You can create and submit expense reports as an employee from the portal, thereby becoming an expense owner.
For more information about the available options on mobile, see the article on creating expense reports in the Payhawk mobile app.
Payhawk accountants and administrators can also create expense reports on behalf of employees, either by adding new expenses or by selecting existing ones.
Creating expense reports in the same way as expenses
As an employee, you can create an expense report in the same way you create a new expense.
To create expense reports with new expenses:
In the Payhawk web portal, go to Expenses.
Click on New.
Select the desired expense report type, for example, Trip. Fill in the report description, its start and end dates, and any other required fields.
If the dates overlap with another report or refer to a past period, the system will display an error.
Click on Create report. As a result, the report can be viewed under the Expenses > Submit tab.
Creating expense reports from selected expenses
As an employee, you can create an expense report when selecting the expenses that have to be included in it.
To create expense reports from selected expenses:
In the Payhawk web portal, go to Expenses and select the expenses to include.
In the flyout dialog:
Choose + Add to a new report.
Fill in the report description, its start and end dates, and any other required fields.
Click on Add to report to create the report with the selected expenses.
Submitting expense reports
As an employee, you can submit expenses for, for example, a trip or project within a defined period.
Expense owners can still submit the included expenses individually, but the expenses included in the report will be sent for approval only after the whole expense report is submitted.
If you have submitted an expense that is part of an expense report, which has not been submitted yet, Payhawk will display a Waiting for report submission label.
To submit an expense report:
In the Payhawk web portal, go to Expenses > Submit.
Select the report.
Click on Submit report. As a result, depending on the configured workflows at your company, all expenses within the report will be submitted for approval or review.
If there are any issues, such as missing required fields in some expenses, Payhawk will display an error message, and the affected expenses will be marked with an indicator dot.
If an expense is returned to you, you'll see it under the Submit tab and will be able to edit and resubmit it.
Approved expenses appear under the All tab.
Automated submission of expense reports
Expense reports are automatically submitted after a grace period defined by your Payhawk administrator.
For example, if the grace period is set to 1 day, the following rules apply:
If the report is for a current or future period, it will be auto-submitted 1 day after the end of that period.
If the report is created for a past period, the submission will occur 1 day after the report is created.
The same logic applies regardless of the number of days, and the timing will adjust automatically based on the grace period configured by your Payhawk administrator.
If any required details are missing from any of the expenses in the report and the system is unable to auto-submit it, an error message will be displayed to indicate that the report is overdue.