There may be instances, generally when a customer is being billed for time and/or expenses, that it is desirable to receive a customer's approval of the time and expenses for a project or activity.  This will help reduce the time it may take to receive payment from the customer. 

To use the customer approval first set up the necessary email service and ensure the Customer Approval button has been added to the T&E Report page layout.  This setup is generally done by the system administrator and details can be found in Installation.

When a T&E Report is in a completed status it can be submitted for customer approval.  It is necessary to enter values in the Customer Approval section of the T&E report.  A valid Account and Contact must be entered and the contact must have a valid email address.  This is the address the approval email is sent to.  Select and Approval option of Time, Expense or Time & Expense.  The selection made will determine what information is included in the email text. 

The customer simply replies to the email with the text Approve or Reject in the first line of the response.  Any comments can be added in the second line of the response.  The approval status of the T&E Report is updated as indicated and any comments are reflected in the Approval Comment field.  Note that the Approval Status is separate for the Status field which is used for internal T&E Report approval via the workflow. 

If the customer rejects the T&E report, modifications can be made and the T&E report can be re-submitted to the customer.

Customer approval is an optional step.  Workflows can be designed to ensure that specific T&E Reports are submitted to customers for approval provided the specific rules can be defined and replicated in the workflow environment.  Refer to the workflow documentation in salesforce.com or contact Accorto of additional assistance.