Describe your expense policy and approval path. Makeform creates a structured expense request form for the purpose, estimated cost, owner, timing, and supporting files.
Route expense requests to Slack, Google Sheets, and Zapier.
Sample prompts for the builder
Choose a prompt, tailor it to your policy, or send it to the Makeform builder. Examples are starting structures, not approval decisions.
Audience
Employees requesting a planned purchase
Format
Request form with manager and finance routing
Prompt size
288 chars
Example form structure
Request form with manager and finance routing
Employee, department, and manager
Expense category and business purpose
Estimated amount and currency
Required-by date and budget code
Vendor quote or supporting file
Suggested routing tags
Manager review
Finance review
More information needed
Ask for the budget code and required-by date separately; finance can route a complete request without interpreting a long paragraph.
Step 1
Request
purpose, amount, timing, and evidence
Step 2
Review
manager checks need and budget ownership
Step 3
Route
finance receives the complete record
Step 4
Record
decision and follow-up stay with the submission
Why structured requests
An email that says “Can I buy this?” starts a thread. A structured request arrives with the amount, purpose, owner, timing, and documents a reviewer needs.
Required fields collect the vendor, estimate, reason, cost center, and needed date in one submission.
Show itinerary questions for travel, renewal details for subscriptions, or quotes above your threshold.
Send submissions to the correct manager or finance inbox while your team makes the decision.
Common workflows
Start with the workflow closest to your team, then replace example thresholds, categories, and approval roles with your own policy.
Vendor, category, amount, budget code, required-by date, and a quote for planned goods or services.
Trip purpose and itemized estimates for airfare, lodging, transport, meals, and event registration.
Recurring cost, intended users, owner, overlap, billing frequency, and vendor information for cross-functional review.
Project name, deadline, quantities, alternatives, supporting quotes, and the manager responsible for the budget.
Request workflow
Generate the intake, adjust it to match internal policy, and connect notifications so people know when a request needs attention.
Name allowed expenses, required details, and the roles reviewing each category.
Add cost centers, currencies, thresholds, attachment rules, and conditional sections.
Notify reviewers through your workflow; Makeform routes information but does not decide approval.
Track pending requests, clarification needs, and reviewer decisions.
Form vs email vs spreadsheet
The best approach depends on request volume, but structured intake reduces interpretation and keeps attachments beside the facts they support.
Field guide
Build the request around the decision your reviewers make. Collect enough detail to evaluate the expense without asking employees for unrelated sensitive information.
Requester and ownership
Start with the employee, department, manager, and budget owner so the request reaches the responsible reviewer.
Business purpose
Ask what will be purchased, why it is needed, who will use it, and what deadline applies.
Cost details
Capture amount and currency as structured fields. Ask for itemized estimates for travel or multi-item purchases.
Classification
Use dropdowns for expense category, cost center, location, and request type, with an Other option for exceptions.
Supporting evidence
Allow relevant quotes or documents. Do not collect payment-card details, passwords, or authentication secrets.
Review record
The form gathers information for human review. Authorized managers and finance staff apply policy and document follow-up.
Related tools
Use live Makeform tools for reimbursement, travel, funding, requisitions, reporting, and vendor intake alongside the pre-purchase request.
Collect actual expense line items and receipt details after spending occurs.
Open toolGather employee reimbursement submissions after an approved or eligible purchase.
Open toolBuild a dedicated intake for trip plans, dates, business purpose, and estimated costs.
Open toolStandardize internal requisitions for materials, supplies, or operational needs.
Open toolCollect structured funding proposals with intended use, amount, and supporting context.
Open toolGather vendor setup information in a separate workflow after selection.
Open toolFAQ
Practical answers for operations and finance teams creating a consistent pre-approval intake.
It is an internal intake employees submit before a planned purchase. It collects the requester, purpose, estimated amount, needed date, budget information, and files for manager or finance review.
Include employee, department, manager, category, purpose, vendor, amount, currency, recurring status, needed date, cost center, and relevant attachments. Add conditional fields by request type.
Yes. A request seeks review before spending using estimates. An expense report records actual spending afterward with receipts and line items. Organizations may use both.
The form can collect, conditionally display, and route information, but authorized people should make the decision. Use manager and finance notifications to support human review.
Yes. Use conditional logic to show quote uploads or alternative-vendor questions when the amount matches a rule you configure. Confirm it against current policy.
Do not collect passwords, authentication secrets, or full payment-card data. Limit intake to the vendor, price, purpose, ownership, timing, and appropriate documents.
Yes. Makeform provides unlimited free forms and responses, so you can generate, edit, publish, and collect expense requests without a response cap. The paid tier removes the Makeform badge.
Yes. Send submissions to your Makeform inbox and connect Google Sheets, Slack, or Zapier to notify reviewers and maintain an operational view.
Replace scattered approval messages.
