Expenses settings
Required user role Expenses Admin
The Expenses settings tab allows you to edit processing details and configure your expense categories. Within the Expenses settings tab, there are five subtabs: General, Categories, Policies, Mileage rates, and Workflows.
Set up If and Then logic to determine when to add approvers each time an expense is submitted. To learn more, go to Build expense approval workflows.
General
The General sub-tab contains all the general configurations of each entity that has Expenses enabled. Note that some cannot be changed once Expenses is configured.
Select payer entity
This is the entity that will be used to issue employee reimbursements. It usually matches the employee entity. It is read only.
You can also switch between different entities using the dropdown and set the entity’s currency and mileage units, the approver, the expenses GL account, and how tax is collected per entity.
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Define leading currency
This is the default currency for all employees within the entity and dictates the reimbursement currency, as well as all the currency conversion calculations done in the mobile app and in Tipalti Hub. It is read only and cannot be edited once configured.
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Set units of distance
These are the default units of distance used to calculate mileage reimbursement. It is read only and cannot be edited once configured.
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Establish mileage start day
This is the day of the year used to calculate yearly mileage totals. It is typically 1st January for countries that use the calendar year, or the first day of the tax year for countries that don’t use calendar year (e.g., UK: 6th April). It is read only.
Define leading currency
This is the default currency for all employees within the entity and dictates the reimbursement currency, as well as all the currency conversion calculations done in the mobile app and in Tipalti Hub. It is read only and cannot be edited once configured.
Set units of distance
These are the default units of distance used to calculate mileage reimbursement. It is read only and cannot be edited once configured.
Establish mileage start day
This is the day of the year used to calculate yearly mileage totals. It is typically 1st January for countries that use the calendar year, or the first day of the tax year for countries that don’t use calendar year (e.g., UK: 6th April). It is read only.
Set finance approver
This is the finance approver for the entity. This person is assigned expenses for approval. It is editable.
Choose expenses GL account
This is the account used to track payables before reimbursements are issued. It must be an AP account in your ERP. It is editable.
Allow attendee tracking
You can Allow attendee tracking so that employees in the selected entity can add Additional attendees to their expense submissions. Attendee tracking can be applied per category (not including mileage expenses) and is used for reporting purposes only.
Once enabled, if an employee adds other attendees to an expense, it will show a breakdown of cost per attendee, but the full amount can only be reimbursed to the submitting employee. For more information, go to Create and submit expenses.
Configure tax collection
This option gives you the ability to track the tax for each expense. If enabled, you can choose the default tax code for the whole entity and then override it for specific categories (see below). It is editable.
You can customize requirement settings for expense creation form fields. To set mandatory fields and hide irrelevant ones from employees, simply open a request with Tipalti Support, specifying which fields to show and which to make mandatory.
Categories
The Categories sub-tab allows you to manage all the expense categories that employees can use to log expenses. The list changes per entity.
Add a new category
You can create a new category by clicking Add category and filling in the category details. From the categories list, you can enable/ disable categories, edit any of the details and archive categories. The expense type is not editable once there is at least one expense created using a category.
You can use the same spend categories for both Tipalti Card transactions and expenses. Tipalti auto-calculates tax amounts (such as VAT or sales tax) based on pre-defined tax codes.
For each category, you need to enter these details:
- Name (visible to the employee)
- Description (optional, not visible to the employee)
- Expense type (general or mileage)
- Expense account
- Require receipt (yes or no)
- Collect tax info (allows you to collect tax for expenses in this category and optionally override the default tax code)
Sync Expense Report NetSuite 2.0
If you are using the Expense Report sync to NetSuite 2.0, expense categories must be created and managed in NetSuite. They automatically sync to Tipalti. When they sync in Tipalti, you are then able to configure the following fields:
- Expense type (general or mileage)
- Require receipt (yes or no)
- Collect tax info (allows you to collect tax for expenses in this category, and optionally override the default tax code)
You will not be able to configure Name, Description and Expense account, nor will you be able to enable/ disable the category. Go to NetSuite to make those changes.
Policies
The Policies sub-tab allows you to add, view, edit, and delete all expense policies for reimbursements.
Here you can set a Submission deadline, which is a timeframe of how long employees have to submit expenses after they occur.
Under the Spend limit per category section, you can set the maximum amount of spending for different categories per day, week, month, or year. For example, you could set a maximum amount for the daily amount allowed for meals.
Soft policy rules now apply to both out-of-pocket expenses and corporate card transactions. When a card transaction violates a rule, a warning appears in the card transaction side panel in the Tipalti Hub. See Monitor card transactions.
Mileage Rates
The Mileage rates sub-tab is where you can add and manage mileage rates.
You can set mileage rates for your company, so all business travel expenses are calculated automatically and reimbursed at different rates based on the distance covered.
You can set different rates per entity, and each entity can have multiple rates for different time periods.
To add a new mileage rate:
- Click Add rate, select the start and end dates, enter the rate amount, and click Save.
- Once set, all new expenses and any expenses pending review will be changed to the new rate after the start date.
You can set different tiers for annual distances covered when adding a new rate. For example, up to 1,000 km could have a different mileage rate from over 2,000 km. - To change existing mileage rates click Edit next to the rate, and from here you can also delete rates.
Delegate expenses
Delegating expense management to other employees in your organization is easy to set up in the Tipalti Hub, allowing for increased productivity and better teamwork.
To delegate expenses to specific employees, simply:
- Go to the Employees settings screen in Procurement > Back Office
- Under Expenses permissions, click Specify delegated employees and select an employee from your organization
- Once saved, the delegated employee will have permission to create, view, edit, and manage expenses on behalf of another employee.
Please note, delegating expenses to other users is currently only supported on the Tipalti mobile app.