Izveidot kontuCreate account
‹ All playbooks
Process an employee expense report

money.expense-report·version 1.0.0·draft1 to verify

Process an employee expense report

An expense report arrives with receipts and a purpose, is checked against the policy and the numbers, is approved by someone other than the spender, and the reimbursement is paid and recorded.

AnnaAccountantruns itProfile ›
Whenon an event — an employee submits an expense report with receipts
Who actsthe agent prepares only
Time15–30 min per report
CountryLatvia
Sign in to run thisThis playbook opens inside Brain Club. Sign in to read and run it.

When to use

An employee submits an expense report. Not for recurring subscriptions — those ride on money.process-incoming-invoice, where the approval happens once, not every month. Not for per-diem trips — money.per-diem-lv covers the daily allowance by its own rules. Not for petty cash — money.petty-cash handles small immediate spend from the box.

Before you start

  • The expense policy's current limits and documentation requirements are at hand.
  • The receipts are attached and readable — a photo of a crumpled ticket is still evidence if the amounts
  • The cost centre or project the expense belongs to is known before approval, not discovered after.

What a run requires1

  • Approval · S3 · ownerthe run stops until a named person records the decision

Any step can wait until a date and reopens by itself; every closed step leaves evidence (a note, a link, a number).

The trail5 steps

  1. Check the report against policyagent

    Every line: a receipt, a date inside the period, a purpose, and a policy basis. Anything without all four goes back to the spender with the specific gap named.

    Done when every line passes or is explicitly rejected with a reason.

  2. Check the numbersagent

    The arithmetic, the currency conversions, and the VAT-recoverable share.

    Done when the total is correct and the recoverable VAT is separated.

  3. Approveownerneeds approval · owner

    Approval · S3 · owner — the run stops until a named person records the decision

    Approval by someone other than the spender, with exceptions (over-limit, missing receipt) decided here and noted.

    Done when the approval names the approver and any exception's justification.

  4. Pay and recordagent

    The reimbursement is scheduled in the next payment run and recorded against the right cost centre and period.

    Done when the payment and the posting both exist and match.

  5. Feed the pattern backagent

    Repeated exceptions or policy gaps go to the policy's owner as a proposed amendment, not as accumulated folklore.

    Done when the pattern is either absorbed by a policy change or stopped by an enforcement note.

Checks — how we know it worked

  • No line is paid without a receipt, a purpose, and a policy basis.
  • No one approved their own report.
  • Every reimbursement carries a cost centre and a period.
  • Exceptions this month are visible next month, with their decisions.

If it goes wrong

SymptomResponse
Receipts are missing but the expense looks realThe policy decides, not sympathy: either a documented exception or no reimbursement — making it up once sets the price for every future report.
The spender approved their own reportUnwind the approval, re-approve properly, and note it — self-approval is a control failure even when the expense was honest.
Private costs hide inside the reportSplit the report, reimburse only the business share, and say so in writing — the splitting rule must be visible to deter the next attempt.
The same over-limit expense appears monthlyStop processing it as an exception; either the policy changes deliberately or the spend stops — monthly exceptions are policy by drift.
The VAT was claimed on a receipt that turned out non-compliantCorrect the declaration in the next period and tighten the receipt check at S1.

What each step leaves behind

  1. S1every line passes or is explicitly rejected with a reason.
  2. S2the total is correct and the recoverable VAT is separated.
  3. S3the approval names the approver and any exception's justification.
  4. S4the payment and the posting both exist and match.
  5. S5the pattern is either absorbed by a policy change or stopped by an enforcement note.

Evidence to keep

The submitted report · the receipts · the policy check with any exceptions · the approval naming its approver · the payment and its posting.

How this playbook improves

After each month ask: how many exceptions, and which ones repeated? Did any report go back twice? A new version changes the policy check or the approval step, and says so in its change note.