• 22/10/2026
  • 11 minutes to read
AdminDeveloperApproverExpense User

Setting up expense types

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.

Tip

Expense Management supports Business Central's sustainability features, making it easier for you to calculate and track your company's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions via the following expense types: Fuel/Electricity, Distance, Hotel, Flight Travel, and Sea Travel. For more information, see Setting up Expense Management with Microsoft Sustainability and Sustainability management overview (Microsoft article).

To set up an expense type:

  1. Search () for and select Expense Types (Continia Expense Management).
  2. On the action bar, click + New.
  3. Refer to the following table to fill in each column of the Expense Types table.
ColumnAction
CodeEnter the code associated with the expense type.
DescriptionProvide a brief explanation of the purpose of the expense type.
Search NameSpecify the name to find the expense type easily.
No RefundSpecifies 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

This setting allows you to specify whether uploading an attachment is required for a particular expense type. Click in the cell to choose from the dropdown menu, the options are:

  • Recommended - Select this option to warn the user if they forget to attach a file. It doesn't block the user from sending an expense without an attachment but it does inform them about the missing attachment.
  • Mandatory - Select this option if attaching a file is necessary for an expense. Then the user can't send an expense without providing an attachment, and the bookkeeper can't process such expenses.
  • Optional - Use this option if attachments are not expected for a specific expense type. It's suitable for cases such as credit card fees where a receipt may not be available. The user won't receive any warnings or error messages. However, if they attach a receipt anyway, the system accepts it.
Not SelectableSpecifies whether the expense type can be selected in the Expense Portal and in the Expense App. It's suitable for cases such as credit card fees where a receipt may not be available.
Exclude TransactionSelect if you want to make sure that transactions mapped to this expense type are excluded immediately after import. The transaction will no longer be posted automatically if the system enables automatic posting. The way a transaction is mapped to an expense type is by using Mapping Rules on the Bank Transactions page (an example of this handling credit card fees, which are not expenses to be reimbursed). For more information, see Handling fees.
Attendees requiredIf you regularly incur higher expenses in a certain category due to multiple participants attending. Select Attendees Required on the expense type will enforce that participants are specified. This helps to more easily justify the high expenses to approvers. For any changes to take effect, you must update system dependencies.
ImageDetermines the image displayed in the Expense Mobile App and the Expense Portal for the expense type.
No. of Company PoliciesIndicates the number of company policies applicable to this expense type. Learn more about configuring default dimensions and define specific company policies for expense and company policies for mileage expenses.
Purchase ContractSpecifies whether a purchase contract is required for the expense type.
Sustainability DependencySpecifies a field type that the system will automatically generate a field dependency for. This ensures that whenever you select this expense type, further sustainability related data is requested from the user.

Add a posting setup

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

  1. Select an expense type, then on the action bar, click Set Up Expense Types.
  2. Refer to the following table to fill in each column of the Set Up Expense Types table.
ColumnAction
Employee NoThis is the employee for which the posting account will be used. If this account is used for multiple employees, leave the value empty.
Employee GroupThis is the employee group for which the posting account will be used. If there's no requirement for specific groups, you can leave this value empty.
Posting Account TypeEnter the account type to use 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.
Sustainability Account No.Enter the account number for your Business Central sustainability account.
Gen. Prod. Posting GroupHere, you can add a general product posting group to use when posting. This will overwrite the default values from the posting account.
Gen. Bus. Posting GroupThe general business posting group is the group used when posting. This will overwrite the default values from the posting account.
VAT Prod. Posting Group/Tax Prod. Posting GroupSpecifies the VAT/tax product posting group to use when posting. This will overwrite the default values from the posting account.
VAT Bus. Posting Group/Tax Bus. Posting GroupSpecifies the VAT/tax business posting group to use when posting. This will overwrite the default values from the posting account.

Add Country/Region Code and Country Region Type

You can also use the Country/Region information - not just Employee and Employee Group - to differentiate the setup (for example, where you're applying a different VAT or sales tax for specific countries). To do this, personalize the page:

  1. In the top-right corner, click Settings > Personalize.

  2. In the left corner of the banner, click + Field to open the Add Field to Page pane on the right.

    Tip

    If you cannot see + Field, on the Personalizing banner, click the More dropdown menu.

  3. In the pane, click the relevant fields to highlight them (in this case Country/Region Code and Country/Region Type) then drag them from the pane to the table header.

  4. When you're finished, click Done to close the Personalizing banner.

The new columns are added to the table. If you want to specify a default VAT or sales tax for all countries,

  1. Go to Country/Region Type for the first line in the table.
  2. Open the dropdown menu and click All Countries/Regions.
  3. Fill in the remaining fields as needed for this line.

To specify a VAT or sales tax for a specific country,

  1. Go to Country/Region Type for the second line in the table.
  2. Click Country.
  3. In the Country/Region Code column, click the code of the relevant country, 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.

Synchronize updated information

  1. Search () for and select Configured Fields (Continia Expense Management).
  2. In the table, go to the Field Code column and click COUNTRY/REGION for that line.
  3. On the action bar, click the three dot menu (...), then Synchronize with Continia Online.

In the Expense Mobile App and the Expense Portal, the Country/Region Code field will now be visible for expenses, meaning that you can see or specify the country where any given expense was incurred. In creating an expense for this type, with the specific country region code, means that when downloading from Business Central, this expense will carry the posting setup details specified above.

Important

If you customize a posting setup for a specific country, it's important that all other countries have a posting setup too. Otherwise, errors will show for expenses that are registered with other countries.

Setting up Continia Expense Management with Microsoft Sustainability