First matching manager approvals

Overview

Alpha. This feature is in early development and may change based on feedback.

First matching manager finds the first person in a reporting chain who meets your conditions. Use the step to require approval or send a notification, rather than requiring every manager's approval.

Your business must have this feature enabled. Follow the steps for expense approvals, procurement, or Bill Pay below.

Before you configure matching-manager steps

You need workflow-editing permission. If the workflow is read-only, ask someone with that permission to make the change.

Check the reporting relationships in Ramp; see Update user information in Ramp.

How first matching manager works

Ramp checks the reporting chain, starting with the direct manager:

• Procurement: The spend request owner's chain—not the owner as a candidate.
• Card transactions: For new transactions, the chain of the employee on the transaction.
• Reimbursements: The chain of the person being reimbursed, even if someone else submits.
• Bill Pay: Normally the creator's chain. Routing settings can use bill owners' or vendor owners' chains instead; bill owners take priority. Multiple owners can produce a first match per chain. Check the bill's owners and vendor owners when reviewing approvers.

In expense approvals and Bill Pay, delegate matching—if enabled—also checks each manager's delegates before moving up the chain.

Set up a first matching manager step

Open your workflow

• Expenses: Open Expense reviews. In the Expenses drawer, select Edit under Policies. For initial setup, use the expense policy setup guide instead.
• Procurement: Open your program's custom workflow using the procurement workflow setup instructions.
• Bill Pay: Open Bill Pay settings > Approvals and edit Require approvals for creating or editing bills. These instructions cover the editor with Add buttons. If the policy says (not in use), choose Open new Bill Pay approval policy instead; the instructions below don't cover that editor.

Choose the manager step and conditions

1. Choose whether the matching manager must approve or receive a notification:
   • Procurement: Select Add step > Require approval, then Approval type > Require first matching manager. For notifications, add Notify and choose Notification type > Notify first matching manager.
   • Expenses and Bill Pay: Add or open an Approval or Notify step. Choose Require first manager or Notify first manager from that step's type menu—not directly from the add menu.
2. Set the matching conditions and name the rule:
   • Procurement: Choose a condition, operator, and value for the manager—not the request owner. Fields include Department, Location, Role, Employee, and Business entity. Use Add condition for more criteria, joined by AND/OR. Enter a Rule name to display on the step, then select Done.
   • Expenses and Bill Pay: Enter a name in Name this condition, set conditions under Where, and select Save condition.

In procurement, add a separate approval step to require another person or group in addition to the matching manager.

Review routing and save

Before saving, check no-match routing and fallback. Ramp may select a manager who doesn't meet your conditions.

• Expenses: Select Save workflow. If Save policy changes? appears, select Save changes. Changes apply to new card transactions and reimbursements; existing expenses keep their policy version.
• Procurement: Select Save, then return to the program editor and finish publishing your changes.
• Bill Pay: Select Save workflow, or Submit for approval if policy changes require approval.

Example: find the first manager in Finance

In a procurement workflow, set Department to match Finance and name the rule "First manager in Finance."

Suppose the request owner's direct manager is in Engineering and the next two managers are in Finance. Ramp selects the first Finance manager, not both. Delegation and separation of duties can still affect who approves.

Understand no-match routing

If no manager matches, the result depends on the rule:

• No configured manager fallback: If the chain has managers, Ramp selects the most senior—even if they don't match.
• Configured fallback: If your editor provides Manager fallback approver and you configure it, Ramp uses that fallback instead of the most senior manager.
• No direct manager: Ramp uses the configured fallback or an admin fallback.

Delegation, active-user eligibility, and separation of duties can still change the final approvers.