# Expense claims

> Let staff submit out-of-pocket expenses and route them through single- or multi-step approval; final approval creates a supplier bill automatically.

Source: https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/expense-claims/

Expense claims are how staff get reimbursed for money they spent personally on business items. A staff member submits a claim with the receipt attached; once it clears approval, AccountFUN **creates a supplier bill** and posts it to accounts payable. Reimbursement then happens through the normal bill-payment flow.

If the claim is in a **foreign currency**, the exchange rate is deliberately left off the claim: final approval posts the bill using the system rate for the claim’s date. An admin can instead send foreign-currency claims to a **draft** for finance to set the rate (see [Settings → Approvals](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/settings/)). A claim in your base currency always posts straight away.

Out of the box a claim needs **one approval**. Bigger teams can build **multi-step approval chains** — for example a manager first, then finance — on **Settings → Approvals**.

The claim itself never posts

The claim is a request, not an accounting entry. The ledger only moves when the **final** approval converts it into a supplier bill. For a **foreign-currency** claim, finance sets the exchange rate on that bill before it’s posted.

## Who sees what

Expense claims are **role-aware**:

* **Everyone without Approve Expense Claims** — including Standard, Sales, and Purchase users, not just Employees — sees only their **own** claims. Their tabs are **Your Own** and **Awaiting Payment** (their approved claims still due to be reimbursed). They can’t open, edit, or file claims for anyone else, and they don’t get a review queue.
* **Approvers** (the **Approve Expense Claims** permission — Admins and Accountants by default) see the whole organization’s claims, land on the **To Review** tab, and also get **Awaiting Payment** and **All Expenses**.

On **Your Own** and **All Expenses**, use the status filters below search to narrow the list to **All**, **Draft**, **Submitted**, **Approved**, **Paid**, **Void** or **Declined**. Counts follow the same ownership and search limits as the list; choosing a status does not give access to another person’s claims.

You can’t approve your own claim

Approving a claim pays the person who filed it, so nobody approves their own claim — someone else with **Approve Expense Claims** has to. Two exceptions keep small teams moving:

* **Admins** can approve their own claims.
* If you’re the **only** person in the organization who can approve claims, you can approve your own.

Either way, the approval is recorded in the audit history with the reason it was allowed. And if a claim gets stuck — say the assigned approver has left the team — an admin can still action the pending step.

## Approval chains

With no setup, one approval from anyone who has **Approve Expense Claims** is enough. For finer control, **Settings → Approvals** (admin only) lets you build chains:

* **Levels run in order.** Each level is either **Any approver** (the first approval moves the claim on) or **All approvers** (everyone on that level must approve).
* **Who approves** is a **role** (any member with that role) or a **specific person**.
* **Routing rules** decide which chain applies: match on the claim’s **amount** (compared in your base currency) and/or the claimant’s **role**. Give a chain a **priority**, and mark one as the **fallback** for when nothing else matches.
* If no chain matches (or you’ve set up none), the single default approval applies.

Editing chains never disturbs live claims

A claim snapshots the chain it started on, so changing or deleting a chain never reshapes a claim that’s already in progress.

## Track progress

The **Approval** column on the list, and the claim’s detail page, show where the claim is — for example *Step 2 of 3 · waiting on the CFO* — and, if it was declined, the reason it was rejected.

* **Approvers and admins** always see this, along with the **route** (the name of the chain the claim went down).
* You decide whether **employees** see it: **Settings → Approvals → Show approval progress to employees**. It’s **off by default**; while off, claimants see a plain status instead.

## The workflow

```text
DRAFT ──Submit──▶ SUBMITTED ──Approve──▶ next level ──…──▶ APPROVED (creates the bill)
                    │
                    └──Decline──▶ DECLINED ──Revert──▶ DRAFT
```

| Status        | Meaning                                                | What you can do                                                 |
| ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Draft**     | Saved, not submitted                                   | Edit, Void, Delete                                              |
| **Submitted** | Moving through the approval chain (one or more levels) | Approve or Decline (when it’s your step), Revert to Draft, Void |
| **Approved**  | Every level approved; converted to a supplier bill     | **View Bill** (links to the new bill)                           |
| **Declined**  | An approver rejected it                                | Edit, Revert to Draft                                           |
| **Voided**    | Cancelled                                              | —                                                               |

Foreign-currency claims

For a claim in a currency other than your base currency, **Approved** posts the bill with the system exchange rate straight away. An admin can change this under **Settings → Approvals → Post foreign-currency claims automatically**: turn it off to leave foreign-currency bills as **drafts** — finance opens them from **Bills**, checks or amends the exchange rate and approves them to post. Base-currency claims always post the moment the final approval lands.

## Submit a claim

1. Go to **Expense Claims → New Expense Claim**.
2. Set the **Claimant** (defaults to you), **Spent at** (date incurred), and **Description** (what the expense was for).
3. Pick the **Supplier** you paid and the **Account** (the expense category — e.g. *Travel - National*, *Office Expenses*). Selecting an account auto-applies its default tax rate.
4. Enter the **Purchase amount** and choose **Tax Exclusive / Tax Inclusive**.
5. For a foreign-currency expense, pick the **Currency**. You don’t choose an exchange rate — that’s set on the bill after approval.
6. **Save Draft**, **Submit**, or **Submit + Add Another**.

Submit and approve in one step

If you can approve the routed chain’s first level yourself, the form also shows a **Submit and Approve** button — it submits the claim and takes that first approval at once.

Save the receipts

Drag receipt files onto the claim’s detail page — they attach under a **Receipts** heading so the approver can verify them. See [Files library](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/files/).

## Approve and reimburse

When an approver clicks **Approve**, the claim either moves to the **next level** (the button reads **Approve & advance**) or, on the **final** approval, AccountFUN creates a **bill** linked back to the claim. The bill is posted to accounts payable straight away — a foreign-currency claim’s bill uses the system exchange rate for the claim’s date. If the admin turns **off** Post foreign-currency claims automatically (Settings → Approvals), a foreign-currency claim’s bill is instead created as a **draft** for finance to check or amend the exchange rate and post from **Bills**. Either way the claim becomes **Approved** and shows the linked bill number and who approved it.

To reimburse the staff member, pay that bill like any other — [Record Payment](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/bills/) or a [batch payment](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/payments/) to their bank account. The **Awaiting Payment** tab tracks approved claims whose bills still have a balance due.

Email updates

You’re emailed when a claim needs your approval and when a claim you filed is approved or declined. Choose **Immediately**, a **Daily summary**, or **Off** per organization in **Settings → Notifications**.

File claims from an app or AI assistant

A member can file a claim — and, if their role can approve, approve their **own** — through the [public API](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/api/expense-claims/) or an [AI assistant](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/api/mcp/). Through those, a person can only approve the claims they filed themselves; approving someone else’s claim always happens here in AccountFUN.

## Worked example

An employee buys $54.50 (incl. 10% tax) of office supplies with a personal card.

1. They submit a claim: supplier “Officeworks”, account **Office Expenses**, amount $54.50, Tax Inclusive. Receipt attached. Submit.
2. The approver opens **Review**, checks the receipt, clicks **Approve**. AccountFUN creates **BILL-0123** for $54.50 (Office Expenses $49.55, input-tax $4.95, AP $54.50). Claim shows **Approved · View Bill**.
3. On payday, the bookkeeper pays BILL-0123 via **Record Payment** to the employee’s bank account. The bill moves to **Paid** and the staff member is reimbursed.

With a two-level chain (manager, then finance), step 2 is two approvals: the manager sees the claim under **To Review** and clicks **Approve & advance**, then finance approves — and *that* final approval creates the bill.

The expense hit the P\&L at the moment of approval, not when the cash went out — which is correct accrual accounting.

## Mileage settings

Admins choose the default distance unit in **Settings → Organization → Regional Preferences → Mileage Unit**. New mileage claims and route suggestions use that preference; existing claims keep their original unit. The default expense account for mileage remains in **Settings → Expense Claims**.