Expense report intake

An Expense Preparer starts with the supplier, organization and accounting period. The report carries its own number, expense date, due date, subtotal, tax and total; its lines carry a description, quantity, unit price, tax code and ledger account. A report for a hotel merchant can be handled as a supplier expense when that supplier and cost are present in these records. The reviewer can then inspect the amount by line instead of approving a lump sum whose coding is unclear.

• Record owner. Keep the responsible organization and source identity clear before the next person acts.
• Decision point. Use the current status and the underlying lines or linked records to decide the next step.
• Evidence trail. Keep the reviewer, amount and operation outcome traceable from the business record.

The preparer uses the worklist to identify Draft reports and checks the line subtotal against the header. A repeated supplier reference needs human review before another report enters the queue. Keep the original source material as a linked attachment where the business uses one, and give the reviewer a useful memo for an unusual charge. Submission is the handoff to Expense Reviewer; it does not itself mean the cost is approved.

Agree who owns supplier identities, which organization is charged, how tax codes are selected and when a new report moves to Submitted. Determine who corrects a disputed amount and whether the prior review decision should remain linked. The preparer should know which accounting period is appropriate before the report reaches finance review.

The team should decide who handles corrections before the first live cycle. Give each handoff an owner and confirm that a failed action remains visible to that owner. Use one representative supplier and one exception during setup, so permissions and reports reflect the work people will actually do.

Take a supplier report for a hotel charge that contains lodging and a separately coded service fee. Enter each charge on a line, check the report total, select the owning organization and submit it. The Expense Reviewer should see both descriptions and their ledger accounts. If the supplier reference is repeated or the total differs from the lines, return the record for correction before a decision.

Ask the next role to find the same case from their own screen without help from the preparer. They should be able to identify the supplier or partner, the relevant amount, the current status and the supporting decision. If a correction is needed, keep the prior result available and repeat the handoff with the corrected record.

• AP Bills Worklist — Draft and submitted supplier reports with due dates and totals.
• Expense Reports Past Due — Reports whose due dates need follow-up.

Read Expense approval and reimbursement for the stages and rehearsal, then use implementation to assign owners and check access.