Create an Expense Report

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Prerequisite

In order to create Expense Report Lines using the steps in this article, the Expense Line Add Edit Lightning component may need to be added. For more information refer to the Edit a Page to Add a Lightning Component article.

Overview

An expense report is a form of document that contains all the expenses that an individual has incurred as a result of the business operation. Expense reports must be associated with a Project and a Project Task. 

Accounting Seed supports the following use cases with expense reports:

  • Employee expense report reimbursable to the employee.
  • Direct creation of accounts payable transactions to an employee via expense reports.
  • Direct creation of accounts payable transactions to a credit card company via expense reports.
  • Expense reports for mileage.
  • Approvals of expense reports.
  • Image attachment to expense reports.
  • Direct creation of Billings (customer invoices) from expense reports with multiple markup rates.
  • Expense Reports for Multi-currency users.

Note: Expense Reports are not posted as they do not generate General Ledger transactions. GL transactions are created from the resulting Billings or Payables generated from the Expense Reports.

Note: Expense Reports have been implemented for Multi-currency users. Billings and Payables created will inherit the Currency from the Expense report they are created from.  (See Create Billing from Expense Report and Create Payable from Expense Report in the Knowledge Base for more details.)

Do you want to:

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Create an Expense Report

  1. Navigate to Accounting Home and click the Create Entries tab. Then, under the Expenses menu, click Expense Reports.
  2. Click New.
  3. Enter the new Expense Report details:
    • The Expense Report Name.
    • The ledger will default to what is set up in Default Ledger. If multi-company is enabled, then you can select a ledger other than the default.
      Note: Employees are set up as Salesforce users.
    • The Status defaults to In-Process. To change the Status, click the Status drop-down list.

      Create_Expense_Report_4aa.png

  4. Click Save. The Expense Report screen displays. 
  5. To add Expense Lines, from the Expense and Mileage Lines section, click Add/Edit Lines. 

    Create_Expense_Report_2.png

    The Expense and Mileage Lines data grid displays with the Expenses tab defaulted.

    Create_Expense_Report_3.png

  6. Click Add Line. The New Expense Line dialog box displays.
  7. Complete the fields to add the new line.
    Note: Required fields display with a red asterisk.
    Note: For additional information, refer to the Expense Report Settings section of the Create a New GL Account article.
    • Project & Project Task.
    • Check the Billable checkbox if the expense is to be billed to a client. For more information refer to the Create Billing from Expense Report article.
    • Check the Employee Reimburse checkbox if the expense is to be reimbursed to an employee.
    • Select a credit card vendor if the expense is to be reimbursed to a credit card vendor.  
    • The Date defaults to today's date. Update the date of the expense, if necessary. 
    • Enter the expense type.
    • Enter the amount of the expense.
    • Enter Comments - Internal Comments only display within the organization. Invoice Comments are transferred to Billing Lines, if billed.

      Create_Expense_Report_22.png

      Note: If you want to manually include GL Variables on an Expense Line, the fields can be added to the Expense Line object using the Expense Report Edit field set. If you need assistance, refer to the Edit a Field Set article. 

  8. Click Save. The Expense and Mileage Lines data grid displays with the newly created line.

    Create_Expense_Report_24.png
    Note: Click here to view the above image in full screen. 

    Note: If you want to display additional fields on the Expense and Mileage Lines data grid, refer to the Edit a Field Set article.

  9. Add additional expense lines, as necessary. Otherwise, continue with the next step to add mileage details, if applicable.
  10. From the Expense and Mileage Lines data grid, click the Mileage tab. The New Expense Line dialog box displays.
  11. Complete the fields to add the new line.
    Note: Required fields display with a red asterisk.
    Note: For additional information, refer to the Expense Report Settings section of the Create a New GL Account article.
    • Project & Project Task.
    • Check the Billable checkbox if the expense is to be billed to a client.
    • Check the Employee Reimburse checkbox if the expense is to be reimbursed to an employee.
      Note: The Billable and Employee Reimburse checkboxes are controlled by the user's permissions.
    • The Date defaults to today's date. Update the date of the mileage, if necessary. 
    • Enter the expense type.
    • Enter the origin and destination for the trip.

      Create_Expense_Report_23.png

      Note: If you want to manually include GL Variables on an Expense Line, the fields can be added to the Expense Line object using the Expense Report Edit field set. If you need assistance, refer to the Edit a Field Set article. 

  12. Click Save. The Expense and Mileage Lines data grid displays with the newly created line.
  13. Add additional lines, as necessary. Otherwise, click Back to return to the Expense Report screen.

    Expense_Report_01.png
    Note: Click here to view the above image in full screen. 

    Note: From the Expenses and Mileage related list, click the Expense Line hyperlink under the Line column (from the Expenses tab or the Mileage tab) to review Details about the newly added line. Once you access the Details tab, to add Notes and/or Files, click the Related tab.

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Delete an Expense Report Line

An Expense Report Line can be deleted directly from the data grid.

  1. Navigate to Accounting Home and click the Create Entries tab. Then, under the Expenses menu, click Expense Reports.
  2. Select a list view (other than the Recently Viewed list view).
  3. Display the Expense Report that you want to edit.
  4. From the Expense and Mileage Lines section, click Add/Edit Lines. 
  5. The Expenses tab defaults. Select the Mileage tab, if necessary.
  6. From the right portion of the data grid, click the drop-down arrow on the line that you want to delete.

    Create_Expense_Report_12.png

  7. Scroll down and click Delete.

    Create_Expense_Report_13.png

    The Delete Expense Line dialog box displays.

    Create_Expense_Report_14.png

  8. Click Delete to delete the line. The data grid displays with the deleted line removed.

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Attach Receipts

  1. Scan or take a photo of the receipt and save it to your computer.
  2. From the Expense Report screen, click the Notes & Files tab.
  3. From the Files related list, click Add Files.
    Note: If Files does not display, you can edit the page layout to add it as a related list. For more information, refer to the Edit a Standard Page Layout Manually article.
  4. Navigate to the saved receipt on your computer and select it.
  5. Click Add.
    Note: You can also click Upload Files, and then navigate to the location on your computer to upload the files. 
  6. (Optional) Repeat these steps to add additional receipts.

Note: The Billable and Employee Reimburse checkboxes on the Expense Report are now controlled by permissions. Existing users using custom permission sets will need to adjust their users’ permissions and grant the necessary access to these fields.

Configure Changes for Custom Permission Sets for the Expense Line Object

  1. Navigate to Setup.
  2. From the Home Tab, go to the Administration Section.
  3. Click the Users drop-down list, and select Permission Sets.

    CER6.png
  4. Locate the custom permission set and click on the Permission Set Label.
  5. Click on Object Settings.
  6. Scroll down and click on the Expense Lines Object Name.
  7. Click on Edit.
  8. From Field Permissions, click to select the Read or Edit checkboxes, as necessary for the Billable and Employee Reimburse fields.

    CER7.png

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Title
Create an Expense Report
URL Name
1232097938
ProjectsExpense Reports
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  1. rebecca.ralls1.5642179659911167E12 (Customer)

    March 16, 2017 at 3:02 PM

    New question: regarding the assignment of accounting variables on expense reports.

    Accounting variables are assigned to expense report lines via the project task that are assigned to the project task.  

    I have a couple clients who are using the expense report object to allow their  users to code their company credit card charges.  They have a general purpose "Expense Report" project to use for any line that does not belong to a specific project.  For a company with only a few accounting variables, this is pretty manageable - you only have to have a handful of project tasks to cover the various possible combinations of project tasks.

    However, one of my clients is using all 4 accounting variables and they have quite a few entries for each type.  The number of project tasks required for the general "expense report" project in order to cover every likely combination of accounting variables - even if we do not include the ones that are not likely - is enormous and unwieldy.  Right now - with the tasks set up just for the intersection of 2 of the 4 accounting variables, they're at 76 project tasks. - to factor in a third variable will add over 100 more.

    Is there any other alternative to deal with this?  Have you considered making it possible just to enter GLAV variables directly on expense lines instead of tied specifically to the project task?

    Thanks!

    Expand Post

    • Tony Zorc (Accounting Seed, Inc)

      February 14, 2017 at 7:23 PM

      Hi Rebecca,

      The Credit Card Vendor Payable checkbox is not longer used in the application. We will be removing it from the package in an upcoming release. 

      • rebecca.ralls1.5642179659911167E12 (Customer)

        February 1, 2017 at 3:12 AM

        Question re: the Credit Card Vendor Payable checkbox.  It does not appear to be included on the expense report edit screen (I checked the FLS to make sure the field is visible), but in order for the expense line to register as a "payable" expense, it needs to be checked if it's for a credit card vendor.  Is there a process that is supposed to run in the background that checks the box if a credit card vendor is selected?  Because if so, it does not seem to be firing in one of the orgs I am working in.  

        They're currently on 3.11.1.  It's not too hard to create a process that will check it automatically if a credit card vendor is added, but I don't want to duplicate a process that's already there if I don't have to.

        Thanks!

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