Setting up Expense Types

• 13/11/2024
• 11 minutes to read

Expense types are codes that allow expense users to categorize their expenses efficiently. For example, users can quickly identify Food, Parking, or Accommodation expenses.

With Expense Management in place, you can customize specific settings for each expense type. For example, specify whether a particular expense type requires an uploaded receipt for validation. Additionally, you can hide certain expense types from specific users, customizing the experience to accommodate individual requirements and personal preferences.

To set up an expense type:

1. Select the icon, enter Expense Type, and then select the related link.
2. On the action bar, select New.
3. Fill in the following fields:
   • Code - enter the code associated with the expense type.
   • Description - provide a brief explanation of the purpose of the expense type.
   • Search name - specify the name to find the expense type easily.
   • No Refund - specifies whether the expense is eligible for company reimbursement. The employee will be responsible for charges incurred using the company credit card if not eligible. This setting is also used when the user withdraws cash from an ATM using the company credit card.
   • Attachment required - this setting allows you to specify whether uploading an attachment is required for a particular expense type. The options are:
     • Recommended - select this option when you want to warn the user if they forget to attach a file. It does not block the user from sending an expense without an attachment but informs them about the missing attachment.
     • Mandatory - select this option when attaching a file is necessary for an expense. The user will be unable to send an expense without providing an attachment, and the bookkeeper will also be unable to process such expenses.
     • Optional - use this option when attachments are not expected for a specific expense type. It is suitable for cases such as credit card fees where a receipt may not be available. The user will not receive any warnings or error messages. However, if the user chooses to attach a receipt anyway, the system will accept it.
   • Hide from Expense User - if selected the expense type will no longer be visible within the Continia Expense App or the Expense Portal. This can be useful, for example, in scenarios involving fee-related expense types.
   • Exclude Transaction - select to exclude transactions from being posted immediately upon import. This exclusion is achieved through matching rules, where a specific keyword within the transaction identifies the corresponding expense type. Consequently, Expense Management will prevent these transactions from being posted. For more information, refer to the Handling Fees article.
   • Attendees required - in some companies, you can incur higher expenses when multiple users participate in the same event, provided that the names of the participants are specified. To enforce this requirement, an expense can be configured to include the mandatory field Attendees Required. Note that you have to update system dependencies for any changes to take effect.
   • Image - determines the image displayed in the Expense App and the Expense Portal for the expense type.
   • No. of Company Policies - indicates the number of company policies applicable to this expense type. To learn more about configuring default dimensions and define specific company policies for expense and company policies for mileage expenses.
   • Purchase Contract - specifies whether a purchase contract is required for the expense type.

You also have to add a posting setup to your expense type.

1. Select an expense type, and then select Setup in the action bar.
2. The following fields can be filled in:
   • Employee No. - This is the employee for which the posting account will be used. If this account is to be used for multiple employees, this value should be empty.
   • Employee Group - This is the employee group for which the posting account will be used. If there's no requirement for specific groups, this value can be empty.
   • Posting Account Type - Enter the account type that will be used when posting. A G/L account is the common option.
   • Posting Account No. - Enter a G/L account number or, in rare cases, the Item number for posting internally (not in a payroll system).
   • Gen. Prod. Posting Group - Here, you can put a general product posting group that will be used when posting. This will overwrite the default values from the posting account.
   • Gen. Bus. Posting Group - The general business posting group is the group that will be used when posting. This will overwrite the default values from the posting account.
   • VAT Prod. Posting Group/Tax Prod. Posting Group - Specifies the VAT/tax product posting group that will be used when posting. This will overwrite the default values from the G/L account.
   • VAT Bus. Posting Group/Tax Bus. Posting Group - Specifies the VAT/tax business posting group that will be used when posting. This will overwrite the default values from the G/L account.
3. You can differentiate the posting of your expense type based on expense user, expense user group, or country – for example, if you want to have a different VAT or sales tax applied for certain countries. To do this, personalize the page by following these steps:
   1. Select the icon > Personalize.
   2. In the upper-left corner, select + Field to open the Add Field to Page pane.
   3. Drag the relevant fields – in this case Country/Region Code and Country/Region Type – from the pane to the table header.
   4. Select Done to close the Personalizing banner.
4. The new columns are added to the table. If you want to specify a default VAT or sales tax for all countries, go to Country/Region Type for the first line in the table, and select All Countries/Regions. Fill in the remaining fields as needed for this line.
5. To specify a VAT or sales tax for a specific country, go to Country/Region Type for the second line in the table, and select Country. In the Country/Region Code column, select the code of the relevant country, and then fill in the remaining fields as needed for this line.

   Tip

   For example, for VAT Prod. Posting Group, select NO VAT if the selected expense type is exempt from VAT for the selected country.

6. Choose the icon, enter Configured Fields, and then choose the related link.
7. In the table, go to the Field Code column for an empty line, and select COUNTRY/REGION for that line.
8. In the action bar, select Continia Online > Force Synchronize with Continia Online.

In the Expense App and the Expense Portal, the Country/Region Code field will now be visible for expenses, meaning that you can see or specify what country any given expense was incurred in. So if you create an expense with a posting setup that's been customized for a specific country (as described in the guide above) and this country appears in the Country/Region Code field, the customized posting setup will automatically be applied, and the expense will be posted accordingly.