Knowledge Base

Expense Management

On this page you manage your company's expenses: individual employee expenses, bundled travel expense reports, expense categories, and the mileage rates for trips made with a private vehicle. You can record expenses, submit them, approve or reject them, and mark them as paid once the reimbursement has gone out.

Rebuilt excerpt of the view: /hr/expenses

What can I do here?

  • Record, submit, approve, reject, and mark expenses as paid (Expenses tab)
  • Submit and approve bundled expense reports (Reports tab)
  • Create and delete expense categories with a spending cap and receipt requirement (Categories tab)
  • Create and delete mileage rates for travel reimbursement (Mileage tab)

Notes: Recording and submitting require write access for expenses; approving and paying additionally require approval rights. The four-eyes principle also applies: nobody can approve, reject, or mark their own expenses as paid — the buttons are then grayed out with the hint "Your own request — four-eyes principle: another authorized user must perform this action."

Step by step

Record and submit an expense

  1. Open the Expenses tab and click New Expense.
  2. Fill in the form: Employee ID, Title, Amount, and the date are required; Category and Description are optional. Click Save — the expense is created as a Draft.
  3. Click the check icon (Submit) in the row of the new expense. The expense changes to Submitted and awaits approval. While it is still a draft, you can also delete it via the trash icon.

Approve and pay out a submitted expense

  1. In the Expenses tab, use the status filter to show Submitted expenses.
  2. Click the green check (Approve) or the red cross (Reject). You cannot approve your own expenses (four-eyes principle).
  3. After approval, the Mark Paid button appears. Click it once the reimbursement has actually been paid out.

Release a bundled report

  1. Open the Reports tab. A report bundles several expenses of one person into a single settlement.
  2. For a report in Draft status, the check icon submits the report — any contained expenses that are still drafts are submitted along with it.
  3. For a report in Submitted status, the check icon approves the report — all contained submitted expenses are approved along with it. The four-eyes principle applies here too.

Create a category or a mileage rate

  1. Open the Categories or Mileage tab and click New Category or New Rate.
  2. For categories: Name and Code are required; Description, Max Amount, and the Requires Receipt checkbox are optional.
  3. For mileage rates: Name and Rate per km (EUR) are required; the Vehicle Type is optional. Click Save.

Fields explained

Field Meaning Notes/Impact
Title Short name of the expense or report Required; included in search
Employee The person who incurred the expense The list shows the person's name
Employee ID Identifier of the person when recording a new expense Required in the form
Category Assignment of the expense to an expense category Optional ("No Category" is possible)
Amount Value of the expense Required; displayed in its currency
Date Day the expense was incurred Required
Description Free text with details about the expense Optional; included in search
Total Amount Sum of all expenses in a report Calculated automatically from the contained expenses
Items Number of expenses in a report —
Name (category/rate) Name of the category or mileage rate Required
Code Short code of the category Required
Max Amount Spending cap of the category in euros Optional; "-" when not set
Requires Receipt Whether a receipt is required for expenses in this category Yes/No; enabled by default when creating
Rate/km Reimbursement amount per kilometer driven, in euros Required when creating a rate
Vehicle Type Type of vehicle the rate applies to Optional
Active Whether the category or rate is currently usable Shown as an Active/Inactive badge

Values & status

Status of an expense and a report

Expenses and reports go through the same stages:

Value Meaning What happens then
Draft The expense/report is recorded but not yet submitted Can be submitted; deleting (expenses) is only possible in this status
Submitted Awaiting review by an authorized person Can be approved or rejected — not by the person who submitted it
Approved The reimbursement has been granted Can then be marked as paid
Rejected The reimbursement was not granted Final state, no further actions
Paid The reimbursement has been paid out Final state 
flowchart LR
    A[Draft] -->|Submit| B[Submitted]
    B -->|Approve| C[Approved]
    B -->|Reject| D[Rejected]
    C -->|Mark Paid| E[Paid]

FAQ

Why is the approve button grayed out on some expenses?
That is the four-eyes principle: you may not approve, reject, or mark your own expenses as paid. Another authorized person has to do it.

Can I still delete an expense that has already been submitted?
No. Deleting is only possible in the Draft status. A submitted expense can be rejected instead.

What happens to the individual expenses when I approve a report?
All expenses contained in the report that are in Submitted status are approved along with it. Likewise, submitting a report also submits all contained draft expenses.

What is the "Mileage" tab for?
There you maintain the rates used to reimburse trips made with a private vehicle (amount per kilometer, optionally per vehicle type). The reimbursement for a trip is then calculated as distance × rate.

What does "Max Amount" on a category do?
It records the spending cap intended for expenses in this category and is shown in the category list.

Where do employees submit their own expenses?
This page is the management view for the HR team. Employees record their own expenses in their self-service area.