About expense reports

The following is a typical sequence of events for processing expenses:

  1. An employee enters an expense report.
  2. When finished entering all expenses, the employee submits the expense report.
  3. If approvals are required ( > Setup > Company > Preferences > Time & Expense Entry tab), the supervisor and/or accounting manager reviews the expense report and does one of the following:
  • Approves the expense report.
  • Rejects an item on the expense report, entering comments about the rejected item. The employee then corrects the rejected expense and resubmits the expense report. 
  1. After an expense report is approved (if approvals are required) or submitted (if no approvals are required), Ajera processes the expense report, which creates a vendor invoice for the non-credit card transactions and bank entries for the credit card transactions.

Depending on the options selected on the > Setup > Company > Preferences > Time & Expense Entry tab, the supervisor and accounting manager may have access to change an employee’s expense report. After you pay the vendor invoice for the expense report, however, no changes can be made.

Learning Resources: Expense Entry Functional Guide

Working with expense reports

The following events occur when you process expenses at your company:

When this occurs

This happens

Save

Ajera saves the expense report that you entered.

Submit

The employee finished entering the expense report and is ready for the supervisor/accounting manager to review it.

Now, to make any changes to the expense report, the employee must first unsubmit it. However, the supervisor or accounting manager can change a submitted expense report if their company preferences for time and expense entry are set up to permit it.

Ajera processes the expense report unless company preferences for time and expense entry require supervisor or accounting approvals before processing.

Approve

The supervisor/accounting manager approves the expense report submitted by the employee. The expense report appears as Approved on the expense report list. 

Ajera processes the expense report after the supervisor, accounting manager, or both approve the expense report (depending on approval requirements set up in company preferences for time and expense entry).

Reject

The supervisor/accounting manager rejects an item in the expense report.  

The expense report appears as Expense Rejected on the expense report list. The employee must correct and submit the expense report again.   

Unsubmit

The employee decides the expense report is not ready for approval after all.

An employee can change the expense report if it has not yet been approved or processed.

Unapprove

A supervisor/accounting manager decides not to approve the expense report after all.  

You can unapprove an expense report only if:

  • It was not yet approved by all the required approvers (as set up in > Setup > Company > Preferences > Time & Expense Entry tab).
Note: If you required only Supervisor or Accounting approval, and the expense report is approved, you cannot unapprove it.
  • It has not yet been processed.

About changing a processed expense report 

Delete

You cannot delete an expense report after it is submitted.

Processing

Ajera creates a vendor invoice for the non-credit card entries, reflects the credit card entries on the bank register, and makes entries available in client invoices. It also reflects the changes on reports and financials.

Note:

Ajera bases the accounting date on the transaction date.

When Ajera processes the expense report depends on how your approvals are set up in company preferences for time and expense entry:

  • If you do not require any approvals, Ajera processes the expense report when the employee submits it.
  • If you require only the supervisor or accounting to approve the expense report, Ajera processes it after that approval is made.
  • If you require both supervisor and accounting approvals, Ajera processes the expense report only after both the supervisor and accounting manager approve it.

After Ajera processes the expense report, you cannot unapprove it.

If you use multi-company, Ajera makes entries based on the employee's company, transaction type, and payment method. For more information, see About expense reports with multi-company.

About changing a processed expense report