Setting up Expense Types

  • 08/03/2024
  • 7 minutes to read

Expense types are codes that allow expense users to categorize their expenses efficiently. For example, users can quickly identify Food, Parking, or Accommodation expenses.

With Expense Management in place, you can customize specific settings for each expense type. For example, specify whether a particular expense type requires an uploaded receipt for validation. Additionally, you can hide certain expense types from specific users, customizing the experience to accommodate individual requirements and personal preferences.

To set up an expense type:

  1. Select the Search icon, enter Expense Type, and then select the related link.
  2. On the action bar, select New.
  3. Fill in the following fields:
    • Code - enter the code associated with the expense type.
    • Description - provide a brief explanation of the purpose of the expense type.
    • Search name - specify the name to find the expense type easily.
    • No Refund - specifies whether the expense is eligible for company reimbursement. The employee will be responsible for charges incurred using the company credit card if not eligible. This setting is also used when the user withdraws cash from an ATM using the company credit card.
    • Attachment required - this setting allows you to specify whether uploading an attachment is required for a particular expense type. The options are:
      • Recommended - select this option when you want to warn the user if they forget to attach a file. It does not block the user from sending an expense without an attachment but informs them about the missing attachment.
      • Mandatory - select this option when attaching a file is necessary for an expense. The user will be unable to send an expense without providing an attachment, and the bookkeeper will also be unable to process such expenses.
      • Optional - use this option when attachments are not expected for a specific expense type. It is suitable for cases such as credit card fees where a receipt may not be available. The user will not receive any warnings or error messages. However, if the user chooses to attach a receipt anyway, the system will accept it.
    • Hide from Expense User - if selected the expense type will no longer be visible within the Continia Expense App or the Expense Portal. This can be useful, for example, in scenarios involving fee-related expense types.
    • Exclude Transaction - select to exclude transactions from being posted immediately upon import. This exclusion is achieved through matching rules, where a specific keyword within the transaction identifies the corresponding expense type. Consequently, Expense Management will prevent these transactions from being posted. For more information, refer to the Handling Fees article.
    • Attendees required - in some companies, you can incur higher expenses when multiple users participate in the same event, provided that the names of the participants are specified. To enforce this requirement, an expense can be configured to include the mandatory field Attendees Required. Note that you have to update system dependencies for any changes to take effect.
    • Image - determines the image displayed in the Expense App and the Expense Portal for the expense type.
    • No. of Company Policies - indicates the number of company policies applicable to this expense type. To learn more about configuring default dimensions and define specific company policies for expense and company policies for mileage expenses.
    • Purchase Contract - specifies whether a purchase contract is required for the expense type.

You also have to add a posting setup to your expense type.

  1. Select an expense type, and then select Setup in the action bar.
  2. The following fields can be filled in:
    • Employee No. - This is the employee for which the posting account will be used. If this account is to be used for multiple employees, this value should be empty.
    • Employee Group - This is the employee group for which the posting account will be used. If there's no requirement for specific groups, this value can be empty.
    • Posting Account Type - Enter the account type that will be used when posting. A G/L account is the common option.
    • Posting Account No. - Enter a G/L account number or, in rare cases, the Item number for posting internally (not in a payroll system).
    • Gen. Prod. Posting Group - Here, you can put a general product posting group that will be used when posting. This will overwrite the default values from the posting account.
    • Gen. Bus. Posting Group - The general business posting group is the group that will be used when posting. This will overwrite the default values from the posting account.
    • Tax Prod. Posting Group - Specifies the tax product posting group that will be used when posting. This will overwrite the default values from the G/L account.
    • Tax Bus. Posting Group - Specifies the tax product posting group that will be used when posting. This will overwrite the default values from the G/L account.