The Activity section for each expense allows you to view any comments on that expense, its workflow, its export history, and its change log with the respective updates. Thus, you can see all historic events related to that expense.
Benefits
Improved collaboration, streamlined approval process, and enhanced transparency. Commenting and tagging employees:
Facilitates collaboration and reduces the likelihood of misunderstandings or missed deadlines.
Reduces the need for back-and-forth communication, and minimizes delays.
Helps in maintaining compliance with policies and regulations, as well as ensuring that all stakeholders are aware of the status of expenses and invoices.
Quick, all-in-one overview of expense lifecycle, export history, and change log of the expense:
The Activity > Workflow tab of the expense displays all steps that were taken so far in line with the defined approval workflows at your company.
The Activity > Export tab keeps track of the export actions for the expense.
The Activity > Expense changes tab holds the log with all changes related to that expense such as creating it or adding a document.
Viewing expense history from Activity > All is especially important for businesses based in Germany as the functionality follows the German Directive on Electronic Bookkeeping and Accounting (GoBD) and enables Finance teams to do paperless accounting.
Sorting expense activities
In the Payhawk portal, you can sort the expense activities showing either the newest or the oldest on top.
The sorting order applies to all Activity tabs.
By default, the system shows the newest activities on top.
Updates in the sorting order will be stored for the following user sessions.
In the Payhawk mobile app, activities cannot be sorted and are displayed starting from the oldest ones.
Use cases for comments
Comments come in handy in many and various use cases such as:
Employee - (Team/Category/Custom field) Manager collaboration when gathering context and opening discussions during the approval process of the expense.
Employee - Finance team collaboration when there is no approval process for an expense.
Manager - Finance team collaboration when the Manager provides context to the Finance team on why a given expense has been approved.
Finance team - Finance team collaboration for intra-finance discussions on how to handle a specific case or expense.
Posting and replying to comments
You can require additional information and gain more context about an expense by posting a comment to it and tagging the relevant employees. For more details, see how to comment on expenses.
Viewing expense comments in the portal
To view the comments for an expense:
In the Payhawk web portal, go to Expenses and select the desired expense.
Open its Activity section or click on the sticky label with the comments. By default, the Comments option from the drop-down menu will be loaded.
Alternatively, if you've been notified about an expense comment, go to your Inbox > Notifications and select the comment.
Viewing the expense workflow in the portal
You can view the workflow of an expense by selecting the Workflow drop-down list option from its Activity section.
Viewing the change log of the expense in the portal
You can view the changes that were made to the expense by selecting the Expense changes drop-down option from its Activity section.
Alternatively, click on the three-dot menu of the expense and select the View history option. As a result, you'll be directed to the Activity section. From the drop-down list, select Expense changes.
Viewing the export history of expenses in the portal
You can view the export history of an expense by selecting the Export drop-down list option from its Activity section.
Viewing all expense activities in the portal
To view all combined activities for an expense, select the All drop-down list option from its Activity section.
Viewing comments and expense workflows in the app
If you've been notified about an expense comment, open your Inbox and tap on the notification. Alternatively, tap on the push notification you've received on your phone.
From your Inbox, you can view all comments for an expense (Activity > Comments) and its workflow (Activity > Workflow), or all of these combined (Activity > All).
