What the review step means now

For a direct payment or a quick expense, the sign-off that used to be called "Approval" is now labelled Review. The name changed because what it does changed: it no longer decides whether the money moves. The money has already moved by the time anyone reviews it.

Why this changed

Before, an expense that needed sign-off sat unpaid until someone approved it, even though the person who recorded it had, in practice, already paid it out of pocket or out of a real account. The system just had not caught up yet. Now the expense is Paid the instant it is recorded, and the sign-off happens afterward, as a check, not as a gate.

Where you will see "Review" instead of "Approval"

• On the expense itself, next to its Paid status, you will see a separate Review line: Waiting, Approved, or Rejected.
• In the approval-chain email a reviewer receives, the wording asks them to review the expense, not to approve a payment that has not happened yet.
• On a board decision, the same idea applies: a board vote is a review of an expense that is already paid, not a vote on whether to release the money.

What a reviewer is actually deciding

A reviewer is confirming that the expense was reasonable and properly recorded, after the fact. Approving it changes nothing about the money: it was already paid. Approving simply closes the review with no flag attached.

Rejecting it is different. Because the money already moved, a rejection cannot undo the payment by itself. See "If a review rejects something that is already paid" for what happens next and what you can do about it.

Vendor bills keep the word "Approval"

This change does not touch vendor bills. For a vendor bill, approval is still real permission: the bill is not paid, is not posted anywhere final, and is not owed until someone approves it. That is why vendor bills keep the word "Approval" instead of "Review": for a vendor bill, the sign-off genuinely still controls whether the payment happens.