Documentation Expenses
Detailed guide

Expenses

The spend ledger for projects: log, review, approve, and bill billable and reimbursable expenses across four views.

Expenses is the spend ledger for projects. It exists so real cost can be reviewed, approved, billed, or reimbursed without guesswork, and so managers can gate spend before it hits an invoice.

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Quick summary Step by step Guardrails Troubleshooting Related workflows

Quick summary

  • Log expenses as close to the real spend as possible so reporting stays accurate.
  • Clear the pending queue with Approve or Approve Selected.
  • Reject an approved expense that was approved in error.
  • Filter by billable/reimbursable state before invoices are produced.

Put it into practice

  1. Pick the right view first: My Expenses for your own, Pending approval to review the team's, Unsubmitted for approved-but-unbilled, or All Expenses for everything.

    InteractionsExpenses page: choose the tab (My / Pending approval / Unsubmitted / All).

  2. Open Filters to narrow by project, category, billable, reimbursable, and status. Use the search and Clear button to keep the view focused.

    InteractionsExpenses page: click the Filters toggle, set filters, then Clear when done.

  3. Log any missing spend from Log Expense, capturing project, category, amount, and date accurately, and attach receipt/supporting evidence when available.

    InteractionsExpenses page: click Log Expense and complete the form.
    Open workflow: Create Expense

  4. As a manager, approve pending expenses individually (Approve), in bulk (Approve Selected after ticking rows), or all at once (Approve all). Use Reject to reverse an approval made in error.

    InteractionsPending approval view: use the row Approve, the Approve Selected bulk action, or Approve all; use Reject on approved rows.

  5. Correct any wrong entries with the row edit action, then confirm billable/reimbursable treatment and attachment evidence are right before billing.

    InteractionsExpenses table: use the pencil (edit) action; verify Billable, Reimbursable, and Attachment columns.
    Open workflow: Edit Expense

  6. If expenses feed an invoice, confirm the billing workflow picks them up as expected.

    InteractionsProject invoice workflow: confirm expense evidence aligns with the invoice.
    Open workflow: Invoice Workflow

What to review

Tabs

My Expenses (badge), Pending approval (badge, managers only), Unsubmitted (badge), and All Expenses (managers only). The URL uses ?view=mine|pending|unsubmitted|all.

Log Expense and Approve all

A 'Log Expense' button (when permitted) and, in the Pending approval view for managers, an 'Approve all (N)' bulk button.

Summary stat cards

Total (amount + count), Billable, Non-Bill., Reimburse., Pending, Approved, and Invoiced.

Filters

A Filters toggle (with 'active' badge) exposing From, To, Project, Logged by (managers), Category, Billable (All / Billable only / Non-billable), Reimburse (All / Reimbursable / Non-reimbursable), and Status (All / Pending / Approved / Invoiced), plus a Clear button.

Expenses table

Columns: Date, Project, Category, Vendor, Logged by, Amount, Status, Billable (✓/—), Reimbursable (✓/—), Billing, Attachment, Notes, Actions.

Approval and row actions

Managers see Approve on pending rows and Reject on approved rows; a checkbox column plus an 'Approve Selected' bulk action appears in the Pending view. Edit (pencil) and Delete (trash) are available to the manager or the creator while pending.

Log Expense form

The create workflow for a new spend item (project, category, amount, date, billable/reimbursable), including optional receipt or supporting-file upload.

See guide: Create Expense

Guardrails

  • Expense amount, project, and category must be valid before the entry can support reporting or billing.
  • Approving is a manager action that makes an expense eligible for billing; Reject reverses it back for correction.
  • Edit and Delete are generally only available while an expense is still pending, not after it is approved or invoiced.
  • Only managers see Pending approval and All Expenses, the Logged by filter, the approve/reject controls, and the bulk actions.
  • Expense management may be broader than invoicing permission, so some users can record spend without billing it.

If it starts drifting

  • If an expense is not showing up for billing, verify its billable state, status, and project association first.
  • If Approve Selected is disabled, tick at least one row checkbox in the Pending view.
  • If you cannot edit an expense, it is likely already approved or invoiced and therefore locked.
  • If an expected receipt link is missing, check whether the entry was saved without an attachment or the file was removed on edit.
  • If the list looks empty, check the active tab and clear filters (watch for the 'active' badge).