About

This article provides a comprehensive guide on report management within our platform. From viewing, editing, and submitting your employees’ Open reports to handling rejections and unapproving, as well as harnessing the power of our “Guided Review” feature. Additionally, we’ll delve into best practices for Concierge, offering insights on how to streamline and automate your report approval processes for maximum efficiency. Let’s dive in!

How-to manage reports

This section covers the most essential information a user needs to operate a feature i.e. what to click on. We’ll go over any action the user might take when configuring or using the feature, starting from configuration and moving to usage.

What options does a user have when configuring this feature?

What options does a user have then interacting with this feature?

What elements of this feature are pay-walled vs. free?

As a Workspace admin, you have the ability to view, edit, and submit your employees’ Open reports.

We recommend beginning this process from the web version of Expensify because it offers more functionality compared to the mobile app. Here’s how to get started: Click on the “Reports” tab. Select the “All Submitters” and “Open” filters. This will display all employee reports on your Workspaces that have not yet been submitted. ​

Viewing Employee Reports

Viewing employee reports can vary depending on whether you’re using the web or mobile versions of Expensify. We generally recommend using the web version for this purpose, as it offers the following advantages:

You will only receive reports directly submitted to you when using the mobile app.

The option to filter reports via the Reports page is exclusively available in the web version, making it more convenient when reviewing multiple reports during a session. ​

Viewing employee reports on the mobile app

When using the mobile app to view reports, please note the following:

Tapping on the Reports list will only display your own reports; you won’t see reports from other Workspace members.

To view another Workspace member’s report in the Expensify app, it must be submitted directly to you, and you must access it through a link from an email or via Home.

When you access a report in this manner, you will have the option to approve/reject it or go through the review process if there are expenses that require your attention.

Once you’ve approved or rejected the report, it won’t be accessible in the app anymore. To view it again, please visit the website and follow the steps mentioned above. ​

Editing employee reports

If a report has been submitted directly to you, follow these steps to edit the expense details. Please note that you cannot change the expense amount; to make changes affecting the report total, you must reject it and return it to the employee.

Here’s what to do:

• Click on any expense within the report to edit the expense details.
• Remember that you cannot modify the expense amount directly. To make changes affecting the report total, reject the report, and it will be sent back to the employee for revisions.
• If you’re a Workspace admin and need to edit a report that wasn’t submitted directly to you, use the “Take Control” button at the top of the report. Keep in mind that taking control of a report will disrupt the approval workflow. ​ Additionally, here are some other editing options for Admins:
• Undelete deleted company card expenses via the Reconciliation Dashboard (requires Domain Admin privileges).
• Add unreported company card expenses to an existing Open (unsubmitted) report or create a new report via the Reconciliation Dashboard (requires Domain Admin privileges).
• Add or modify expense coding, including Category, Tag(s), and Attendees.
• Attach a receipt to an expense that doesn’t have one.
• Move card expenses between two Open (unsubmitted) reports.
• Merge duplicate expenses (only applicable if they are not card transactions).
• Change the Workspace associated with a report.​

Submitting Employee Reports

As a Workspace Admin, you have the option to submit any of your employee’s Open reports. If an employee is unable to do it themselves, a Workspace admin can submit an expense report on their behalf to initiate the approval process. Follow these steps: Click the “Submit” button located at the top of the report.

Report History and Comments

Please keep in mind that any changes made by the admin are tracked under “Report History and Comments.” If you change the reimbursable status of an expense (e.g., from Reimbursable to Non-Reimbursable), an email notification will be sent to the employee to notify them of this change.

Rejecting or Unapproving a Report

If you need to reject a report that has been submitted to you or Unapprove a report that has already been approved.

To reject the report, click Reject rather than beginning the Review process. If there are multiple approvers involved, you can choose how far back to reject the report.

Rejecting a report will return the report back to the submitter in an Open status or, in the case of a multi-level approval workflow, back to the previous approver in a Processing status (awaiting their approval). You may need to do this if the submitter is not ready to submit the report, or perhaps the report as a whole needs to be rejected based on the configuration of your organization’s expense Workspace.

Unapprove a Report

You can click the red Unapprove button at the top of the report to undo approving a report. Keep in mind that you’ll only see the Unapprove button if you’re a report approver on an admin that has taken control of the report.​

Marking a Report as Reimbursed Outside of Expensify

If you are reimbursing reports via paper check, through payroll or any other method that takes place outside of Expensify, you’ll want to keep track of which reports have been taken care of by marking reports as reimbursed.

1. Log into your Expensify account using your preferred web browser, (ie: Chrome or Safari)
2. Head to your Reports page and locate the report
3. Click the report name to open it
4. Click on Reimburse
5. Choose “I’ll do it manually - just mark it as reimbursed”. This will change the report status to Reimbursed
6. The submitter can then go into the report and confirm that they received the reimbursement by clicking the button at the top of the report.
7. This will change the report status to Reimbursed: CONFIRMED

How to Use Guided Review to Approve Reports

Guided Review helps alert you to what might be out-of-Workspace for an Expense Report. You’ll be guided through all report violations and warnings and given the option to Reject or Edit items that need review prior to approving a report.

Guided Review helps approvers quickly identify reports that need more attention so they can pass over reports that can be quickly approved. Both Submitters and Approvers have actionable notifications for the following: violations, warnings, and notices. These notifications are important since they will be included in “review mode” for the approver to make clear approve or reject decisions.

Via the Website:​

1. Simply click Review at the top left of the report and the system will begin to walk you through the entire report.
2. Choose to Reject, View, or skip over an item needing review. If you wish to stop the process at any time, click the X in the progress bar in the top right corner. Reject: This will remove the expense from the report and send it back to the submitter. An email will be sent to the submitter explaining this expense has been rejected. View: This will allow you to open the expense so you can view and fix any incorrect data. Next: This will allow you to skip over the current item and move forward to review the rest of the report. Finish: Click this to finish reviewing the report!
3. Click the Finish button if you are done reviewing, or reject/edit the last item to finish the review process.
4. Approve the report! Approve and Forward the report if there is another person who needs to review the report in your approval workflow, or you can Final Approve if you are the final approver. Note: When in Guided Review, you’ll automatically Approve the report adhering to your Company’s Approval Workflow once you Approve the final expense on the report. You’ll then be immediately taken to the next report requiring your attention - making Approving multiple expenses a quick and painless process!

Via the Mobile App:​

1. From Home, under Reports that need your attention, click Begin Review, and the system will bring you to the first expense on the oldest report in Home.
2. Edit the expense: Make any necessary edits to the expense by tapping the corresponding field. Be sure to address any Violations and Notes on the expense! Notes are indicated at the top of the expense with a yellow exclamation point, while violations appear on the expense with a red exclamation point:
3. Choose Reject or Accept at the top of the expense.

Reject: This will remove the expense from the report and send it back to the submitter. An email will be sent to the submitter explaining this expense has been rejected, and a comment will be added to the report it was rejected from. If this is the only expense on the report, the entire report will be rejected (and the expense will remain on the report).

If Scheduled Submit is being used, rejected expenses will auto-report to the next Open report on the Workspace (as if it were a new expense). If an open report doesn’t exist, Concierge will create a new one. ​

If Scheduled Submit is not being used, any rejected expenses will be Unreported in the submitter’s account and need to be manually applied to a new report. ​ Accept: This will move to the next expense on the report, leaving behind any outstanding violations or notes. If this is the last expense on the report, you’ll be all done! Once you’ve made it through all of the expenses on the report, you’ll be all set!

Deep Dive

Concierge Report Management

Concierge report approval removes the need for you to manually click “Approve” on endless reports! Instead, you can set up your group Workspace to capture all the requirements you have for your team’s expenses. As long as all the rules have been followed and Concierge’s additional audit is passed (more below), we will automatically approve such reports on behalf of the approver after submission. ​ Before you start: Ensure are a Workspace admin on a group Workspace Set your workflow to Submit-and-Approve or Advanced Approval workflow​

Then follow these steps:

Set up your group Workspace so that all of your expense requirements are defined. Setting automatic categories for employees and category rules (e.g., maximum amounts, receipt requirements, etc.) are great examples!

Navigate to Settings > Workspaces > Group > [Workspace Name] > Members.​

Scroll down to Approval Mode and select either Submit-and-Approve or Advanced Approval.

Under Expense Approvals, select a Manual Approval Threshold greater than $0.​

With this setup, manual approval will only be required:

• For reports that fail audit (i.e. there is at least one Workspace violation on the report)
• For reports that contain at least one expense over the Manual Approval Threshold
• For any percentage of reports that you’d like to spot-check (this is set at 5% or 1 in 20 by default).
• If the report meets all of the requirements you specify in your Workspace settings and all expenses are under the Manual Approval Threshold, then Concierge will automatically move your report through each step of your designated approval workflow (unless it’s routed for a spot-check).​

Concierge Receipt Audit

Concierge Receipt Audit is a real-time audit and compliance of receipts submitted by employees and Workspace users. Concierge checks every receipt for accuracy and compliance, flagging any expenses that seem fishy before expense reports are even submitted for approval. All risky expenses are highlighted for manual review, leaving you with more control over and visibility into employee expenses.

1. Concierge will SmartScan every receipt to verify the data input by the user matches the currency, date, and amount on the physical receipt.
2. After the report is submitted for approval, Concierge highlights any differences between the SmartScanned values and the employee’s chosen input.
3. Each receipt that has been verified will show the “Verified” logo.