New Expense

Goal

Record money you spent for the company, send it for approval, and follow it until it is approved.

Before you begin

Steps

1. Open the form

   Go to My Expenses and choose New Expense. The page title is New Expense. When you reopen a saved expense the title is Edit Expense.

   Screenshot pending

   New Expense form with the header fields at the top and an empty expense lines grid below

   1. 1Title and Expense Type.
   2. 2Expense Lines grid.
   3. 3Save Draft and Submit for Approval.

2. Fill in the header

   Enter the Title, choose the Expense Type and complete the fields it asks for. See the header table below.

3. Add your lines

   Choose Add New Row for each item. Pick a Category on every line, enter the amount, choose the Tax and attach a Receipt.

4. Check the total

   The footer shows Total Submitted Amount. Check it against your receipts.

5. Save a draft

   Choose Save Draft. You see Expense saved as draft and the form reopens for editing. In edit mode the button reads Update.

6. Preview (optional)

   Choose Preview to see the printable claim, then print it or save it as a PDF from your browser.

7. Submit

   Choose Submit for Approval, then Submit in the dialog. You see Submitted for approval.

Field reference

Header fields

Under the header you see Policy: and the name of the policy that applies to you, or a line saying no policy applies and no limits are enforced. You cannot change it. After submission it shows the policy as it was at that time.

Expense Lines

The grid is headed Expense Lines. Choose Add New Row to add a line. A new row takes its Department and Cost Center from your default grants. The form keeps at least one line. Open the row menu to use Duplicate or Delete line (the menu is hidden when the form is locked).

There is no field for an attachment on the whole expense. Receipts are attached per line.

Receipts and policy checks

Winlium checks these when you save, and again for some at submit:

• Category requires a receipt. A non-mileage line without a receipt is refused: Category "X" requires a receipt for line "Y".
• Receipt threshold. If the line total is above the threshold, a receipt is required: Receipt required for ... line of ₦X. Your policy requires receipts above ₦T. The threshold comes from your policy, else from Expense Settings. Mileage lines never need a receipt.
• Single claim cap. A line whose total is above the policy's maximum single claim amount is refused. The cap applies to each line, not the whole expense.
• Allowed categories. If the policy lists allowed categories, a line in any other category is refused: Category "X" is not allowed under this policy.
• Monthly cap. At submit, your approved and paid expenses this month plus this one must stay within the policy's monthly limit.
• Budget. At submit, a line that would exceed its budget either asks you to confirm (Submit Anyway) or blocks the submission, depending on Expense Settings.

Receipt, cap and category checks run when you save, not at submit. If a policy changes after you saved a draft, save the draft again to apply it.

Statuses and what happens next

You can edit an expense only while it is Draft or Rejected. In every other status the form is read-only.

Buttons

At submit Winlium also checks that there is at least one line (Add at least one expense line), that every line has a category, and that required receipts are attached (One or more lines require a receipt before this can be submitted).

If the company warns on budget, a dialog titled This expense exceeds budget lists the lines over budget. Choose Submit Anyway to continue or Cancel to go back.

Approval, clarification, rejection and recall

1. After you submit, the approvers named in the workflow decide. See Approvals.
2. An approver can ask a question. A box appears: "The approver has requested clarification:" with the question. Type your answer in the box and choose Send Response. The expense stays Awaiting Approval. Winlium checks for a question every 15 seconds.
3. If an approver rejects, the expense returns as Rejected with the reason. Edit it, then choose Submit for Approval again.
4. If you recall, the expense returns to Draft and you can edit and resubmit. A new approval starts.

You cannot approve your own expense.

Ledger impact

Saving, editing, deleting, submitting, recalling, rejecting and answering a clarification never write to the ledger. Posting happens once, when the expense is approved. If the total is at or below the auto-approve amount in Expense Settings, there is no approval step and posting happens at the moment you choose Submit.

Every expense posts one set of lines per expense line: a debit to the category's expense account, a debit to the tax account for each tax, and a credit to a control account. The control account depends on the type. Each line posts on its own Date, so one expense can post into more than one accounting period. If the period is blocked or missing, posting fails and an error names the date.

Accounts come from these places:

• Expense account: the category's account, as it was when you last saved the draft (Expense Categories).
• Tax account: the tax's purchase account in Accounting > Taxes, else its default account.
• Control accounts: Expense Settings (see Expense settings) or the fund.

Example only: a hotel night of ₦200,000.00 with 7.5% VAT of ₦15,000.00. On approval, Dr Travel Expense ₦200,000.00, Dr VAT Input ₦15,000.00, Cr Employee Payable ₦215,000.00. The status becomes Approved.

Example only: Finance pays the ₦215,000.00 from the bank. Dr Employee Payable ₦215,000.00, Cr Bank ₦215,000.00. See Process Expenses.

Example only: you spend ₦400,000.00 plus VAT of ₦30,000.00 against a ₦500,000.00 advance. On approval, Dr Travel Expense ₦400,000.00, Dr VAT Input ₦30,000.00, Cr Staff Advance ₦430,000.00. The advance shows ₦430,000.00 cleared and ₦70,000.00 outstanding. The expense becomes Paid. Tax counts as cleared. See Advance to clearance.

Example only: ₦20,000.00 plus VAT of ₦1,500.00. Dr Expense ₦20,000.00, Dr VAT Input ₦1,500.00, Cr Petty Cash ₦21,500.00. A fund of ₦100,000.00 drops to ₦78,500.00. If the fund is inactive or does not hold enough and cannot go negative, approval fails: Petty cash fund "<name>" has insufficient balance (₦<balance>) to cover this claim of ₦<amount>. Replenish the fund first.

Example only: ₦50,000.00 plus VAT of ₦3,750.00. Dr Expense ₦50,000.00, Dr VAT Input ₦3,750.00, Cr Corporate Card Payable ₦53,750.00. The expense becomes Paid, but the card payable stays open until it is cleared elsewhere.

Approvals

Who approves is set by the approval workflow that matches the expense (total, type, department, branch). If no workflow matches and no default is set, submit fails. See Workflows and approvals and Approvals. Approvers act in the approvals inbox, not on this form.

Reverse or void

You can recall an expense that is waiting for approval, and delete a draft. Once an expense is approved it is posted and Winlium has no way to reverse or cancel it in the Expense module.

Who can do this

You need permission to create, read, update, submit and recall expenses (expense:expenses:create, expense:expenses:read, expense:expenses:update, expense:expenses-submit:create, expense:expenses-recall:create) and to answer a clarification (expense:expenses-provide-clarification:create). The form also reads categories, taxes, currencies, departments and branches, so your role needs read access to those. If one is missing, a list stays empty or the form keeps loading. See Roles and permissions.

Nigerian notes

If something goes wrong

More in Troubleshooting.