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Expense Reports

Availability: the Expense Reports module is currently hidden. It no longer appears in the Accounts Payable sidebar, and the Regent assistant does not offer it. Existing expense reports stay in your data. The steps below describe how the module works when it is switched on.

Expense Reports repay employees for out-of-pocket spend. An employee bundles receipts into one report and submits it; an owner or admin approves it, which books the expense and what the business owes the employee; recording the reimbursement books the payment.

What gets posted

Step Journal entry Date
Approve Debit each line's expense account, credit Reimbursements Payable for the report total The day it is approved
Mark reimbursed Debit Reimbursements Payable, credit the account you paid from, through the bank transaction you pick if there is one The payment date you enter, or the date that bank transaction cleared
Reverse approval An offsetting entry that cancels the approval entry The day it is reversed

Reimbursements Payable is a liability account. DayZero creates it the first time a report is approved if it doesn't exist; Ramp reimbursements use the same account. Submitting or rejecting a submitted report posts nothing.

Recording a reimbursement does not move money. Pay the employee first, then record it. If the payment is already in the bank feed, pick it under Bank transaction: the payment is booked through it and counted once. Otherwise it is posted straight to the account you choose; when the payment arrives in the feed, categorize it to Reimbursements Payable and DayZero matches it to the report and cancels the direct entry. Categorizing it to any other account counts the payment twice.

flowchart LR
  draft["Draft"] --> submitted["Submitted"]
  submitted --> approved["Approved"]
  approved --> reimbursed["Reimbursed"]
  submitted -->|"Reject"| draft
  approved -->|"Reverse approval"| draft

How to use it

  1. Open Accounts Payable → Expense Reports.
  2. Click New report. Enter a title and description, then add lines: description, amount, date, an optional receipt (PDF or image) and an optional expense account. Click Create draft.
  3. To change a draft, open it and click Edit, then Save changes.
  4. Click Submit when the report is ready. A submitted report can no longer be edited.
  5. An owner or admin other than the submitter opens the report, picks an Expense account for every line that has none, and clicks Approve. Approve stays disabled until every line has an account.
  6. To send a submitted report back, click Reject and give a reason. On an approved report the button is Reverse approval.
  7. After paying the employee, click Mark reimbursed. Choose the account under Paid from. If the payment is already in the bank feed, pick it under Bank transaction (shown when a matching payment exists; its date is used). Otherwise check the Payment date. Optionally add a Reference (check number or ACH trace), and click Record reimbursement.

Use the status filter (All, Draft, Submitted, Approved, Reimbursed) to work a queue: Submitted is waiting for approval, Approved is waiting to be paid. Search matches the report number, title and description.

Statuses

Status Meaning What you can do
Draft Being prepared, or sent back with a reason Edit, submit, delete
Submitted Waiting for an approver; nothing posted Approve, reject
Approved Expense posted and owed to the employee Mark reimbursed, reverse approval
Reimbursed Payment posted; the report is complete Nothing; correct it with a journal entry

When a report is sent back, the reason is added to the end of its description in the form "Returned by approver on (date): (reason)".

Who can do what

Action Who
Create, edit and submit a draft Owners, admins, members and advisory-firm staff (not viewers)
Delete a draft Owners, admins and advisory-firm staff
Approve Business owners and admins, and staff of the advisory firm that manages the business, except the person who created the report
Reject, reverse approval, mark reimbursed Business owners and admins, and staff of the advisory firm that manages the business

Rules and limits

  • Expense accounts: every line needs one before approval. It must be an active expense or asset account that is not a bank, cash or card account, and not a locked (non-editable) account.
  • Pay-from account: an active bank or cash account. Credit cards and other assets are refused.
  • Currency: reports default to the business currency and can only be approved in it.
  • Closed periods: approving needs today to be in an open period; reimbursing needs the payment date in an open period. Reversing an approval needs today to be in an open period. An approval in a closed period is left untouched; the reversal is posted today and its description says why.
  • Deleting: only drafts can be deleted. A draft whose approval was reversed keeps both entries in the journal; they cancel out.
  • Approving again after a reversal posts a fresh entry.

Common errors

Message says What to do
Every expense line needs an expense account Pick an account for each line listed, then approve
Expense lines must be booked to an active, unlocked expense or asset account Choose a different account for the lines listed
You can't approve your own expense report Ask another owner or admin to approve it
Only business owners, admins and the advisory firm's staff can approve, reject or reimburse Ask someone with that role
Pay the reimbursement from an active bank or cash account Pick a bank or cash account under Paid from
… falls within a closed accounting period Use a date in an open period, or reopen the period
This report was approved before approvals were posted to the books Reverse the approval, approve it again, then mark it reimbursed
Journal entry … from an earlier posting of this expense report is still on the books Reverse that entry in the journal, then try again
The "Reimbursements Payable" account must be an active liability account Fix that account's type in the chart of accounts

Developers

The reports stay available over the API while the screen is off; see the Accounts Payable Workflows API guide.

  • Bills for a vendor you pay directly
  • Journal Entries to review or reverse what a report posted