Creating and submitting expenses in the Continia Expense Portal

The Continia Expense Portal is the browser-based companion to the Continia Expense Mobile App. From any modern web browser, you can record expenses, log mileage, attach supporting receipts, and group documents into expense reports for approval, all without installing any software.

Use this guide to learn how to:

• Sign in to the portal and navigate the four main workspaces.
• Configure your regional settings for language, numbers, and date formats.
• Submit an expense with a supporting receipt.
• Submit a mileage expense using address-based distance calculation.
• Submit a per diem that claims daily allowances for meals, accommodation, and transport during a business trip.
• Create an expense report that combines expenses, mileage, and per diems, and then submit the expense report for approval.

If you're working on the go, you can perform most of the same tasks in the Continia Expense Mobile App as you can in the Expense Portal. For guidance on choosing between the two, see The Continia Expense App versus the Expense Portal

Prerequisites

Before you can use the Continia Expense Portal, an administrator must create an Expense user account for you in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. After your account is set up, you'll receive sign-in details for the portal. If you're located in Australia, your administrator provides the URL for the AU Continia Expense Portal instead.

The portal runs entirely in your browser, so there's nothing to download or install. Submitted documents synchronize automatically with Business Central through Continia Online, which means an approver can review the documents as soon as you click Submit. For more information, see Signing in to the Continia Expense Portal and Mobile App.

Sign in and navigate the portal

The Expense Portal has three main workspaces, each dedicated to a specific document type.

To get started in the portal:

1. Sign in to the Expense Portal with the credentials for your Expense user account.
2. On the action bar at the top, choose the workspace you need to be in. The options are:
   • Expense — submit individual expenses such as meals, accommodation, transport, and other receipted purchases. You can attach images or PDFs of receipts to each expense.
   • Mileage — log business journeys by entering the start and end addresses. The portal calculates the distance and the reimbursable amount automatically.
   • Per Diem — Claim daily allowances for business trips, with separate selections per day for meals, accommodation, drinks, and transport. The portal calculates the amount automatically based on the rates configured by your administrator.
   • Report — group expenses, mileage, and per diems into a single expense report for a trip, project, or reporting period. Then submit the expense report for approval.

Each workspace opens to a list of your in-progress documents. To start a document in any workspace, in the upper-left corner, click New.

Configure your settings

On the right side of the action bar, you'll find Change Password, Sign out, and a gear icon that opens the Settings page.

Regional settings

The Regional Settings page lets you set your preferred language and the formats used for numbers, dates, and units of measurement. Configuring your regional settings ensures that amounts, distances, and dates display the way you expect.

To configure regional preferences:

1. In the upper-right corner of any page, click the gear icon to open the Settings page.
2. Under Regional Settings, in the Language field, choose the language you want the portal interface to display in.
3. In the Numbers and Units field, select the locale that matches your preferred formatting. For example, English (United Kingdom) for kilometers and DD/MM/YYYY dates, or English (United States) for miles and MM/DD/YYYY dates.
4. To save your changes, in the upper-left corner of the page, click Save.

Email alias

If you have expense documents that you want to forward straight from your personal email, or from an email that is not usually connected to your expense management account, you must first add it as an alias. This will avoid the expenses being automatically rejected.

To configure another email:

1. On the Settings page, navigate to Email Alias.
2. Add an alias email such as your personal email address.
3. Click Add.
4. To save your changes, in the upper-left corner of the page, click Save.

Your changes take effect immediately and you can return to the Settings page at any time to adjust your preferences.

Submit an expense

The Expense workspace is where you submit individual receipted expenses. Fields outlined in red are mandatory and must be filled in before you can save or submit the expense.

To submit an expense:

1. On the action bar, click Expense.
2. In the upper-left corner of the page, click New to open the Expense page.
3. Attach a supporting receipt by dragging the receipt file from your file browser to the drag-and-drop area on the right side of the Expense page. Alternatively, you can click inside the area to browse for the file. Supported formats include common image types (such as JPG and PNG) and PDF. For more information on the type of formats you can use, see Supported file formats for Expense Management. You can also attach a receipt by clicking Receipts on the action bar.
4. Fill in the expense fields as follows:
   • Amount — enter the total amount shown on the receipt.
   • Currency — this defaults to your company's local currency. Choose from the dropdown menu to change the currency if the expense was paid in a different currency.
   • Date — defaults to today's date. Change the date from the pop-up calendar to match the receipt.
   • Payment Type — from the dropdown menu, select how the expense was paid (for example, Cash/Private Card if you paid out of pocket, or a company card if applicable).
   • Country — (Optional) from the dropdown menu, select the country where the expense was incurred.
   • Expense Type — from the dropdown menu, select the category that best describes the purchase (for example, Meals, Transport, or Accommodation). Your administrator configures the available expense types.
   • Description — enter a description (for example, Client dinner: Project Omega kick-off).
5. (Optional) Fill in any additional fields your organization requires, such as Project, Department/Country, Job No., or Job Task No. Your administrator determines which fields appear and whether the fields are mandatory.
6. On the action bar, choose what to do next:
   • To send the expense for approval, click Submit. After you submit, the expense is transferred to Business Central through Continia Online.
   • To save the expense and continue editing later, click Save.
   • To delete the draft, click Delete.
   • To allocate the expense across multiple projects, departments, or dimensions, click Allocate and follow the prompts on the Allocation page.
   • To add the expense to a new or existing expense report instead of submitting the expense on its own, click Report Handling.

After you have submitted the expense, it moves out of your Open list and into your history, where you can track the approval status.

Submit a mileage expense

The Mileage workspace is where you claim reimbursement for business journeys made in a private or company vehicle. The portal integrates with Google Maps to calculate the distance between the addresses you enter, so you don't have to look up the distance yourself.

To submit a mileage expense:

1. On the action bar, click Mileage.
2. In the upper-left corner, click New to open the Mileage page.
3. Fill in the mileage fields as follows:
   • From Address — enter the starting address. As you type, suggestions appear; select the correct match.
   • To Address — enter the destination address and select the correct match. The calculated distance and reimbursable amount populate automatically.
   • Date — defaults to today's date. If the journey took place on a different day, change the date from the pop-up calendar to match the receipt.
   • Purpose — enter the business reason for the journey (for example, Site visit to customer headquarters).
   • Distance — review the calculated distance. If your actual route differed from the suggested one, adjust the value.
4. Fill in any additional fields your organization requires, such as Project, Department/Country, Admin Comment, Job No., or Job Task No.
5. On the action bar, choose what to do next:
   • To send the mileage for approval, click Submit.
   • To save the mileage entry and continue editing later, click Save.
   • To delete the draft, click Delete.
   • To add the mileage to an expense report, click Report Handling.

Submit a per diem

The Per Diem workspace is where you claim daily allowances for business trips that span one or more days. After you enter the departure and return date and time, the portal generates a row in the Days table for each day of the trip. For each day of the trip, you can mark which meals and allowances apply, and the portal calculates the daily amount based on the rates configured by your administrator.

The Per Diem Open list view shows you your in-progress per diems with columns for Departure Date, Return Date, Description, Amount, and Number of Days.

To submit a per diem:

1. On the action bar, click Per Diem.
2. In the upper-left corner, click New to open the Per Diem page.
3. In the Departure Date/Time fields, enter the date and time you began the trip.
4. In the Return Date/Time fields, enter the date and time you returned.
5. Click Update Days to populate the Days table with a row for each day in the date range.
6. In the Description field, enter a title for the per diem (for example, London trip).
7. (Optional) In the Admin Comment field you can enter a note about the per diem for the approver.
8. Next, specify the meals and allowances that apply for each day of the trip. You can either set the same selections for every day at the same time, or edit each day individually:
   • To set the same selections for every day
     • Above the Days table, click Select details for all days.
     • On the Select details for all days page, under Summary, select the checkboxes that apply to every day of the trip: Accommodation Allowance, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Drinks Allowance, Transport Allowance.
     • In the upper-left corner, click Save to apply the selections to every row in the Days table (or click Cancel to discard your changes).
   • To edit a specific day
     • In the Days table, select the row for the day you want to edit.
     • On the day's page, under Summary, the Currency Code, Amount, and Date fields are read-only, reflecting the calculated values for the day.
     • Select the checkboxes that apply to the day: Accommodation Allowance, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Drinks Allowance, Transport Allowance.
     • (Optional) In the Admin Comment field, add a note for the approver about the specific day.
     • In the upper-left corner, click Save to return to the Per Diem page (or select Cancel to discard your changes).
9. Review the Days table. As you update each day, the Amount and Amount (LCY) columns recalculate automatically, and the Details column lists the meals and allowances you selected for the day.
10. On the action bar at the top, choose what to do next:
    • To send the per diem for approval, click Submit.
    • To save the per diem and continue editing later, click Save.
    • To delete the draft, click Delete.
    • To add the per diem to an expense report, click Report Handling.

After submission, the per diem is transferred to Business Central via Continia Online for approval.

Create and submit an expense report

The Report workspace is where an expense report groups all related expenses, mileage entries, and per diems (such as the costs associated with a specific business trip or project) into a single document. Expense reports give approvers a consolidated overview and let you submit multiple documents together rather than having to do one at a time.

To create and submit an expense report:

1. On the action bar, click Report.

2. In the upper-left corner of the page, click New to open the Report page.

3. Fill in the report fields as follows:

   • Description — enter a title for the expense report (such as, Customer conference — Berlin, March 2026).
   • Country — from the dropdown menu, choose the country the expense report relates to.

4. Fill in any other relevant fields, such as Job No., Job Task No., Department/Country, or Project. {% hint style="info" %} Documents you create from within the expense report inherit the values you set on the report header. {% endhint %}

5. Add documents to the expense report. You can either create documents from scratch or attach existing ones.

   To create a new document:

   1. On the action bar, click New Expense, New Mileage, or (if per diems are enabled) New Per Diem.
   2. Fill in the document's fields as described in the sections above.
   3. In the upper-left corner of the page, click Save to return to the Report page.

   To attach a document you've already submitted as a draft:

   1. On the action bar, click Add Existing Documents.
   2. On the Select documents page, choose the documents you want to add to the expense report.
   3. In the bottom-right corner of the page, click Save and continue.

6. Review the list of documents in the lower part of the Report page. Each row shows the document type, date, description, payment type, attachments, and amount.

7. On the action bar, choose what to do next:

   • To save the expense report and continue editing later, click Save.
   • To delete the expense report, click Delete.

   Bemærk

   Deleting the expense report does not delete the individual documents inside the report. The documents return to your Open list.

   • To send the expense report for approval, click Submit.

After you have submitted it, the expense report and all of the documents are transferred to Business Central through Continia Online for approval.

Related information

Quickstart guide for Expense Management users
Submitting expenses
Submitting mileage expenses
Submitting per diem expenses
Submitting expenses by forwarding an email
Using expense reports from your browser
Signing in to the Continia Expense Portal and Mobile App