Expense Reports Overview
Workflow | Setup For Expense Reports | Add New Expense Report | Create Vendor Invoice | Resources
There are 3 methods for tracking staff incurred out-of-pocket expenses in Workamajig. The method selected will depend upon the agency's workflow and needs.
- Expense Report: Staff Member tracks expense and will be reimbursed
- Expense Report: Staff Member tracks expense and will NOT be reimbursed
- Credit Card Connector: Staff Member or Management track expense and process charges
Choice 1 and 2 will be defined in this guide. For staff that use the company credit cards and do not use expense reports for tracking out-of-pocket expenses, please refer to the Credit Card Connector guide.
Expense Reports are used by staff members to track out-of-pocket expenses incurred while working on the company's behalf. Each line of the expense report is treated much like a Purchase Order, in that it can be tracked to a client project for billing purposes. Following approval, the expense report can be easily converted into a vendor invoice for reimbursement or marked as paid if reimbursement is done via payroll.
Workflow
An expense report goes through a life cycle. The ability to edit it and see it on a project budget depends on where it is in the life cycle.
- Expense Report is entered, not approved.
- Visible in Project Budget Screen as an Inside Cost
- Not Available for Billing
- Expense Report is approved, Not converted to Voucher
- Visible in Project Budget Screen as an Inside Cost
- Available for Billing
- Expense Report is approved, Is Converted to Voucher
- Visible in Project Budget Screen as Outside Cost
- Available for Billing
NOTE: If the Expense Report line was billed to the client, the converted Voucher will be marked with a Gross of $0 and will be unavailable for billing. If the Expense Report was NOT billed to the client, the Converted Voucher will replace the expense report for billing purposes.
When an Expense Report has been completed, the staff person submits it for approval. Each person has a timesheet and an Expense Report approver setup on their employee record Billing Info tab. Once an Expense Report has been approved, a user (typically someone in accounting) can be notified of the approved Expense Report.
Setup For Expense Reports
While there are defaults already in place for use with Expense Reports, there are a few settings that can be adjusted to meet business needs.
Transaction Preferences
Menu > Admin/Manager > System Setup > Account Information > Transaction Preferences > Expense Reports
This area allows the setup of the numbering convention, approval notification, along with a few other options.
NOTE: If "Notify When Approved" is left blank, then an email to the employee of the expense report will be sent.
Expense Report Items
The Expense Report uses a unique list of items that are separate from Purchase Items.
To access this list of items, go to Menu > Admin/Manager > System Setup > Purchasing > Expense Report Items.
While the expense report items are defined in a separate area, they are available when creating an estimate/budget for the project.
Employee Setup
There are two settings that need to be made on the employee record: 1) Expense Report Approver, and 2) Vendor for reimbursement. Both are set up in the same area of the employee record:
Menu>Admin/Manager>Employees>select employee: Accounting>
>Approvals & Payments>Expense Report Approver: An expense report needs to be approved in order for the lines to be billable to the client and to be processed for reimbursement.
Select a name from the drop-down list for the appropriate approver>SAVE
>Purchasing>Vendor: the vendor will be used when an expense report is converted into a vendor invoice for reimbursement/payment.
Select from the drop-down list. Or to create a new vendor, click Create New Vendor> this will auto-create a vendor record with a company name equals the employee name and a vendor ID using first initial+Last Name>once created, click Save on the new vendor record and close: the vendor will be populated into the Vendor field.>>SAVE
Add New Expense Report
Menu > Everyone>Expense Reports > New
This will create a new expense report. Click Add a new expense receipt to begin.
You are able to edit in the grid or expand the line to enter details of the expense.
Adding an Attachment to an Expense Report: You can upload a file to the individual line items by opening the Detail line and clicking on Attachments: this will provide an icon to upload the appropriate file. NOTE: you must first add the expense line to the report and SAVE in order to upload an attachment.
NOTE: If you are using the Workamajig hosted solution, the file will count towards your allocated file storage.
Click Add a Line to create a new line
When finished entering lines, click Submit or Approve button at top of the page.
Reimbursement of Expenses
In order to reimburse the staff member for their expenses, the submitted expense report MUST be approved. Once approved, Workamajig will allow you to reimburse the staff in one of two ways. In either case, the expenses are still shown against the select projects. However, how the cost is seen will be different.
Set As Paid > reimburse via payroll
In this method, the total expense report value will be added to the employee's payroll amount or is reimbursed in a way outside the vendor invoice>payment method.
Project View: Inside Cost - the value of the expense line will remain as an inside cost on the project.
Accounting View: Journal Entry- the actual expense tracked to the general ledger will be entered via the payroll journal entry or unique journal entry.
From the approved expense report, click ...more> Set as Paid
Convert to Vendor Invoice > reimburse via payment or ACH
In this method, the entire expense report value is converted into a vendor invoice. The vendor invoice, following approval, will then be paid via the agency's normal AP cycle.
Project View: Outside Cost - the value of the expense line will be converted to an outside cost on the project.
Accounting View: Vendor Invoice Posting- the actual expense tracked to the general ledger will follow the settings of the Expense Report Items for Expense GL Account.
From the approved expenses report> click create vendor invoice, at top of the page.
The vendor invoice will be immediately created and displayed for further editing> Save and submit for approval/approve>Post
NOTE: the vendor invoice number will match the expense report number
Once an expense report is converted to a Vendor Invoice
- One Vendor Invoice line is created per expense report line with the office, department, and item selections retained. (see NOTE below)
- The expense report is no longer visible on the budget analysis. It is replaced with the vendor invoice
- The expense report can no longer be billed if it has not been billed yet.
- If the expense report line was billed prior to converting to a vendor invoice, the vendor invoice line will be marked as billed. Should you delete the client invoice, the vendor invoice will get unmarked as billed and you can then bill the vendor invoice line.
NOTE: When an Expense Report is entered into the system and applied to a specific project and task, the system records this as a project Expense. Therefore when the vendor invoice is created from an Expense Report, the vendor invoice will NOT have a project or task on any of the line items. The purpose of the vendor invoice is simply to create the record to pay the staff person and record the Expenses on the Expense Report to the proper general ledger expense accounts.
The Expense Report has already taken care of recording each individual expense onto a project. It is important not to add the project or task information to a vendor invoice which is created from an Expense Report, since doing this will duplicate the cost of the project.