A Short Email to Approve an Expense

Template 1 — Asking in advance: "Hi Priya, I'd like to book a flight to the Berlin client workshop on 12 March. Return economy is £340, plus two nights at £110. Total £560, which sits inside the £700 travel cap in the policy. Happy to go ahead unless you'd rather I wait. If you approve here, I'll book today and attach the receipts to my expense report. Thanks, Adam."

Notice what this email does not do. It does not ask an open question. It gives the amount, the reason, the date, and the cap it fits under, then proposes the answer. Your manager can reply with one word. Most expense requests get stuck because the approver has to go and find the policy first. Do that work for them and approval takes seconds.

Template 2 — The two-line approval: "Approved — go ahead and book. Thanks for pricing it out first. £560 is fine against the travel line. Please claim it through the normal expense report at the end of the month and attach both receipts. If the flight price moves more than £50, come back to me before you book. Priya."

A good approval is short, but it is never just "ok". It repeats the number, so there is a written record of what was approved. It names where the money comes from. It says how to claim the money back. And it sets one boundary — the £50 rule — so the person does not have to write again if the price wobbles slightly.

Template 3 — Approving part of it: "Thanks Adam. I can approve the flight at £340 today. The hotel is above our nightly cap, so book the £85 option instead and I'll sign that off too. Sorry to make you rebook. If the cheaper hotel is genuinely unworkable, tell me why and I'll take the exception to finance myself."

Partial approval is the most common reply and the most badly written one. Split the request rather than rejecting it whole: yes to the part that fits, a specific alternative for the part that does not. Then offer to carry the exception upwards yourself. Nobody should be left out of pocket, and nobody should be left guessing whether they are allowed to spend anything at all.

All three emails share one habit: the number appears in every single message. Ask with a number, approve with a number, reduce with a number. That is what makes an expense trail auditable months later, when neither of you remembers the trip. And it is why the person who is careful in writing rarely has trouble getting reimbursed.