As an Administrator, you are responsible for reviewing, approving, and reimbursing Expense Reports submitted by your members and employees. Springly lets you manage the entire reimbursement process in one centralized place. This article walks you through how to do it.
This article covers the following topics:
- View pending Expense Reports
- Approve or decline an Expense Report
- Reimburse an approved Expense Report
- Track reimbursement history
View pending Expense Reports
Access the management module
To view all Expense Reports submitted by your members:
- Go to Accounting > Expense Reports
- You'll see a list of all Expense Reports with their status:
- Pending: submitted reports awaiting your review
- Approved: validated reports awaiting reimbursement
- Reimbursed: reports that have already been reimbursed
- Declined: reports that were not accepted
Review an Expense Report
To view the details of an Expense Report:
- Click the "Eye" icon to the right of the report
- A side panel opens with all the details:
- Contact: the person who submitted the report
- Expenditure date: when the expense was incurred
- Receipt: the attached receipt or invoice (click to open)
- Reason for expense: the description provided by the member
- Category: the type of expense (transportation, meals, etc.) β The category can be edited if the one entered by the user is incorrect.
- Amount: the amount to be reimbursed
Approve or decline an Expense Report
Approve an Expense Report
If the Expense Report is valid and all supporting documents are in order:
- In the Expense Report side panel, click "Approve"
- A confirmation message appears: "The Expense Report has been approved. An email has been sent to your contact to notify them. You can now proceed with reimbursement using the method of your choice. Once payment is made, remember to update the status of the Expense Report."
- The report status changes to "Approved"
- The member automatically receives an email notifying them that their report has been approved and will be reimbursed shortly
Important: Approving the report automatically creates an accrual entry in the appropriate account based on the selected expense category.
Decline an Expense Report
If the Expense Report is not valid (missing receipt, error, excessive amount, etc.):
- In the Expense Report side panel, click "Decline"
- A window opens asking you to select a reason for declining:
- Missing or non-compliant receipt
- Data entry error or inconsistency
- Expense submitted outside the allowed timeframe or period
- Expense does not comply with internal policy
- Excessive or unjustified amount
- Personal or non-business expense
- Select the appropriate reason and click "Decline Expense Report"
- The member automatically receives an email with the reason for the decline and can submit a new report if needed
Important: For the first two decline reasons, the End-user can correct and resubmit the Expense Report using a link included in the notification email.
Reimburse an approved Expense Report
Process the reimbursement
Once an Expense Report is approved, you need to issue the reimbursement outside of the platform (by wire transfer, check, cash, etc.).
After making the payment, update the status of the Expense Report in Springly:
- Open the approved Expense Report
- In the side panel, under the "Reimbursement" section, fill in:
- Payment date: the date on which you issued the reimbursement
- Payment method: select the method used (Wire transfer, Check, Cash, etc.)
- Bank account or Petty cash: depending on the payment method selected
- Click "Confirm reimbursement"
- A confirmation message appears: "The Expense Report has been reimbursed. An email has been sent to your contact to notify them."
- The report status changes to "Reimbursed"
Important: This action automatically creates the payment entry in the bank account or Petty cash you selected.
Accounting records
The category entered by the user determines the expense account associated with the Expense Report entry. These categories cannot be changed at this time:
- Supplies β 606000
- Rental (vehicle, equipment) β 613000
- Marketing and communications β 623000
- Mileage β 624000
- Mission expenses β 625000
- Travel and transportation β 625100
- Entertainment β 625700
- Postage and telecommunications β 626000
- Other expenses β 658000
The Expense Report reimbursement process automatically generates two types of entries in your accounting:
1. Upon approval (accrual entry):
- Debit: Expense account (6xx) based on the expense category
- Credit: Third party account (467) linked to the contact
2. Upon reimbursement (payment entry):
- Debit: Third party account (467)
- Credit: Bank account (512) or Petty cash (530)
These entries are created automatically and can be found under Accounting > Journal book entry.
Track reimbursement history
Filter Expense Reports
In the Accounting > Expense Reports module, you can filter the view by:
- Status: Pending, Approved, Reimbursed, Declined
- Contact: to view all reports for a specific person
- Period: to display reports within a given date range
View the details of a reimbursed Expense Report
For reports that have already been reimbursed, the side panel displays:
- All original report details
- Paid on: the date of reimbursement
- Payment method: how the reimbursement was made
- Bank account or Petty cash: the account used for payment
Reason for decline
For declined reports, the side panel shows the Reason for decline that was communicated to the member.
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