When setting up your Expense Policy, you can configure policy rules for purchase expenses. To do this, click the Expenses tab when creating or editing your policy.
Each policy rule can be configured using one of the following options:
Off - The rule is not applied.
Block - Users cannot submit the expense until the issue is resolved.
Warn - A warning message is displayed. If the expense information is correct, the user can click Continue to submit the expense. Otherwise, they can click Cancel to go back and update the expense.
Report - No warning is shown to the submitter, but the issue is visible to Approvers and Finance users.
Note: We recommend only using a Block rule when exceptions to the policy cannot occur.
We recommend implementing the following policy rules as best practice:
Maximum expense age (days) - The system checks the expense date when an expense is submitted. In the example above, if a user submits an expense 60 days old or older, they will be presented with a policy warning.
Missing receipt tax rate - Specify which tax rate must be selected when submitting an expense without a receipt. In the example above, if a user submits an expense without a receipt, the expense will be blocked unless the tax rate is 'Zero Rated (0%)'.
Expenses must have a receipt - Requires users to attach a receipt to all purchase expenses. In the example above, the user will be presented with a policy warning when submitting an expense without a receipt.
Note: We do not recommend selecting 'Block' for this rule if your company uses a company card purchase method, as the user will have already incurred the expense.
Duplicate expense detection - The system flags a purchase expense as a duplicate when the value, merchant, and expense date match those of another expense.
Note: We recommend selecting 'Warn' for this rule, as true duplicates can happen, e.g. paying for parking in the same car park for the same amount of time, twice or more a day.
Expense date cannot be in the future - The system flags expenses with a date in the future. In the example above, this user will be blocked from submitting future-dated expenses.
Expenses from the same card statement must be submitted together - Requires users to submit expenses from the same card statement at the same time. This helps manage approval notifications and ensures expenses are reconciled against statement transactions together.
Note: We recommend setting this rule to 'Block' for all company card users.
Company card expenses must be associated with a statement or data feed - Prevents users from submitting company card expenses until they have been matched to a card statement or data feed transaction.
Note: We recommend setting this rule to 'Block' for all company card users to ensure expenses are reconciled correctly and to help prevent duplicate expenses from being submitted.
For more information about a policy rule, hover over the red question mark icon.