Getting Started with Expense Management
Expense Management is an end-to-end solution for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central that enables you to streamline and automate every step of your daily expense, mileage, and per diem management process. It’s easy to sign up and get started, and there’s no need for complex integrations, as Expense Management is already fully integrated into Business Central.
You can always get help with your subscription from your certified Continia partner. For more information, see Where do I go if I have questions? and Resources for Help and Support.
Become familiar with Expense Management
For a good overview of key Expense Management features, as well as insights into the latest developments, see:
Expense Management typically involves three different user roles – one expense user and two types of admin users. Each role uses different apps:
- The expense user: An employee that submits expenses, using either the Continia Expense Mobile App or the Continia Expense Portal (from a browser). Most expense users use the mobile app due to its high level of convenience, but the mobile app and the web portal are both well suited for the purpose and both include all functionality.
- The approver: A company admin that approves expenses submitted by the expense user. Approvers do this in either Business Central or the Continia Web Approval Portal.
- The admin: A company admin is in charge of overall expense management. Admins take care of this in Business Central.
The admin part of Expense Management is built inside Business Central, so the user interface will be familiar to existing users of Business Central. However, there are some things that will be unfamiliar to both new and experienced users. For help with anything you’re unsure about, check the following resources. Which resource you use depends on your situation:
- Continia Docs (this site) – the official Continia documentation site, which features a large number of helpful articles for beginners, IT professionals, and everyone in between
- Continia Learn – Continia's online learning platform with educational articles, videos, and exercises, is completely free and accessible to anyone who's curious to know more about Expense Management and other Continia solutions
- Continia partners – this is the go-to point of contact for end users
- Continia PartnerZone – Continia’s dedicated learning portal exclusively for partners
All certified Continia partners are also official Business Central partners. They’re all expert users of both Expense Management and Business Central in general. To find out more, see Resellers and Partners.
Note
Only partners have access to the Continia PartnerZone. As an end user, you’ll have to contact your existing Business Central partner for any queries that you can’t find answers to on Continia Docs or Continia Learn.
Extended Role Centers
Expense Management is an add-on that greatly enhances the user interface and functionality of Business Central. It does this by extending some of the standard Role Centers in Business Central, adding a whole new section that features a number of useful cues and action tiles.
The section, Continia Expense Management Activities, is divided into several cue groups, each of which contain multiple relevant cues or action tiles. The cues relate to managing general expenses, expense reports, bank transactions, mileage expenses, and per diems. Whereas the action tiles perform different tasks and operations. The following standard Business Central Role Centers have been extended with the following:
- Accountant Role Center
- Accounting Manager Role Center
- Acc. Payables Coordinator RC
- Bookkeeper Role Center
- Business Manager Role Center
Activate a free trial using your own company
Important
The free-trial option is only available to users of Business Central online.
If you’re thinking about subscribing, you can try Expense Management for free for a 30-day trial period. To do this, go to Microsoft AppSource and search for Continia Expense Management. Click Free trial in the upper-left corner. This installs Expense Management, which is then ready for activation and setup using assisted setup guides.
Your Continia partner must assist you when activating any version of Expense Management, including trials. This ensures everything is done correctly, and you’re off to a good start with the app.
After you've activated and set up your free trial, you can use Expense Management to its full extent at absolutely no charge for up to 30 days, or until you've reached the maximum number of registered Expense App users. Towards the end of the free-trial period, Continia will ask you if you’d like to subscribe to Expense Management to keep using it. If you decide to subscribe at any point during the trial period, you’re already up and running, which means you can continue your work and keep using the same data as you used in the trial period.
To learn more about trials and subscriptions, including information about sandbox environments, see Continia Expense Management trials and subscriptions. If you have any questions, reach out to your certified Continia partner. For more information, see Where do I go if I have questions? and Resources for Help and Support.
Want to know more?
If you have questions about functionality or are unsure about anything else in Expense Management, you may be able to find the answers you’re looking for in the actual user interface of the app. Most fields have an associated tooltip that describes the field in question, and usually includes a Learn more link for further information.
If you’re unable to find what you’re looking for in the tooltips, contact your Continia partner or check out the other resources mentioned above under Get familiar with Expense Management.
Ready to subscribe?
You can always subscribe to Expense Management to get the full version of the app on a more permanent basis, with absolutely no limitations. If you like, you can subscribe right away and get started immediately, but you’re also very welcome to subscribe at any point during or directly following your free trial period. If you start off with a trial period, you’re already up and running at the time of subscription, and you can then continue working with the same data as in the trial period.
As mentioned above, you must be assisted by your Continia partner when activating any version of Expense Management, in order to ensure that you get up and running properly.
Other useful Continia apps
Continia offers a range of apps that streamline and enhance Business Central, which you should really know about. To find information about any of these, check out their individual entries here on Continia Docs. You can also find out more on the Continia website or by clicking the AppSource link either here or in the navigation bar at the top of this page.
Related information
Expense Management on continia.com
Continia Docs
Continia Learn
Where do I go if I have questions?
Resources for Help and Support
Business Functionality
New and Planned
Resellers and Partners
Continia PartnerZone
Microsoft AppSource