Expenses
Review expense claims and receipts, settle and recharge them, and manage expense categories.
An expense is a cost a worker claims back — usually with a receipt attached. Staff submit expenses from their app; in the Admin Portal you review the claim and its receipt, decide it, and track settlement and client recharge.
Open Expenses from the sidebar (under the Finance group). The module opens as three tabs across the top:
- Expenses — every claim, with the overview strip.
- Approvals — just the claims awaiting a decision.
- Categories — the expense categories your agency offers.
📷 Screenshot: The Expenses module with its three tabs and the overview strip.
The overview strip
Above the Expenses list is a KPI strip with a period selector (This month, Last month, This quarter, Year to date). It shows three headline figures for the chosen period:
- Pending review — how many claims are waiting for a decision.
- Awaiting settlement — the total amount approved but not yet paid to staff.
- Client-recharge value — the total you can recharge to clients.
The Expenses list
Each row is one expense claim. The columns include:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Reference | The expense's reference number. |
| Date | The date of the expense. |
| Staff | The worker who made the claim. |
| Payable | The amount to pay the worker (with the claimed amount noted when they differ). |
| Approval | Where the claim is in its review (see below). |
| Paid to staff | The settlement state — Pending, Paid, or On hold. |
| Recharged to client | Not rechargeable, Pending, or Recharged. |
| Receipts | How many receipts are attached (— if none). |
More columns — Timesheet #, Description, Client, Category and the payable override — are available from the Columns menu.
Search with the keyword box (press Enter), filter by most columns from their headers, and raise a claim on a worker's behalf with Create New Expense. See Working with lists for the shared search, column, selection and CSV-export controls.
Approval statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending | Submitted and awaiting your review. |
| Approved | You've approved the claim. |
| Rejected | You've sent it back with a reason. |
Reviewing an expense
Click a row to open the expense's detail panel. It's organised into:
- Expense — the reference, the Claimed amount and an optional Payable override (both editable), the date, and the Paid to staff and Recharged to client states.
- Details — description, worker, client and the chosen category.
- Receipts — the receipts attached to the claim.
Open the Receipts section to inspect what was submitted:
- Each receipt shows its filename (click to open in a new tab) and size, with a Download receipt button.
- Attach more with the uploader (PDF, PNG, JPG, HEIC or WEBP, max 25MB), or remove one with the trash icon.
- If nothing's attached you'll see "No receipts attached."
📷 Screenshot: The expense detail panel with the Receipts section.
Approving an expense
In the panel footer, click Approve and confirm:
Approve this expense? The expense will be marked as approved and the assigned staff member notified.
The status becomes Approved and the worker is notified.
Rejecting an expense
Click Reject. A Reject expense dialog asks for a reason:
Let the staff member know why this expense is being rejected. They will be notified with this reason.
Enter a Reason for rejection (required) — for example, "The receipt does not match the claimed amount." — and click Reject. The worker is notified with your reason.
Approve is hidden once an expense is approved, and Reject once it's rejected.
The Approvals tab
The Approvals tab is the same list filtered to claims awaiting a decision. Approving or rejecting a row moves it out of the queue. It's the quickest way to clear a review backlog without wading through settled claims.
Categories
The Categories tab is your agency's own catalogue of expense categories. Each category controls how a claim behaves — whether a receipt is required, whether VAT applies, whether it counts as taxable income, whether it shows in the worker's mobile app, who it applies to (Employees, Sub-contractors, Clients), and how much of it you recharge to the client (the Coverage percentage and recharge-VAT treatment).
- New category — create a category with the form. It must apply to at least one party type.
- Click a category to edit its behaviour inline in the detail panel.
- The footer offers Deactivate / Activate — the safe way to retire a category without deleting it — and Delete.
- Delete is blocked while a category is in use by existing expenses; the button is disabled with a hint to set it inactive instead.
📷 Screenshot: The Categories tab with a category's detail panel open.
Reviewing expenses from a timesheet
You don't have to work from the Expenses list. When you open a timesheet, its Expenses section lists the claims against it, and you can approve or reject each one right there — handy for reviewing a shift's hours and costs together. See Timesheets.