# Approve an employee advance request

Operation ID: `approveEmployeeAdvanceRequest`

Group: Accounting › Employee Advances

[Open in the interactive reference](https://docs.api.lensing.ai/lensing/v1/endpoints/approveEmployeeAdvanceRequest)

`POST /accounting/employee-advances/{id}/approve`

Retry-safe: A write that accepts Idempotency-Key: repeating a request with the same key replays the stored answer instead of executing twice.

Approves an employee advance request. The approval goes through your tenant's approval policy, and the response is the status that results.

With no approvers configured, the request goes straight to 'approved'. With a multi-step policy, it moves on one step.

Only a request in 'pendingApproval' can be approved. For any other status, the request fails with STATUS_CONFLICT.

Approval doesn't pay the advance. To pay it, use POST accounting/employee-advances/:id/issue.

## Parameters

| Name | In | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `Api-Version` | header | string · v1 | yes | The API version this request targets, named by its public identifier. Required on every request; omitting it, or naming a version this company does not have, is answered with 400. This document describes version `v1`. |
| `Idempotency-Key` | header | string | no | An opaque caller-chosen string (1-255 characters) that makes this request safe to retry. Repeating the same key with an identical request body replays the original response instead of re-executing - but only once that original request succeeded; a failed attempt re-executes on retry. Repeating the key with a different body is answered with 422. A key still in flight is answered with 409 - as is a key whose original request was interrupted before it finished, for a few minutes afterwards, until that attempt is presumed dead. A completed response stays replayable for 24 hours. The key is scoped to the caller, not to the action: reusing it for a different action is answered with 409 or 422 rather than treated independently. On read actions this header is ignored. On write actions that cannot offer the guarantee it is answered with `400 IDEMPOTENCY_NOT_SUPPORTED` rather than silently ignored. |
| `id` | path | string | yes | Id (a UUID) of the advance request; bound from the :id path segment. Example: `"b81f4a22-6d90-4c53-8e17-9f2a4b6c8d05"`. |

## Response

`200` Success

Under `data` (approveEmployeeAdvanceRequestOutput):

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `status` | string | yes | Status after the operation. The workflow decides it, so it is read back rather than assumed. Example: `"approved"`. |

```json
{
  "data": {
    "status": "approved"
  },
  "diagnostics": [
    {
      "code": "<code>",
      "message": "<message>",
      "severity": "error",
      "path": [
        "<path>"
      ],
      "details": "<details>"
    }
  ]
}
```

## Response headers

- `Idempotency-Replayed` — Present and `true` only when this response replays a previously stored one for the same Idempotency-Key, rather than reflecting a live execution. Absent on a live response - never sent as `false`.

## Errors

| Code | Status |
| --- | --- |
| `NOT_FOUND` | 400 |
| `STATUS_CONFLICT` | 400 |
| `APPROVAL_FAILED` | 400 |
| `IDEMPOTENCY_KEY_CONFLICT` | 409 |
| `IDEMPOTENCY_PAYLOAD_MISMATCH` | 422 |

## Statuses

- `400` — Invalid request or business failure. Codes: NOT_FOUND, STATUS_CONFLICT, APPROVAL_FAILED
- `401` — The request carries no valid access token.
- `403` — Not authorized
- `404` — Not found
- `409` — The Idempotency-Key is still being processed by another request.
- `422` — The Idempotency-Key was already used with a different request payload.
- `429` — Too many requests from this client address. The response has no body and no `Retry-After` header.
- `500` — Internal server error