User Roles & Decision Responsibilities

In expense management, different roles are not just users of the system. They are decision-makers with varying levels of risk, context, and accountability. This exploration focuses on how responsibilities shift across roles and how the product must adapt accordingly.

Employee

Employees submit expenses and are primarily concerned with reimbursement speed and clarity around what is acceptable. Their decisions carry low financial risk individually, but poor input quality creates downstream friction for managers and finance teams.

Decision responsibilities:

• Categorize and submit expenses accurately

• Provide sufficient context (receipts, notes)

• Correct issues when flagged

The system should guide employees toward policy-compliant behavior upfront, reducing avoidable exceptions later in the workflow.

Manager

Managers review a high volume of expenses across their team. Each decision carries moderate financial and trust implications, but managers often lack the time or context to deeply inspect every submission.

Decision responsibilities:

• Approve or reject expenses efficiently

• Spot obvious issues or anomalies

• Balance trust in employees with oversight

Managers need fast paths for low-risk approvals and clear signals when an expense requires closer attention.

Finance

Finance teams oversee organization-wide spend and are accountable for policy enforcement, audits, and financial integrity. Their decisions are lower in frequency but higher in consequence.

Decision responsibilities:

• Identify policy violations and anomalies

• Ensure consistency across teams

• Maintain auditability and reporting accuracy

Finance teams need visibility into patterns and exceptions, not just individual expenses, and require explainable signals they can trust.