Using expense reports from your browser
Keep track of your business expenses with an efficient expense report management tool that's intuitive to use and creates a more efficient workflow. Available online in Business Central and via the Continia Expense Portal
Features include: cash advance to report cash withdrawals, the option to pre-approve expense reports, comments visibility for every document included in a report all in one overview, and the option to open an expense in the expense report and view it in granular detail (rather than list view) on the Expense Document card.
Get started by learning how to create and submit new expense reports, add existing entries to reports, and utilize key features such as improved comment visibility and warning notifications.
Creating and submitting expense reports in the Continia Expense Portal
Expense users can create and submit expense reports using the Expense Portal. The expense reports are transferred through Continia Online to Business Central after synchronization. Typically, the Expense Portal is set to automatically synchronize with Continia Online using job queues.
To create and submit an expense report using the Expense Portal:
- On the action bar at the top, click Report.
- In the upper-left corner, click New to open the Report page.
- In the Description field, enter a title for the report.
- On the action bar, click to add a New Expense, a New Mileage, or a New Per Diem. To add a document you've already prepared:
- Click Add Existing Documents.
- On the Select documents page, choose the document you want to add.
- In the bottom-right corner, click Save and continue.
- For each of the expenses/mileages/per diems you add, fill in all necessary fields, then click Save in the upper-left corner.
- On the Report page, you can:
- Save the report to edit later – for example, if you want to add more expenses/mileages/per diems to the report before submitting it – on the action bar, click Save.
- Delete the report – on the action bar, click Delete.
- Submit the report for approval – on the action bar, click Submit.
Your report is now either saved, deleted, or submitted, depending on your preferences.
Creating and submitting expense reports in Business Central
You can create expense reports in Business Central using the Limit Document Visibility setting on the Continia User Setup Card. This limits document visibility for a certain user to that user's own documents.
To create and submit an expense report in Business Central:
Search for
Expense Reports.On the action bar, click New to open the Expense Report Card.
Under Continia User ID, enter or select the ID of the expense user whose expense report you're creating.
Under Description, enter a title for the report.
Add expenses, mileages, or per diems to the report (follow the steps below).
To add expenses:
- Under Expenses, click New Line to add a line to the table.
- Fill in the Payment Type, Expense Type, Description, and Amount fields, along with any other necessary fields.
- Attach a relevant file to the expense.
- On the Expenses, Mileage, or Per Diem action bar, click Line > Attachments to open the Attached Files page.
- On the action bar, click Add to open the Select File dialog.
- Add the file you want to attach, either click here to browse or drag the file straight from your file browser to the drag-and-drop area.
- The file is attached. Click Close to return to the Expense Report Card.
- To add more expenses, select a new line in the table and repeat steps 5b–5c.
To add mileages:
- Under Mileage, click New Line to add a line to the table.
- Fill in the Purpose, From Address, To Address, and Total Distance fields, along with any other relevant fields.
- Attach a relevant file to the mileage as you would for an expense in step 5.
- To add more mileages, select a new line in the table and repeat steps 6b–6c.
To add per diems:
- Under Per Diem, click New Line to add a line to the table.
- Fill in the Departure Date/Time, Return Date/Time, and Description fields, along with any other relevant fields.
- Click the Amount field to open the Per Diem Details page.
- On the action bar, click Edit List to make the list editable.
- For each of the date lines in the table, specify what allowances should be included in the per diem calculation by selecting the relevant boxes.
Bemærk
In the Accommodation Allowance column, you can't select the box for the earliest date in the top line, (even if there's only one date line in the table). You can only select the boxes for subsequent lines (if any).
- To add more per diems, click a new line in the table and repeat steps 7b–7e.
Reviewing warnings in an expense report
Expense report warnings highlight issues that need to be resolved to ensure accuracy and completeness of your expense reports. The system-generated warnings include:
- Missing attachments for an expense
- A purchase contract that needs to be added
To review warnings in Business Central:
- Search for Expense Reports.
- Review your list of expense reports, if there are any warnings the report line will have red writing.
- Open the report and check the information is accurate and all necessary fields have been filled in.
- Check the comments of the report (they're directly visible on the document line within the expense report). Under Expenses, Mileage, or Per Diem > Line, click Comments to view comments for multiple documents from the report. This functionality allows you to quickly review all related comments without having to navigate to separate document lines.
Linking fields between reports and individual documents
If you add one or more fields to the header of an expense report on the Configured Fields page, the individual documents of that report will automatically inherit the values of the fields you added (if you had added the same fields to the documents). This applies to both newly created documents and existing documents that you add to the report.
To add one or more fields to an expense report and to individual documents:
- Search for Configured Fields.
- On the action bar, click Home > Expense Report.
- To add one or more new fields:
- Under Fields on Header, click New Line to add a new line to the table.
- In the Field Code column of the new line, click in the field to open a dropdown menu.
- Either select a field from the dropdown menu, or enter a search phrase to find the field you want to add, then select the field from the menu to add it.
- To add any additional fields, repeat steps 3a–3c.
- On the action bar, choose the type of expense document (Expense, Mileage, or Per diem) you want to add corresponding fields to.
- Follow the instructions in step 3 to add the same fields as the ones you added to the expense report.
- Repeat step 5 for any additional documents you want to inherit the values of your added fields.
Any document of the kind you set up will inherit the values of the fields you added to the expense report header after the document is added to an expense report or created from within an expense report.
For example, if you add the Project No. field to the expense report header and to the mileage header on the Configured Fields page, a corresponding Project No. field will be available for each expense report you create and for each mileage you add to an expense report. Then, when you select a Project No. field value for an expense report, this value will automatically be inherited by any mileage you create or add from within that report.
Related information
For more information about creating, submitting, reviewing, or approving expense reports, see: