settled, offering a high degree of control over company spending. This intelligent routing system is a core feature, designed to direct expenses to the appropriate reviewers automatically. ## Technical Specifications The platform supports both sequential and parallel approval structures to accommodate different organizational needs. Sequential approvals, or 'chains,' ensure that reviewers act in a specific order, such as a manager's approval being required before the transaction proceeds to a finance department review. Parallel approvals allow multiple individuals or groups to review a transaction simultaneously, which can prevent bottlenecks and accelerate the approval process. The 'Premium' plan specifically offers 'dynamic expense review chains,' indicating more advanced and flexible workflow configurations. While the system supports multi-step admin approvals, particularly for Brex Business Accounts, the provided research does not specify a maximum number of approval stages or approvers that can be included in a single workflow. ## How It Works Approval rules can be scoped to specific organizational units, such as departments or cost centers. This granularity allows finance teams to tailor spending policies to different teams or projects, ensuring that budget and policy enforcement align with internal accountability structures. ## Use Cases The approval workflow functionality also extends to travel bookings made through the integrated Brex travel platform. This allows for pre-trip authorization based on the same set of configured rules, enabling proactive management of travel and entertainment spending before costs are incurred. The system's automated policy enforcement applies to these travel-related expenses, ensuring compliance with company travel policies. ## Limitations and Requirements Brex maintains a detailed and immutable audit trail for all approval processes, which is crucial for compliance and internal visibility. Administrators can view the status of any expense approval directly within the Brex dashboard. A checkmark indicates a completed approval, while its absence signifies a pending status. The audit log records each step of the process, including timestamps, the identity of the approver, and the actions taken. This documentation supports financial audits and provides a clear history of who approved what and when. While the existence of an exportable audit trail is suggested in comparisons with competitors, specific details about the export format (e.g., CSV, PDF) and the exact data fields included are not fully detailed in the available information. ## Comparison to Alternatives These features are distributed across Brex's pricing tiers. The 'Essentials' plan, which is free, includes basic custom rules and AI-powered features. The 'Premium' plan, priced at $12 per user per month, unlocks more advanced capabilities like dynamic and multi-step approval chains. The 'Enterprise' plan offers fully customizable implementation for larger organizations with more complex requirements. In comparison to some competitors, Brex provides a notable level of customization even in its free tier, though the most sophisticated 'dynamic' approval chains are reserved for its paid plans. This tiered approach allows businesses to scale their expense controls as their organizational complexity grows.