New to NetSuite | Understanding the Approved (Overridden) by Accounting Status in Expense Report

In NetSuite, the Approved (Overridden) by Accounting status on an Expense Report indicates that the accounting team has exercised its authority to approve the report, bypassing the standard approval process. This status typically comes into play when manual intervention is necessary—such as correcting exceptions, resolving discrepancies, or ensuring adherence to financial controls.

Normally, expense reports follow an approval chain established by company policies, often involving supervisors, department managers, or other designated approvers. However, certain situations—like the unavailability of standard approvers or exceptional business circumstances—may require that this workflow be overridden.

In these cases, a user with the appropriate accounting permissions (typically in the finance or accounting department) can override the regular process and approve the expense report directly. When this override occurs, NetSuite assigns the status “Approved (Overridden) by Accounting” to the report. This designation makes it clear within the system that routine approvals were bypassed and the authorization was granted by an accounting professional.