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Expense reporting

Lucas Domeij avatar
Written by Lucas Domeij
Updated this week

The expense reporting feature in Aboard allows employees to submit expense reports for business-related costs and enables administrators to manage, review, and reimburse these expenses. This feature streamlines the expense reimbursement process for your organisation.

Initial setup (administrator)

Enable expense reporting.

Before employees can submit expenses, an administrator must enable the feature:

  1. Navigate to Settings in the admin panel

  2. Go to Expense reporting

  3. Toggle the "Enable Expense Reporting" switch to ON

  4. The feature is now available to your organisation

Set up expense categories

Categories help organise different types of expenses and make reporting more structured:

  1. In the Expense Reporting settings, go to the Categories tab

  2. Click "Create category group" to create a new category group (e.g., "Travel", "Office Supplies")

  3. Within each category group, add specific categories:

    • Example Travel categories: "Flight", "Hotel", "Meals", "Transportation"

    • Example Office categories: "Software", "Equipment", "Stationery"

  4. Each category can have:

    • Name: The category name employees will see

    • Code: An internal reference code

    • Emoji: A visual identifier

    • Color: For easy visual recognition

Set up expense tags (optional)

Tags provide additional filtering and organization options:

  1. Go to the Tags tab in Expense Reporting settings

  2. Create tag groups (e.g., "Project", "Department", "Client")

  3. Add individual tags within each group:

    • Project tags: "Marketing Campaign", "Website Redesign"

    • Department tags: "Sales", "Engineering", "HR"

  4. Configure whether tags are required or optional

  5. Employees will need to select appropriate tags when submitting expenses


Configure expense handlers

Set up who can manage and process expenses:

  1. Go to the Handlers tab

  2. Assign managers or HR personnel who can:

    • Review submitted expenses

    • Mark expenses as reimbursed

    • Edit employee expenses

    • Export expense data

Setting up approval flows

  1. Enable Expense Reporting: The expense approval flow becomes available automatically

  2. Configure Steps: Add one or more approval steps with designated approvers

  3. Set Conditions: Choose if "All" or "Any" approvers in each step must approve

  4. Activate Flow: When active, all expenses require approval (no amount thresholds)

  5. Multi-Step Approval: Set up sequential approval levels if needed

  6. Notifications: Approvers receive automatic notifications for pending requests


Employee experience

Submitting a new expense

  1. Access Expenses: Click on the Expenses section in the portal

  2. Create New Expense: Click "New Expense" button

  3. Fill Required Information:

    • Date: When the expense occurred

    • Amount: The cost amount

    • Currency: Select appropriate currency (SEK, USD, EUR, etc.)

    • Category: Choose from the predefined categories

    • Tags: Select applicable tags (if configured by admin)

    • Comment: Add description or notes about the expense

  4. Attach Receipt: Upload receipt images or documents

  5. Submit: Click "Submit Expense"

Expense status tracking

Employees can track their expenses through different statuses:

  • Pending Approval: Expense submitted and awaiting manager approval

  • Rejected: Expense rejected by approver (can be edited and resubmitted)

  • Pending Reimbursement: Expense approved and awaiting payment

  • Reimbursed: Expense has been paid out


Editing expenses

Employees can edit expenses that are:

  • Rejected: Make corrections and resubmit

  • Pending Approval: Modify before final approval

Note: Expenses that are already reimbursed cannot be edited.


Administrator management

Reviewing expenses

  1. Navigate to Admin > Expenses

  2. View all submitted expenses with filters:

    • Status: Filter by pending, approved, rejected, reimbursed

    • Employee: View expenses by specific team members

    • Category: Filter by expense categories

    • Tags: Filter by specific tags

    • Reimbursed By: See who processed reimbursements

Processing expenses

Marking as reimbursed:

  1. For expenses that are approved (or don't require approval), click "Mark as Reimbursed"

  2. This updates the status and notifies the employee

  3. The expense is recorded as processed

Note: Approval/rejection of expenses is handled through the separate Approval Flow system, not by expense handlers.

Editing employee expenses

Administrators can modify employee expenses:

  1. Select an expense from the list

  2. Click "Edit" to modify:

    • Amount

    • Category

    • Tags

    • Comments

    • Receipt attachments

  3. Employee receives notification of admin changes

Expense reports and export

  • Filter and Sort: Use various filters to find specific expenses

  • Export Data: Export expense data for accounting or reporting purposes




Best practices

  1. Clear categories: Create intuitive, specific expense categories that match your business needs

  2. Consistent tags: Use a standardised tagging system across the organisation for better reporting

  3. Approval strategy: Decide whether to use approval flows (all expenses require approval) or direct processing

  4. Regular processing: Review and process expenses promptly to maintain a good employee experience

  5. Handler permissions: Assign appropriate expense handlers who can manage and reimburse expenses

  6. Documentation: Maintain clear expense policies and communicate approval processes to employees

  7. Required vs optional Tags: Carefully consider which tag groups should be required vs optional


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