Welcome to Payhawk!
We are super excited to have you on board and hope to make your life easier with our platform!
The Payhawk Customer Success Team is available to guide you through the entire process and you can also find them in the live chat every Monday-Friday from 08:00-18:00 CET for proactive support.
If you need to check some of the most common questions, search through the resources on the Payhawk help center.
Audience
This guide is for company employees who pay company expenses, use their Payhawk corporate cards for company spending, upload expenses, and submit and approve expense requests by teammates.
Summary
This quick start will lead you through the basic steps for using Payhawk and will help you get up and running with the Payhawk web portal and mobile app:
Let's get started with your Payhawk experience!
Step 1 - Register to Payhawk with an email invitation
The most common way to register your Payhawk account is through an email invitation your Payhawk administrator has sent you.
To register on the Payhawk web portal, follow these steps:
Look for Payhawk's invitation to register in your Inbox. Please remember that the email will come from a Payhawk account, not your administrator's account. If you don't have an invitation, ask the account administrator to send one to you.
If you don't find the email invite in your Inbox, try looking into your Promotions and Junk folders just in case.
Click on Register.
Create a password for your account. Remember the password has to be at least eight characters long with at least one special symbol (for example, !@#$%^&*) and must contain at least one number. Make sure there are no intervals before or after the password.
Provide a mobile telephone number including the country code in the required format (for example, +4402030484377).
On that number, you will receive an SMS with a code. Enter the verification code and you are set to go!
For more information:
Step 2 - Activate your account on the mobile app
You can now download the Payhawk mobile app and activate your personal Payhawk account on mobile:
To activate your Payhawk account on your mobile, follow these steps:
Log in to the Payhawk mobile app with your work email.
Create a password. Remember it has to be at least eight characters long with at least one special symbol (for example, !@#$%^&*) and must contain at least a single number.
If you have cards assigned to you, you will need to create a four-digit security code.
The security code is used to protect both your virtual and physical cards from misuse. Remember, you must not share the security code with anyone!
You can easily update your security code by going to your profile page and clicking on the Change security code option.
For more information:
Step 3 - Activate your Payhawk corporate card
You can now activate your physical and virtual Payhawk corporate cards.
The Payhawk virtual corporate cards are intended for online payments and offer an option to add them to Google and Apple Pay.
The Payhawk physical corporate cards are intended for online and POS payments.
Activate your virtual card
The Payhawk virtual corporate cards are delivered instantly to the cardholder's mobile phone. Your virtual card will be automatically activated once it's issued.
To access your Payhawk virtual card, go to the Payhawk mobile app and tap the Cards button on the bottom right-hand side.
Activate your physical card
Congrats, your Payhawk physical card has arrived! Now, you can use it for company-related in-store purchases and your travels all around the world!
To activate your physical card, follow these steps:
Open the Payhawk mobile app on your phone.
Tap the Cards icon on the right-hand side.
Enter your Payhawk mobile app security code.
Select the card you want to activate.
Tap Activate your card and your Payhawk physical card is now ready to use!
Your Payhawk physical corporate cards are ordered through the Payhawk web portal by your Payhawk administrator.
Each physical card is associated with an individual employee.
Each cardholder must activate their physical card on the Payhawk mobile app.
For more information:
Step 4 - Pay with your Payhawk card
Now, let's start spending money and pay with your Payhawk cards!
Pay with your virtual Payhawk card
Virtual cards are delivered instantly to the cardholder's mobile phone. Your virtual card is automatically activated once it's issued. It is perfect for paying for all online expenses.
To access your virtual card data, open the Payhawk mobile app and access the card from the Cards icon on the bottom right-hand side.
Pay with your physical Payhawk card
After you have activated your physical Payhawk card, you can start using it for company-related in-store purchases and pay for your travels all around the world!
When paying your Payhawk physical card, note the following specifics:
The first payment with your physical Payhawk card cannot be contactless.
You may be required to enter your PIN code when paying greater amounts as contactless payments with your physical Payhawk card.
The amount for which you may be required to enter your PIN code in such cases depends on the contactless limit defined by the specific merchant.
To access your PIN code:
Open the Payhawk mobile app and tap Cards.
Select the card and tap the View PIN option. The PIN will appear on the screen for five seconds.
For more information:
Step 5 - Upload your expenses with the mobile app
After you have paid with your Payhawk corporate card, you can upload the expenses on the mobile app.
There are four types of expenses that you can create and upload expense documents for from the Payhawk mobile app:
Card payment. These are the expenses you paid with your physical or virtual Payhawk card.
Bank transfer. These are the expenses that are due or paid by your company through a bank transfer.
Company cash. These are the expenses you paid for with company funds (cash or card).
Reimbursement. These are the expenses you paid for with your private funds. For this expense type, you need to be reimbursed.
Upload card payments
When you pay with your Payhawk corporate card, an expense is automatically created in Expenses.
Once a card payment is made, you will receive a notification on your mobile phone to submit the receipt.
Open the Payhawk mobile app.
Tap Expenses and select the expense. Your mobile camera will automatically open.
Take a picture of the receipt.
If you have received the invoice or receipt note over email, you can also upload the image from your gallery or as a file from your local File folder.
Payhawk automatically adjusts the edges of the document and automatically takes the photo.
Enter a description (note) of the expense and its category.
If someone at your company has already paid this supplier, Payhawk will suggest the right category.
Upload bank transfer, company cash, and reimbursable expenses
You can upload any expense you need to pay or have already paid through a bank transfer, company funds, or personal funds by following these steps:
Open the Payhawk mobile app.
Click on the + (plus) icon next to your profile image.
Select the type of expense you are uploading (Bank transfer, Company cash, or Reimbursement).
Your phone camera will open and the Payhawk optical character recognition (OCR) feature will enable the device to automatically take a photo of the invoice or receipt note.
Enter the currency and amount.
Add a note of the expense (for example, dinner with a client).
Select the expense category, project, trip, or cost center (if required).
Click on the ✔ button to finalize the process.
As a result, your expense request is sent to the relevant approvers.
Step 6 - Approve and decline expense requests
If your company uses an expense workflow and you are part of the approval chain, you will be able to approve and decline expense requests.
As an approver, you will receive the expense requests in your Inbox. All requests that you have to review will be under the PENDING tab. Once you approve or decline them, the requests will move to the ALL tab.
When rejecting and deleting expense requests, note the following:
When you reject and delete a request for a card expense, this will not delete the expense but will display the reason for declining to the accountant.
When you reject and delete a request for any other expense, this will delete the expense as well.
Approve expenses on the Payhawk web portal
Go to your Inbox and select a request that you want to review.
Review the expense-related information and the uploaded expense document.
If you want to proceed with approval, click on Approve. As a result, the accountants can continue with their review process.
If you want to decline the expense request, click on the Decline button. In the dialog that opens, select the Return to employee option, provide the reason for your decision, and click on Return.
You can also reject and delete the expense request by selecting the Reject option, providing the reason for your decision, and clicking on Reject.
Approve expenses in the Payhawk mobile app
Go to your Inbox and select a request that you want to review.
Review the expense-related information and the uploaded expense document.
If you want to proceed with approval, tap Approve. As a result, the accountants can continue with their review process.
If you want to decline the expense request, tap the Decline button. In the dialog that opens, select the Return to employee option, provide the reason for your decision, and click on Return.
You can also reject and delete the expense request by selecting the Reject and delete option, providing the reason for your decision, and tapping Reject.
For more information: