Setting up Expense Types
Expense types are codes that expense users can use to easily categorize expenses. Expense users can, for example, determine that an expense is categorized as FOOD or ACCOMODATION.
In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, more complex setups are available for each expense type. The expense type is then linked to a Business Central account where it will be posted.
To set up an expense type, follow these steps:
- Choose the
icon, enter Expense Type, and then choose the related link. - On the action bar, select New.
- Fill out the fields as necessary.
Customizing expense types
You can configure default dimensions as well as specify company policies for expense, company policies for mileage expenses and posting setup for expense types, and using different settings you can also customize the user experience, of which you can see some examples below.
| Customization | Description |
|---|---|
| Hiding expense types from expense users | An expense type can be marked as Hide from Expense User, which means it’ll never be displayed in the Continia Expense App or the Expense Portal. This can be useful, for example, in connection with fee-related expense types. |
| Excluding transactions with a specific expense type | The concept of expense types also exists in connection with transactions. It‘s possible to exclude transactions right at import so they’re not posted. This will be done based on matching rules: A certain keyword from the transaction will identify this expense type, and then Expense Management will exclude the transaction from being posted. This can be useful, for example, in connection with fee-related transactions. Fees from credit cards are not expenses, so the bookkeeper might want to exclude those and process them later after having received the invoices from credit card providers. |
| Requiring attendees on an expense type | In certain companies, higher expenses are allowed when multiple users take part in the same event as long as the names of the participants are specified. For that purpose, an expense can be forced to have the field Attendees Required added as a mandatory field. Note that you have to update system dependencies for any changes to take effect. |
Controlling attachment behavior
You might want to distinguish the importance of attachments for specific expense types. For example, you may not have an actual receipt for a given credit card fee, so you could accept the expense as is.
You can select among these options:
| Attachment required | Description |
|---|---|
| Recommended | Use this option when the user should get a warning if an attachment is missing. This will not prevent the user from sending an expense, but it will inform him in case he missed it. |
| Mandatory | Use it when an attachment is required. The user will not be able to send an expense if an attachment isn’t provided. The bookkeeper will not be able to post such an expense either. |
| Optional | Use this option when you don’t expect attachments for an expense type. You could use this in connection with credit card fees where you can’t provide a receipt. The user will not get warnings or error messages. If the user decides to add a receipt anyway, the system will accept it. |