Cross-check travel expenses against policy

Step 1: Gather the submissions and the policyExcelWord

Have the travel expense export and the current approved policy document ready — Cowork needs both to do the comparison, not just the numbers.

Step 2: Hand the task to Copilot CoworkCopilot Cowork

Unlike a single prompt, Cowork works through the whole batch end-to-end and returns a finished summary rather than a draft you have to assemble yourself.

Prompt idea:

Cross-check every expense in this travel submission export against the attached travel policy. Flag any submission that violates a spend limit, missing-receipt rule, or unapproved category, and cite the specific policy clause for each flag.

Step 3: Review the flagged listExcel

Open the flagged list as its own filtered Table and work through it top to bottom, resisting the urge to re-skim the full unflagged batch "just in case" — spending your time there defeats the point of automating the first pass, which is to concentrate review effort where an actual rule was broken.

Step 4: Close the loop with the submitterWord

Send flagged items back with the specific policy citation attached, so the conversation is about the rule, not a judgment call.

Check the work

• Confirm the policy document Cowork used is the current version, not an outdated one.
• Spot-check a few non-flagged submissions to make sure real violations weren't missed.
• Verify the cited policy clause for each flag actually says what the summary claims.

Source: A Guide to Cloud, "Microsoft Copilot Cowork — Complete Use-Cases Guide" (2026)