Submitting Expense Reports

  • 06/03/2025
  • 16 minutes to read

An expense report is a consolidated list of expenses, mileages, and per diems. It provides an excellent overview of your expenditures and allows you to approve them from a single place, thereby streamlining the reimbursement process and freeing up valuable time for you. By supporting multiple different document types and payment methods and centralizing these in one report, it also simplifies tracking and analysis.

The management of expense reports in Continia Expense Management is very similar to that of ordinary expenses, and as with ordinary expenses, one of the essential steps is to import them into your system effectively. Expense reports are imported when synchronization with Continia Online is performed. Continia Online is a cloud solution that connects the Continia Expense App and the Continia Expense Portal to the Business Central client, and data can be synchronized across these three applications.

Synchronization can be carried out manually or scheduled to run automatically in job queues. For more information on setting up job queues, see How to set up Expense Management Job Queues.

Using the Continia Expense App

Expense users can create and submit expense reports using the Expense App. These expense reports are then transferred through Continia Online to Business Central once synchronization is carried out. Typically, the Expense App is set to automatically synchronize with Continia Online using job queues.

To create and submit an expense report using the Expense App, follow these steps:

  1. Select New Report to open the Report page.
  2. Under Description, enter a free-text description (title) for the report.
  3. In the upper-right corner, select Create to create the report.
  4. In the row of icons at the top, select the one(s) representing what you want to add to the report:
    • To add an expense, select the receipt icon.
    • To add a mileage, select the car icon.
    • To add a per diem, select the suitcase icon.
    • To add an existing document, select the plus icon. You may have to select a three-dot icon first.
    • To add or create a template, select the starred folder icon. You may have to select a three-dot icon first.

      Note

      When you select the starred folder icon, the Templates page opens. From there you can either select an existing template or create a new one. For more information, see Expense report templates below.

  5. For each of the expenses/mileages/per diems you add, fill in all necessary fields, and then select Save in the upper-right corner.
  6. From the Report page, do one of the following:
    • If you want to save the report for later editing – for example, if you want to add more expenses/mileages/per diems to the report before submitting it – select Save in the upper-right corner.
    • If you want to submit the report for approval right away, swipe the Submit button at the bottom.

Your report is now either saved or submitted, depending on your preference.

Expense report templates

To make it easier and quicker to create and submit expense reports, you can create expense report templates with the most commonly used details. When you choose a previously created template as the basis of an expense report, the details of that template will be populated into the relevant fields of the expense report when you create the report. You can then fill in the remaining fields manually and edit the prefilled data, if necessary.

Expense report templates can be selected or created in two different ways in the Expense App, either from the main page or from each individual expense report. Both methods are described in the guide below.

To select or create an expense report template, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Expense App, and do one of the following:
    • From the main page, select the starred folder icon located to the right of New Report. The Templates page opens.
    • Follow the above guide to create a new report. When the report has been created, select the starred folder icon to open the Templates page.

      Note

      If expenses, mileages, and per diems have all been enabled, you have to select a three-dot icon first to access the starred folder icon.

  2. Optional: From the Templates page, select an existing template from the list, and then select Save in the upper-right corner to add it to the expense report.
  3. Optional: From the Templates page, create a new template by following these steps:
    1. Select Add in the upper-right corner.
    2. Fill in the necessary fields, and select Save in the upper-right corner.
    3. To add the new template to the expense report, select it in the list, and then select Save in the upper-right corner.

The template you've selected or created is then added to the template, and you're returned to the Report page.

The Receipts list

In the Expense App, you'll also find the Receipts list, which is a list of your saved receipt images. Using this list, you can create and submit expenses in a number of ways. For more details on this, see Receipts List.

To access the Receipts list, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Expense App.
  2. In the lower-left corner, select Open to open the list of expenses, mileages, per diems, and expense reports.
  3. In the lower-left corner, select Open to open the Receipts list.

Field linking between reports and individual documents

If you add one or more fields to the header of an expense report on the Configured Fields page, the individual documents of that report will automatically inherit the values of the fields you added, provided that you added the same fields to the documents. This applies to both newly created documents and existing documents that you add to the report.

To add one or more fields to an expense report and to individual documents, follow these steps:

  1. Choose the Search icon, enter Configured Fields, and then choose the related link.
  2. In the action bar, select Home > Expense Report.
  3. To add one or more new fields, do as follows:
    1. On the Fields on Header FastTab, select New Line to add a new line to the table.
    2. In the Field Code column of the new line, select the field to open a dropdown menu.
    3. Either select a field directly from the dropdown menu, or enter a search phrase to search for the field you want to add, and then select the field from the menu to add it.
    4. Repeat steps 3.a.–3.c. above to add any additional fields.
  4. In the action bar, select the type of expense document (expense, mileage, or per diem) you want to add corresponding fields to. For example, select Home > Expense.
  5. Follow the instructions in step 3 above to add the same fields as the ones you added to the expense report.
  6. Repeat step 5 above for any additional documents you want to inherit the values of your added fields.

Any document of the kind you've set up will now inherit the values of the fields you've added to the expense report header once the document is added to an expense report or created from within an expense report.

For example, if you add the Project No. field to the expense report header and to the mileage header on the Configured Fields page, a corresponding Project No. field will be available for each expense report you create and for each mileage you add to an expense report. And when you then select a Project No. field value for an expense report, this value will automatically be inherited by any mileage you create or add from within that report.

Using the Continia Expense Portal

Expense users can also create and submit expense reports using the Expense Portal. These expense reports are then transferred through Continia Online to Business Central once synchronization is carried out. Typically, the Expense Portal is set to automatically synchronize with Continia Online using job queues.

To create and submit an expense report using the Expense Portal, follow these steps:

  1. On the blue ribbon at the top, select Report.
  2. In the upper-left corner, select New to open the Report page.
  3. Under Description, enter a free-text description (title) for the report.
  4. In the action bar, select the action that you want to perform:
    • To add an expense, select New Expense.
    • To add a mileage, select New Mileage.
    • To add a per diem, select New Per Diem.
    • To add an existing document, select Add Existing Documents. On the Select documents page that opens, select the document you want to add, and then select Save and continue in the lower-right corner.
  5. For each of the expenses/mileages/per diems you add, fill in all necessary fields, and then select Save in the upper-left corner.
  6. From the Report page, do one of the following:
    • If you want to save the report for later editing – for example, if you want to add more expenses/mileages/per diems to the report before submitting it – select Save in the action bar.
    • If you want to delete the report, select Delete in the action bar.
    • If you want to submit the report for approval right away, select Submit in the action bar.

Your report is now either saved, deleted, or submitted, depending on your preference.

Using the Business Central client

Expense reports can also be created in the Business Central client. You can use the setting Limit Document Visibility on the Continia User Setup Card page when you want to limit document visibility for a certain user to that user's own documents.

To create and submit an expense report in Business Central, follow these steps:

  1. In the Role Center, under Continia Expense Management Activities, select the Expense Reports cue to open the Expense Reports page.
  2. In the action bar, select New to open the Expense Report Card.
  3. Under Continia User ID, enter or select the ID of the expense user whose expense report you're creating.
  4. Under Description, enter a free-text description (title) for the report.
  5. To add one or more expenses, follow these steps:
    1. On the Expenses FastTab, select New Line to add a line to the table.
    2. Fill in the Payment Type, Expense Type, Description, and Amount fields, along with any additional fields you prefer.
    3. Attach a relevant file to the expense.

      Note

      To add an attachment, follow these steps:

      • On the FastTab title bar, select Line > Attachments to open the Attached Files page.
      • In the action bar, select Add to open the Select File dialog.
      • Add the file you want to attach, either by selecting click here to browse or by dragging the file straight from your file browser to the drag-and-drop area.
      • The file is attached, and you're returned to the Attached Files page. Select Close to return to the Expense Report Card.
    4. To add more expenses, select a new line in the table and repeat steps 5.b.–5.c. above.
  6. To add one or more mileages, follow these steps:
    1. On the Mileage FastTab, select New Line to add a line to the table.
    2. Fill in the Purpose, From Address, To Address, and Total Distance fields, along with any additional fields you prefer.
    3. Attach a relevant file to the mileage by following the steps in the note above under step 5.c.
    4. To add more mileages, select a new line in the table and repeat steps 6.b.–6.c. above.
  7. To add one or more per diems, follow these steps:
    1. On the Per Diem FastTab, select New Line to add a line to the table.
    2. Fill in the Departure Date/Time, Return Date/Time, and Description fields, along with any additional fields you prefer.
    3. Select the Amount field to open the Per Diem Details page.
    4. In the action bar, select Edit List to make the list editable.
    5. For each of the date lines in the table, specify what allowances should be included in the per diem calculation by selecting the relevant boxes.

      Note

      As regards the boxes in the Accommodation Allowance column, you can't select the box for the top line (the earliest date), even if there's only one date line in the table. Only boxes for subsequent lines – if any – can be selected.

    6. To add more per diems, select a new line in the table and repeat steps 7.b.–7.e. above.