What's new in Expense Agent: Improved Approval Process (2026 release wave 2)

Overview

The session walks through changes to the approval process in Expense Agent. An admin can turn on AI-driven approval policies in setup, configured per expense category, so AI runs only on lines that need it, such as flight tickets and hotel stays. Approvers see the flags but can still approve flagged items. Employees can also run the AI compliance check manually before submitting. Approval history and an audit trail are shown in the web app and in Business Central.

The second half covers features described as coming in the November release (29.1): interim approvers, better approval messaging, approval limits, and ad hoc and planned alternate approvers. Travel request approval is mentioned briefly, with a separate session referred to for details.

Key points

• AI-driven approval policies are enabled by an admin in setup and use additional AI tokens. They need expense policies configured per category, and itemizing expenses is recommended for best results.
• AI flags do not block approvers: a flagged expense can still be approved.
• Employees can run the AI compliance check manually on their own expense report before submitting. It does not run automatically.
• Approval history records creation, submission, rejection, resubmission and posting, with timestamps, user names, justifications and amount changes. In the web app it is visible to all users regardless of BC user status. In Business Central it needs a BC user or accountant with rights to view it.
• Approval limits (announced for the November release) support only two levels: one specific maximum amount (for example $2,000) and one unlimited level. Several thresholds such as 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000 are not possible.
• Interim approvers (November 29.1) must approve before the final approver can act. Better approval messaging with different icons and colors is also listed for 29.1.
• Ad hoc delegation moves already-sent reports awaiting approval to a colleague. Planned alternate approvers redirect reports for a set date range. In both cases the delegate must already be set up as an approver.

Features

A status with a roadmap link comes from the Microsoft 365 roadmap feature this part of the video covers (matched by Haiku; links Opus dropped are not used); other statuses need a status word in the video itself.

Quotes

• 0:53 “Admin can enable AI-driven approval policies in setup. So, this is only if you enable because it can make some additional spending of your”
• 1:29 “if you have expense report with I don’t know, for example, 12 lines, AI will you will be used only for these lines where”
• 2:36 “It will not block approvers. So, you can even uh approve even if this uh expense is flagged, but this is something what will”
• 4:01 “And then it was rejected 5 days after that because approver, in this case, I am the same a person who rejected, but this”
• 8:49 “you cannot have multiple levels, so you cannot have one uh for 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, so you will have one uh with a specific”
• 9:30 “I can delegate and I can use alternate approvers only if they are set up as approvers, so if they are not approvers, they”
• 10:00 “I can make plan alternate approver from for example, from October 1st until the end of October, I will choose who will approve instead”

Disclaimers in the video

• 0:27 other: we will have separate session about this process completely so you can go deep dive there
• 6:55 coming-later: from next minor from November in some situations, you need more approvers
• 7:48 coming-later: coming from uh November 29.1. Better messaging during approval process
• 8:22 coming-later: from uh November uh minor, you will be able to set up approver with a uh with a maximum approval amount
• 9:03 coming-later: this is again based on feedback, and we will have two options
• 10:22 coming-later: We have separate session about travel request, so you can go there and see what is about

Presenters (as heard): Alexander.