Expensify: report failed to submit: no approver"

TL;DR

Expensify cannot route the report because no approver is assigned to you or the policy. Set your approver in Expensify settings (or ask your admin to set a default approver on the policy), then submit the report again.

Error

Expensify: report failed to submit: no approver

Steps

1. In Expensify, open Settings and check your assigned approver. Expected: the field is empty, which is the cause.
2. Enter your manager as your approver, or ask your Expensify admin to set the policy's default approver. Expected: an approver name is saved.
3. Return to the report and submit it. Expected: submission succeeds and the report routes to the approver.
4. If your manager changes often, ask the admin to use a role-based default approver on the policy. Expected: future reports route without manual setup.
5. Confirm the approver received the report. Expected: it shows as pending their approval, not stuck.

When to use

• Expensify blocks submission citing no approver.
• You are new to the company or recently changed teams.

When not to use

• The report submitted but sits with the approver (see the stuck-approval skill).
• The approver is on leave (set a delegate).

Tool compatibility

• Expensify web and mobile; approver settings per user and per policy.

Variant phrasings

No approver assigned to submit to

Same block, alternate wording.

Please select an approver before submitting

The inline prompt form of the same error.

Why it happens

Expensify routes every report to a specific approver at submit time. With no approver on the user or the policy, routing has no destination and submission is blocked.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_2L4Etp7eq2Bnt7dW2lmW6Q