Expense

What Expense does

Expense lets people in your company spend money for the business and get it recorded properly. An employee files a claim and gets paid back. An employee asks for a cash advance and later shows how it was spent. Finance records corporate card spending and petty cash spending. Finance can also pay people outside the company, such as a contractor, who send a claim through a public link.

Every approved item posts to the Accounting ledger, so your books stay current without re-typing.

/dashboard/expense is the module's front door. It does not show a page of its own: it takes you straight to Overview (Quick View). See Quick View.

The kinds of expense

When you create an expense you choose its type. The app shows these names.

Type on screen	In plain words	Who normally records it
Claim	You paid with your own money and want it paid back. Finance pays you after approval.	Employee
Advance Clearance	You took a cash advance earlier. You now report what you spent. It uses up the advance instead of being paid back.	Employee
Corporate Card	You paid with a company card. Nothing is paid back to you. It records the spending against the card account.	Employee or Finance
Petty Cash	You spent from a petty cash fund (a small cash float kept in the office). The fund goes down when the expense is approved.	Employee or Finance

Two more things sit next to these:

• Advances. A cash advance is money given to you before you spend. It has its own request, approval and payment steps, then you clear it with an Advance Clearance expense.
• External payees. A person or business outside the company who is not an employee. They file a claim through the public submission link. Finance reviews it and turns it into a claim that is paid to the outside person's bank account.

Who uses it

Employee Files claims and advance requests, and clears advances. Uses My Expenses and My Advances.

Approver Approves or rejects what employees submit. Approvers work from the approvals screens, not from Expense. See Approvals and Working with approvals.

Finance Pays approved claims, pays out advances, tops up petty cash funds and reviews public submissions.

Administrator Sets up the accounts, categories, policies and workflows that Expense depends on.

How it connects to other modules

1. Step 1AdministrationAdministratorExpense Settings, roles, workflow templates.
2. Step 2ExpenseEmployee and FinanceClaims, advances, card, petty cash.
3. Step 3Workflow approvalsApproverApproves or rejects each submission.
4. Step 4Accounting ledgerFinanceApproval and payment post to the ledger.Posts to the ledger

• Accounting. Expense accounts come from the Chart of Accounts. Approvals and payments post to the ledger. The Financial Year and its periods must be open for the dates used.
• Workflow. Submitting sends the document to the approval workflow that matches it. See Workflows and approvals.
• Budget Planning. If you use Budget Planning, Expense can warn or block when a submission would go over budget. See Budget checks.
• Administration. Expense Settings lives under Administration. Roles and users are managed there too.

Statuses

An expense moves through a small set of statuses. These are the only ones Winlium sets.

The status badge on some screens (for example Overview) shows the raw code in capitals, such as PENDING_APPROVAL, instead of "Awaiting Approval". They mean the same thing. See Document numbers and statuses.

Set it up first

Do these in order before anyone files a claim. The full order, with the reasons, is on the set-up order page.

Before you begin

1. Read the set-up order The Chart of Accounts and an open Financial Year come first.
2. Expense Settings Save it once, then fill in the five accounts and the default workflows.
3. Categories Each category posts to one expense account.
4. Policies Optional limits. Required only if you turn on Require Policy Assignment.
5. Petty Cash Funds Only if you use petty cash.
6. External Payees Only if outside people send claims.
7. Create a custom role Without it, only the Owner role can use Expense.

Where to start by role

If you are...	Start here
An employee who wants to claim money back	My Expenses, then New expense
An employee who needs cash before you spend	My Advances, then New advance
An approver	Approvals
In Finance and you pay claims	Process Expenses
In Finance and you pay out advances	Disburse Advances
In Finance and you look after petty cash	Replenish Petty Cash
In Finance and you review claims from outside people	Review Public Submissions
An administrator setting Expense up	Set-up order
Looking for a number or a report	Expense Report

Screens in this module

The menu in the app has four groups under Expense. Expense Settings is not in this menu. It is under Administration.

Menu	Screen	What it is for
Quick View	Overview	Your own expenses and advances at a glance. Quick View
Configuration	Categories	The spending types and the expense account each one posts to. Categories
Configuration	Policies	Limits and rules for who can claim how much. Policies
Configuration	Petty Cash Funds	The petty cash floats and their balances. Petty Cash Funds
Configuration	External Payees	Outside people and businesses you pay. External Payees
Operations	My Expenses	Your claims and other expenses. My Expenses
Operations	My Advances	Your cash advance requests. My Advances
Operations	Process Expenses	Finance pays approved claims. Process Expenses
Operations	Disburse Advances	Finance pays out approved advances. Disburse Advances
Operations	Replenish Petty Cash	Finance tops up a petty cash fund. Replenish Petty Cash
Operations	Review Public Submissions	Finance reviews claims sent through the public link. Review Public Submissions
Reports	Expense Report	All expenses with filters. Expense Report
Reports	Advance Report	All advances with filters. Advance Report
Reports	Advance Ageing	How long advances have been outstanding. Advance Ageing
Reports	Budget vs Actual	Spending against budget. Budget vs Actual
Reports	Audit Report	Who changed what, and when. Audit Report
Administration	Expense Settings	Accounts, default workflows, advance rules, budget rules and the public link. Expense Settings

Related

ConceptWorkflows and approvalsHow a submitted document finds its approvers. ConceptRoles and permissionsHow roles control what each person can see and do. ConceptFinancial years and periodsWhy posting needs an open period. ConceptWHT and VATHow tax is handled on lines. ConceptDocument numberingHow expenses and advances get their numbers.