every expense account bill is getting auto approved any idea why?

Did you check the preference for vendor bill . It should be under accounting preferences> order management> Vendor bill > default vebdor bill status

it is "approved". should i change to pending approval?

That will hold them, yes. You can also set up approval workflows or set up SuiteApprovals with default paths and approval limits to manage the flow.

We are currently using suite-approval

Then changing that default to "pending approval" should get you back on track.

awesome. thanks