---
title: Reimbursing, analysing and accounting for expenses
description: Choose how approved expenses are paid, generate the payment file, pay expenses with the payroll, follow the history, then use the reports and accounting entries.
url: "https://illizeo.com/en/centre-aide/expenses-reimburse-and-account/"
updated: "2026-11-01"
category: Expense Reports
---

# Reimbursing, analysing and accounting for expenses

This article is for the people who reimburse expenses and for accounting: it explains how to choose how approved expenses are paid, generate the bank payment file, pay expenses with the payroll, follow the payment history, then use the reports and accounting entries.

## Before you start

- All the screens in this article are under **Settings › Expenses**. By default, only the Administrator role holds the corresponding permissions:

| Permission | What it allows |
| --- | --- |
| Mark an expense report as reimbursed | Change how an approved expense is paid |
| Generate the SEPA reimbursement file | Generate and save the payment file |
| Payment — Bank account + SEPA generation | Choose the company account debited by the file |
| Payment — Files history | View, download and export payment files and history |
| Reports — by category, by department, by employee, monthly; VAT refund claims | Each opens the corresponding tab of **Reports** |
| Accounting — entries, mappings, chart of accounts & export | The **Accounting** screen |

- The payment file uses each employee's bank details (IBAN, BIC) and the company's primary bank account: check them before the first payment.

## Choosing how an expense is paid

Open **Settings › Expenses › Payments**. The **Current** tab lists the approved expenses not yet paid, with three indicators: **Total to pay**, **Pending / deferred** and **On next payslip**. The **All**, **Transfer**, **Pending** and **On salary** filters narrow the list.

Each expense carries a payment method, set when it is approved from the **Default payment method** in the settings. To change it, click **Change** in the **ACTION** column:

- **Transfer**: the expense will be included in the next payment file;
- **Pending**: the expense is set aside and goes into no file;
- **On next payslip**: the expense will be paid with the payroll.

![Expense Payments page: Current and History tabs, indicators, filters and list of expenses with their payment method and the Change button](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/expenses-reimburse-and-account-01.en_.png?resize=800%2C500&quality=80&ssl=1)
Expense Payments: approved expenses awaiting payment.

## Generating the payment file

1. If the company has several bank accounts and you have the permission, choose the **Debited account**; otherwise the **Primary account** is used.
2. Click **Generate SEPA**. All expenses set to "Transfer" are included; the **Generate SEPA File** window lists the transfers and the total.
3. Click **Generate**. The file is shown; **Copy to Clipboard** lets you retrieve it.
4. Click **Save Expense File**. The expenses in the file become paid, each employee is told about their reimbursement and the file joins the history with the "New" status.
5. Upload the file to your bank, then mark it as sent in the history.

If some expenses cannot be paid, the **Payment file blocked** window lists them with the reason: missing or invalid IBAN/BIC, invalid amount, exchange rate unavailable. You can fix the data and start again, or generate the file for the other expenses with **Generate for … valid**.

### File format

The file produced is a credit transfer order in the Swiss banking format **pain.001** (SIX standard), in Swiss francs: despite the button's name, it is not a European SEPA transfer. Each amount is converted into Swiss francs at the rate of the expense date, and the requested execution date is the next bank business day. An expense whose exchange rate is missing is excluded rather than paid at an approximate rate.

## Paying expenses with the payroll

Expenses set to "On next payslip" are settled when the payroll for the month of the expense is approved in the Payroll module: they then become paid and each employee is notified. In the history, these payments have no file and show "No file: these expenses were paid with the payroll".

## Following payments and files

The **History** tab of **Payments**, and the **Payment Files** screen, show the **Total history**, the share **By SEPA** and the share **By salary**, then one row per payment: employee, expense date, amount, method, status and payment date. For each file:

- **Download** retrieves the file;
- **Mark as sent** changes it from "New" to "Paid"; **Reactivate (mark as new)** changes it back;
- **Delete** removes the file from the history, after confirmation.

The **Export** button produces the list of payments as CSV, Excel or PDF.

## Reports

**Settings › Expenses › Reports** opens **Reports & Analytics**. Choose the period (**This month**, **Quarter**, **Year**, **12 months**) and the tab: **By category**, **By department**, **By employee (top)**, **Monthly trend**, **Taxable Benefits** or **Recoverable VAT**. The **Export Excel** and **Export PDF** buttons export the view.

- Several currencies are shown with a subtotal per currency. The **Consolidated view** converts everything into the platform currency, set under **Settings › Manage Illizeo › Global Settings**.
- **Taxable Benefits** details, by employee, the part of mileage reimbursements above the country's exemption threshold: (rate applied − legal threshold) × distance. These amounts are added to the payslip automatically as soon as the expense is approved.
- **Recoverable VAT** aggregates by country the VAT paid abroad, recoverable through the directive 2008/9/EC procedure (European Union) or the Swiss Federal Tax Administration procedure (Switzerland). The **Generate claims** button creates the refund claims for the quarter; they are tracked under **Accounting › VAT tracking**.

![Reports & Analytics page, By category tab: amounts by category, percentage distribution and table](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/expenses-reimburse-and-account-02.en_.png?resize=800%2C500&quality=80&ssl=1)
Reports & Analytics, By category tab.

## Accounting

**Settings › Expenses › Accounting** has five tabs.

1. **Chart of accounts** and **Account mapping**: import a recommended chart of accounts (Switzerland SME, France PCG, Germany SKR03…) or your software's chart as CSV, then map each expense category to its account, VAT account and counterpart. The chart marked as default is used to generate entries.
2. **Configuration**: journal code and label, piece prefix, default VAT account and default counterpart account (used when a category has none), default export format.
3. **Generated entries**: entries are created automatically each time an expense is approved. Filter **To export**, **Exported** or **All**, check that debits and credits balance, then export in your software's format: CSV, Abacus, Sage, SwissSalary, FEC, DATEV, Banana, Crésus or Business Central.
4. **VAT tracking**: the status of each VAT refund claim, the payments received and the balance still due.

![Accounting page: Account mapping, Chart of accounts, Generated entries, VAT tracking and Configuration tabs, and chart of accounts import options](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/expenses-reimburse-and-account-03.en_.png?resize=800%2C500&quality=80&ssl=1)
Accounting, Account mapping tab: import a chart of accounts.

## Good to know

- Only expenses that are approved, unpaid and set to "Transfer" can go into a payment file, however the file is requested.
- A paid expense can no longer be approved, rejected or edited.
- In France, the FEC format (accounting entries file) is required in a tax audit.
- The "Reimbursement" notification in the settings alerts, at each approval, the people who can pay the expense.

### *Similaire*