---
title: "Expiry — Approvals for Laravel | Roundly"
description: "Give asks, approvals and requests a deadline — they stop counting once it passes, and expire() or approvals:expire records the lapse."
url: https://roundly-consulting.com/open-source/docs/approvals-for-laravel/expiry
language: en
---

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[Approvals for Laravel](https://roundly-consulting.com/open-source/docs/approvals-for-laravel.md)

# Expiry

Set an expiry with expiresIn() (seconds) or expiringAt() (a Carbon instance) — on an ask, an approval or a whole request:

```php
use RoundlyConsulting\Approvals\Facades\Approvals;

// A pending sign-off that lapses if legal has not decided within 48 hours.
Approvals::for($contract)->as($legal)->expiresIn(172800)->ask();

// An approval valid for a day.
Approvals::for($budget)->as($cfo)->expiresIn(86400)->approve();

// A request that must be decided within a week.
Approvals::request($budget)->from([$cfo, $ceo])->expiresIn(604800)->open();
```

## What expiry does

An approval, ask or request stops counting the moment its expiry passes. Reads such as isApproved(), hasApproved(), approvalCount() and a request’s tally ignore it, and a request past its expiry accepts no more decisions: the next one resolves it as expired and is refused with ClosedApprovalRequestException. An expired approval frees its actor to approve again.

Set approvals.expiry.default to give every approval a lifetime unless the decision sets its own. Answering an ask never inherits the ask’s deadline. A rejection has no expiry — it stands until it is withdrawn or superseded, so reject() refuses one. A round opened from a workflow preset can take its own deadline in place of the preset’s expiry (see Workflow presets).

## Recording the lapse

Approvals::expire() records what has lapsed: decisions move to expired (ApprovalExpired plus ApprovalStatusChanged), requests resolve as expired (ApprovalRequestResolved plus ApprovalStatusChanged), and it returns how many of both it lapsed. Given a subjectType — a model class or its morph alias — it lapses only decisions on that type of approvable and requests for that type of subject, so a package sweeping its own approvals leaves the rest of the app alone:

```php
Approvals::expire();                             // int — decisions and requests lapsed
Approvals::expire(subjectType: Budget::class);   // only those on budgets (class or morph alias)
Approvals::expire(now()->addHour());             // lapse everything due within the next hour
```

## The approvals:expire command

The app-wide sweep as an Artisan command — no arguments or options:

```bash
php artisan approvals:expire
# Expired 3 approval(s) and request(s).
```

Schedule it so overdue decisions and requests are recorded as expired on their own:

```php
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schedule;

Schedule::command('approvals:expire')->hourly();
```

## Querying by expiry

The Approval model’s inForce() scope keeps only decisions whose expiry has not passed; expiringBefore() finds the overdue ones:

```php
use RoundlyConsulting\Approvals\Models\Approval;

// Approvals that still count — none past its expiry.
Approval::query()->approved()->inForce()->whereMorphedTo('approvable', $budget)->count();

// Overdue asks and approvals the next sweep will lapse.
Approval::query()->active()->expiringBefore(now())->get();
```

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