By using the out-of-policy flag together with the “Block to submit” option in Expense Rules, you can prevent users from submitting expenses that do not comply with company policy.
This helps ensure that required information is provided upfront and reduces back-and-forth during approval.
The goal is to block only what is strictly required for compliance, while allowing flexibility where review is still appropriate.
In this article, we highlight common scenarios where companies choose to block submission, and where they prefer to keep a warning instead.
These are rules where missing or incorrect information makes the expense non-compliant or incomplete for processing in accounting.
Missing receipt
Expenses submitted during restricted periods (e.g. weekends, if not allowed by company policy)
💡 These are typically non-negotiable and should be corrected before submission.
Some companies enforce hard limits on certain expenses.
Hotel cost exceeding a fixed cap per night
Meal cost exceeding a strict per-person limit
Expenses above a maximum allowed threshold
⚠️ Only block if exceptions are not allowed. Otherwise, consider using a warning instead.
Expenses submitted after a certain period (e.g. 30 or 60 days).
Expenses older than X days
💡 These are often still valid but should always be flagged for visibility.
When “Block to submit” is enabled on an out-of-policy rule:
Users cannot submit the expense
They must correct the expense before submitting
A message will indicate what needs to be fixed
To block submission for a rule:
Go to Admin settings > Expense rules
As an Action, select Flag expense → Out of Policy
Enable Block to submit
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