Entering, submitting and tracking an expense

This article is for employees: it explains how to enter an expense by hand or by scanning the receipt, submit it for approval, follow your expenses and fix a rejected one. Mileage and per diems have their own article.

Before you start #

• To open your expenses, your role must hold the “Expense report” permission at the Access level; to create them, at the Execute level. The All employees role holds it by default.
• To scan a receipt, you also need the “Scan a receipt (OCR)” permission at the Execute level, granted by default to all employees.
• Categories, VAT rates and mandatory fields are chosen by your company.

Finding your expenses #

Open your profile, Expense Notes tab. The page shows:

• indicators: Expenses total, Mileage total, Per diem total, Reimbursed (approved expenses) and Pending (draft, pending and per diem);
• three tabs, Expenses, Mileage and Per Diem, each with its number of rows;
• a search field, the Export button (CSV file of the tab shown) and status filters: All, Draft, Pending, Approved, Rejected;
• the creation buttons: Add expense, Add mileage, Scan receipt / invoice, Declare per diem and My vehicles. Only those your permissions allow are shown.

For each expense, the table shows the date, name, category, merchant, amount, whether an attachment is present (Att. column) and the status. If you have several contracts, the list follows the contract chosen in the profile header and a Contract column shows the contract of each expense.

Entering an expense #

1. Click Add expense. The Expense Note page opens.
2. Under General Information, give the expense a name (3 to 100 characters), choose its Expense Note Category and its Date. Fill in the Merchant if your company requires it.
3. If several of your contracts cover that date, choose the Related contract: the expense is reimbursed by that contract’s employer and approved by its manager.
4. Enter the Value (excl. tax) and its Currency. If the currency differs from yours, the Auto conversion box shows the converted amount.
5. If needed, link the expense to a Project, then to a Task and a Sub-task assigned to you.
6. Choose the Tax Rate: the tax and total are calculated. Add a comment under Expense Note Details (1,000 characters at most).
7. On the right, drop your receipt in Receipt Preview: a single PDF, JPG or PNG file of 10 MB at most. The Replace and Remove buttons let you change it.
8. Click Save Draft to finish later, or Submit to send it for approval.

Checks on submission #

• Missing fields are listed under “Please fix the following errors before submitting:”. Depending on your company’s settings, the merchant, project, comment or attachment may be mandatory.
• The amount is compared with the limit of the expense rule that applies to you, in the currency of the expense. If going over is forbidden, the rule’s message is shown and the expense is not saved. If it is allowed, a warning is shown (“Warning — you can still submit, but please note:”) and the expense goes through anyway.
• Above a certain amount, your company may require a receipt: without an attachment, the expense is refused on submission.

Scanning a receipt or invoice #

1. Click Scan receipt / invoice.
2. Drag your file into the window or click browse your files: PDF, JPG, PNG or HEIC, 10 MB at most.
3. Click Scan and analyze. Reading can take up to a minute.
4. Check the result: merchant, amount, date and category. The “Read by AI” notice asks you to check the amount, date and currency in particular.
5. Click Verify and complete. The expense is created as a draft with its receipt, and the form opens pre-filled: complete it, then save or submit it.

If the scan finds nothing usable, choose Continue and fill in manually: the receipt is attached and you fill in the rest. Rescan starts again with another file. If VAT was read on the receipt, a rate is suggested and the amount excluding tax is recalculated from the total: check it before sending. Cancel in the form deletes the draft created by the scan.

Viewing, editing, fixing #

The View button of a row opens the Expense details: amount, merchant, attachment, tax breakdown where relevant, and History (creation, submission, decisions, payment). The actions depend on the status:

The reason for a rejection appears in the history and in the e-mail that tells you about it. Fix the expense, then click Submit: it goes back into the workflow.

Being notified #

You receive a notification in the Illizeo bell and an e-mail when your expense is approved, rejected or reimbursed, and a reminder when a draft has been waiting for several days (7 days by default). You can turn these notices off under Personal Settings › Notifications, Expenses family.

Good to know #

• The date of an expense can be neither in the future nor before your start date.
• The amount must be positive and is capped at 999,999.
• If no exchange rate exists for the expense date, a 1 to 1 rate is applied and the expense is flagged “Exchange rate to verify”; it then always goes through the approval workflow.
• The CSV export is refused beyond 1,000 loaded expenses: narrow your filters first.
• A deleted expense disappears from the list and cannot be restored from the application.

FAQ #

I cannot see the “Expense Notes” tab #

The module is not activated for your workspace, or your role does not hold the “Expense report” permission. Contact your administrator.

The scan shows “The OCR service is not configured” #

Automatic reading is not available for your workspace. Enter the expense with Add expense and attach the receipt.

My expense is blocked by a limit #

Your company’s expense rule forbids going over this amount for this category. Check the amount and the category; if the expense is justified, contact your manager or administrator.