Managing internal budget requests doesn’t need to be a slow, back-and-forth process. With Formaloo, you can build a complete, automated approval system that lets your employees submit requests, track their status, and get notified, without any coding.

In our latest webinar, we walked through how to set up a fully functional budget approval portal using Formaloo’s no-code platform. 

Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you build the same system for your team.

What is a budget approval workflow?

A budget approval workflow is the step-by-step process an organization uses to review, approve, or reject budget requests. It typically begins with an employee submitting a funding request, such as for a project, purchase, or event. It proceeds through one or more levels of managerial or finance team approval. 

A good workflow ensures requests are properly documented, routed to the right decision-makers, and tracked until completion. Automating this process reduces delays, prevents lost requests, and gives everyone better visibility into spending decisions.

Why should you automate budget request approvals?

Automating your budget approval workflow isn’t just a time-saver; it’s a game-changer for how your organization makes financial decisions. Manual approvals often lead to delays, miscommunication, and errors, especially as your team grows. 

By automating this process, you ensure that requests are routed instantly to the right person, status updates are tracked in real-time, and nothing falls through the cracks.

Automation also brings transparency and accountability. Everyone knows where each request stands, who’s responsible, and what actions have been taken. It reduces administrative overhead, speeds up decision-making, and gives finance teams better data to plan and allocate resources.

That’s why some of the world’s most efficient companies, like Google, Airbnb, and Shopify, have adopted automated financial approval systems. With platforms like Formaloo, teams can build similar systems in minutes.

Why should you build a budget request workflow in Formaloo?

Because spreadsheets, long email chains, and manual follow-ups don’t scale. 

With Formaloo, you can:

• Create a form in minutes, or just use our ready-made templates;
• Set up conditional workflows and smart email notifications;
• Let employees track the status of their requests;
• Give your finance team a dashboard for reviewing and approving;
• Control who sees what, all within a secure portal.

And you can do it all without writing a single line of code.

Step 1: Create your budget request form

Every workflow starts with a form. 

Inside your Formaloo dashboard, create a new form and add the fields relevant to your process. 

For example, you could include the following:

• Project details: A short description of what the budget is for;
• Budget type: One-time, recurring, or emergency;
• Amount requested: Use a number field;
• Timeline: Start and end dates;
• Expense category: Choose from a dropdown (like travel, software, marketing);
• Justification: A long text area;
• File upload: For quotes, invoices, or supporting documents.

Since users will log into the portal, you don’t need to ask for their name or email. You can ask for this information in their portal registration form. Formaloo saves that automatically with their submission.

Once your form is ready, publish it.

Step 2: Automate approvals with logic and notifications

Now that your form is built, it’s time to set up the automation. Inside the form settings, use Advanced Logic to define rules for different steps in the workflow.

You can trigger actions like:

• Sending an email to the finance team when a request is submitted;
• Alerting a manager if the requested amount is above a certain threshold;
• Notifying the requester when the status of their request is updated;

You can customize the emails using Formaloo’s built-in templates or even use Formaloo AI to generate a draft based on your prompts.

Want to get notified when a submission is edited? Add a logic rule “on update” so you never miss a change.

Step 3: Build your employee portal

To make the workflow self-service, turn it into a secure portal. From your Formaloo project dashboard, enable the Client Portal feature.

Here’s what to do:

1. Set up a user form to manage employee accounts.
2. Add a login/signup page for access control.
3. Filter the request form responses per user so each employee only sees their submissions.

Try budget approval template for free

We've already creared a budget request approval workflow for you. Check it out!

Then, organize the portal with three main pages:

• Welcome – Add a quick guide or welcome message
• New Request – Embed your budget form here
• My Requests – Add a table showing each employee’s own submissions

Once logged in, employees can fill out the form and track their submissions without needing to contact anyone directly.

Step 4: Give admins full visibility

While employees only see their own data, your finance or leadership team needs access to everything. 

To support that, create admin-only pages with:

• A full table of all requests
• A kanban board grouped by request status
• Access control that limits this view to admins or workspace members

To track request progress, add a “Status” dropdown field to the form with values like: Requested; In Review; Approved and Rejected.

Make this field admin-only, so it’s hidden from employees but editable by approvers.

Now, admins can update each request’s status, leave internal notes, and manage approvals from one place, without affecting what employees see.

Step 5: Add status boards and analytics

To visualize where each request stands, add a kanban board to the portal. Group it by the “Status” field so you can drag and drop requests between columns like “In Review” and “Approved.”

You can also add a request analytics page with built-in charts. For example:

• Total requested amounts this quarter
• Most common expense categories
• Average time to approval
  

You can also use the Formaloo AI Analyze and get the analysis of the exact statistics needed for your processes. Just connect it with the correct base, give a prompt, and get responses right away.

With just a few clicks, you’ll have a real-time dashboard showing the full picture.

Step 6 : Add your branding to the form and portal

Make sure your brand image is consistent across different platforms. Easily set up your brand colors, logo, and name to customize your forms & budget approval portal. Make sure to read our comprehensive portal customization guide. You can even customize your charts and their colors.

Pro tips and common pitfalls

To make your budget approval portal truly effective, keep these practical tips in mind—and avoid the mistakes that can derail your workflow.

Pro tips:

• Use admin-only fields to manage internal approvals and status updates without exposing them to employees.
• Add conditional logic for both form submissions and edits to keep finance and management teams notified only when needed, not flooded with every change.
• Filter tables and boards per user so each employee sees only their own requests—this keeps your data secure and clean.

Common mistakes to avoid:

• Not setting up access control: without it, employees might see or edit submissions they shouldn’t.
• Forgetting to update the “status” field after review - this breaks visibility and stops automation from working properly.
• Launching before testing. Review your portal from both the user and admin views before sharing it with your team.

Check more free finance templates

Here's the selection of free ready-to-use templates for your sales and finance teams.

Here’s what you can do next:

• Start from the budget approval template we built in the webinar
• Watch the full webinar walkthrough here
• Book a live dem, and we’ll help you build it step-by-step
• Explore enterprise or self-hosted plans for more control and customization

You're ready to go 🚀

What you end up with is a complete, automated approval system that’s easy to manage and intuitive for your team.

Employees can request budgets and track progress. Managers can review, approve, or reject, without messy spreadsheets or missed emails. And everything stays in sync inside your Formaloo portal.

Start building now!

👉 Want help building it? 

If you want your project built for you, we have a pool of certified partners who can take care of it from start to finish, tailored to your specs and delivered straight to your workspace, so you can skip the setup and launch faster.

Tell us about your use case and requirements 🔗on this form – we’ll match you with the right partner, and get back to you shortly with a time and cost estimate.

Happy Formaloo-ing! 🎉