Posting expenses to an item instead of a G/L account
In Continia Expense Management, each expense type's posting setup determines where its expenses are posted in Business Central. By default, this is a G/L account, but the Posting Account Type field also supports posting to an inventory Item. This is relevant when an expense represents a purchase of something your company tracks as inventory (for example, when an employee uses a corporate card to buy stock items, materials, or goods that should flow into item costing alongside purchase order receipts).
However, item posting comes with trade-offs that affect the Expense Management setup, not just the expense type that you configure. This article describes those consequences, the setup steps, and what happens at posting.
Changes to be aware of
To post expenses to an item, the Expense Management setup must be reconfigured to post documents as purchase invoices rather than as general journal entries. This has the following effects:
- You can no longer use Expense Report or settlements.
- Post at Import can no longer be enabled for credit card transactions.
- All documents, including: expenses, mileages, and per diems, are posted as purchase invoices instead of to the general journal.
- Each posted document creates a purchase invoice with the status Open. You must then approve and post each invoice manually through the standard Business Central workflow.
- For cash or privately paid expenses, the invoice is created on the vendor assigned to the expense user.
- For credit card expenses, the invoice is created on the vendor assigned to the relevant payment type.
If any of these constraints aren't compatible with your processes, item posting isn't the right choice. The setup is the same as the one described in Use a vendor as a posting account type on credit card transactions – the only difference is that the expense type's posting account points to an item instead of a vendor or G/L account.
Set up item posting
The setup involves three changes: disabling the report at the Expense Management level, adjusting the relevant payment type for credit card transactions, and configuring the expense type itself to post as an item.
To disable the expense report:
- Search () for and select Expense Management Setup.
- Under General > Application Areas, in the Expense Report field, click Disabled.
Purchase Document Posting becomes available and the Expense Posting field controls how expenses are posted; the default value is Preferable Purchase Invoice.
If credit card transactions are in scope, the payment type used for them must post against a vendor rather than a bank account.
To adjust the payment type used for credit card transactions:
- Search () for and select Payment Types.
- Open the payment type used for credit card transactions.
- Under Posting > Posting Account in the Type field, select Vendor.
- In the No. field, select the appropriate vendor – typically the bank or card issuer.
To configure the expense type to post as an item:
- Search () for and select Expense Types.
- Select the expense type you want to post to an item, then on the action bar, click Setup. The Expense Posting Setup page opens.
- On the posting setup line, in the Posting Account Type field, select Item.
- In the Posting Account No. field, enter the item number.
Repeat the steps above for any other expense types that you want to post to items.
What happens at posting
When an expense is synchronized to Business Central, approved, and posted, the following occurs:
- A purchase invoice is created with the status Open, with a single line of type Item referencing the item configured on the expense type. The quantity is one, using the item's default unit of measure.
- For a cash or privately paid expense, the invoice is created for the expense user's vendor.
- For an expense paid with a credit card, the invoice is created for the vendor assigned to the payment type.
To complete the posting, open the invoice, review it, and post it through the standard Business Central purchase invoice workflow..
Related information
Use a vendor as posting account type on credit card transactions
Setting up expense types
Setting up payment types
Posting expenses