How to Require a Board Decision on an Expense

What this does

Turn on Require board decision on a draft expense to send that expense to the board for an approve/reject vote before it enters the property's regular approval chain. Use it for a one-off expense that needs board sign-off first, even if its amount wouldn't normally reach the board through the approval chain's floors.

• If the board approves (YES), the expense is released into the normal approval chain and proceeds like any other submitted expense.
• If the board rejects (NO), the expense moves straight to Rejected status. No journal entry is ever posted.

This is different from board escalation, a property-wide setting in the Approval Chain editor that automatically sends large expenses to the board after they clear the approval chain. See "How to Set Up the Approval Chain" for that setting.

Where to find it

1. Open an expense that is still in Draft status, either a new expense you're creating or an existing draft you're editing.
2. In the Create Expense or Edit Expense drawer, scroll down to the Require board decision section. It sits below the Passthrough section.

3. This section does not appear at all on expenses generated from a recurring schedule. The board votes once, on the schedule itself, not on every expense it generates.

Turning it on

1. Switch on the Require board decision toggle.
2. A Title field appears. URBI fills it in for you based on the vendor and amount, but you can edit it. It is what the board sees when they vote. The title is required; you can't save or submit without one.
3. Optionally, add a Note to the board with any context they should know before voting (up to 2,000 characters).

4. Save as Draft or Submit for Approval as usual. Submitting sends the expense to the board first, not to the regular approval chain.

What happens after you submit

1. The expense moves to Pending Board status immediately, skipping the regular approval chain.
2. Board members are notified and vote Approve or Reject.
3. Board approves: the expense is released into the property's normal approval chain, starting from the first required approver, exactly as if it had just been submitted.
4. Board rejects: the expense moves to Rejected status. No journal entry is posted. The submitter is notified and can edit and resubmit if needed.

Good to know

• If the property's approval chain is already set to auto-escalate this expense to the board based on its amount (board escalation), the toggle shows as on and can't be turned off. The expense is going to the board either way.
• Once you submit the expense, this section, like the rest of the expense form, can no longer be edited.
• If the open board submission needs to stop, use Cancel submission from the expense profile action menu. URBI asks for a reason, voids the expense and its journal entries, permanently closes the open board decision, and keeps votes already cast as a record. If all of that cannot complete together, nothing changes.
• Recurring-schedule expenses never show this section. A board decision for a recurring cost is made once, on the schedule, not per generated instance.