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Expense Management

Submit, approve, and reimburse employee expense claims with full audit trail.

Overview

Expense Management covers the full employee expense lifecycle — from submission by an employee to approval by a manager, to reimbursement through payroll or direct bank transfer. All claims are stored with a full audit trail.

Submitting an Expense

  1. Go to Finance → Expense Management and click New Expense.
  2. Fill in: Date, Category (Travel, Meals, Office Supplies, etc.), Amount, Currency, and Description.
  3. Attach a receipt image or PDF.
  4. Click Submit. The claim enters the Pending Approval queue.

Approval Workflow

Submitted claims appear in the approver's queue under Expenses → To Approve:

  • Approve — marks the claim as approved and queues it for reimbursement.
  • Reject — sends the claim back to the employee with a reason.
  • Request More Info — flags the claim for employee clarification without fully rejecting it.

Approval Limits

Approvers can only approve claims up to their configured spending limit. Claims above the limit escalate to the next approver tier automatically.

Reimbursement

Approved expenses appear in the Reimbursement tab. Finance can:

  • Include in Payroll — add the reimbursement to the next payroll run.
  • Direct Bank Transfer — mark as reimbursed via manual bank transfer and enter the payment reference.

After reimbursement, TotalApp posts: Debit Expense Account, Credit Bank/Cash.

Reports & Exports

Use the Reports tab to view expense breakdowns by:

  • Department or cost center
  • Category (travel, meals, etc.)
  • Employee
  • Date range

Click Export to download as Excel for accounting or tax purposes.

AI Assistant

Expense Management includes an embedded AI Assistant panel that reads the currently loaded expense entries (date, employee, category, description, amount, status) and expense reports (name, employee, total amount, status), and answers questions directly on the screen.

Spend Analysis

Ask for category or employee cost breakdowns, the largest entries, or unusual amounts worth a closer look.

Claims Triage

Get a summary of entries and reports by status, and identify stale drafts or items waiting too long for approval.

Compliance Checks

Flag entries missing receipts, zero or negative amounts, or duplicate-looking entries before they reach approval.

Save as Report

Any AI response can be saved as a named report to My Reports with one click — the title is generated automatically from your prompt and the current month.

Open the panel from the vertical AI Assistant tab on the right edge of the screen. It uses the Writer Engine configured in Settings → General → Writer Engine (API, Local CLI, or in-browser engines) — no per-screen configuration is required.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if a submitted claim is missing a receipt?
The claim can still be submitted, but approvers will see a "No Receipt Attached" flag in the approval queue. Some organizations configure a policy requiring receipts above a certain amount — in that case the Submit button stays disabled until a receipt image or PDF is attached.
Who can approve an expense claim, and what if it exceeds their limit?
Any user with an approver role assigned in HR/Finance settings can approve claims routed to them. Each approver has a configured spending limit; if a claim's total exceeds that limit, TotalApp automatically escalates it to the next approver tier instead of allowing the approval to go through.
What is the difference between "Include in Payroll" and "Direct Bank Transfer" reimbursement?
"Include in Payroll" adds the approved reimbursement amount to the employee's next scheduled payroll run, paid out alongside their regular salary. "Direct Bank Transfer" marks the claim as reimbursed immediately via a manual bank transfer, requiring Finance to enter a payment reference for the audit trail. Both options post the same accounting entry: Debit Expense Account, Credit Bank/Cash.
Can I edit or delete an expense claim after submitting it?
A claim can be edited or withdrawn only while it is still in the Pending Approval state. Once an approver has approved or rejected it, the claim becomes part of the permanent audit trail and can no longer be edited directly — a rejected claim must be resubmitted as a new entry with corrections.