Staff expenses claims can be placed on the mobile app. This section of the app allows a user to create a claim and hold the claim on the phone until they are ready to release it for approval and then payment. Each line item on the claim can have a receipt attached to it. Once submitted, all receipts are bundled into PDF making it much easier for the approver to review the claim. Zahara was designed for purchase approvals so with the correct setup, you can have claims checked for the correct coding and tax rates prior to management approval and then exporting into the finance system. 

We recommend you create a new business unit for expenses. You can create divisions based on your business needs reflecting the approvals processes you want. Then assign your expenses users to these divisions and create them as suppliers as well. So let’s say we have an employee called Eric Cantona. Eric will be added as a user – so he has access to Zahara. He will be assigned to the correct division, have a password set and be assigned the right permissions to use the mobile app. You will also create a supplier called Eric Cantona and set the correct defaults. You can even allow the user to edit their own supplier record using the supplier portal lock. 

1. Create a business unit 
2. Create the divisions 
3. Add the users to the divisions 
4. Set user permissions – Mobile app/purchase order permissions 
5. Create supplier records for your staff – you can import them from a CSV
6. Create approval workflows. 

There are two approvals workflow steps that might be useful. One or more of the steps will be the standard approval – perhaps the line manager or business manager that needs to validate the expense claim. The second approval step type could be a finance user checking the coding or the tax rates. Finally, you will want to process the expense claims and have them paid. We fully expected to be able to do payments within a few months but for now, you can use a workflow step to convert the order into an invoice and then place it in a business unit that’s integrated with a finance system so can facilitate an export. 

The mobile app needs to have some settings set first. Go into the ‘My Default Settings’ section and set the following parameters. 

Set the default business unit, the default division, the supplier – ie the user who will be making the claim – so the user is selecting themselves. They can also set the workflow. 

Click the menu on the app – top right and select expenses. Click on the new claim. 

Because the defaults have been set the user can go straight in and add the first item to their claim by clicking add line item. 

The quantity of items defaults to one but can be overridden. You then have a description builder where a preset list of claim text can help you add your description. You can also add your own regular claim types: 

Complete the fields to get the correct value and coding. You can then add an image – ie take a photograph – or add a file from your phone. When completed, click add line item at the bottom. The user can now add a new line item or exit the claim and return to it in the future: 

 

The user can either tap on a claim to go back into it or slide left to delete it. When they are ready to complete the claim and submit it for approval, then tap on the confirmation tab and then add any comments and raise the claim.

The end goal of the Expense claim is to have it paid. Zahara’s workflows currently allow the claim to be raised, validated and passed over to the finance system. The claim user can be notified of the approval status using emails or by seeing the status on the expense claim list view where historic completed orders will also be shown.