Expense management involves collecting employee receipts, extracting data, verifying policy compliance, routing for approval, and recording transactions in accounting software. Manual processing is slow, error-prone, and creates bottlenecks that delay reimbursement.
Automation captures receipt data using optical character recognition, checks compliance rules automatically, routes approvals to the right manager, and syncs approved expenses directly to accounting software. Reimbursement turnaround drops from weeks to days.
The full workflow, from trigger to completion.
Automation detects a new email with receipt attachments or a file upload to the designated folder. The trigger captures the employee name, submission date, and all attached receipt images.
The automation analyzes receipt images using optical character recognition and structured extraction. It identifies vendor, date, amount, and category for each receipt and flags missing or unclear fields.
The automation compares each line item against the company's expense policy rules stored in a database. Items that exceed limits or fall outside approved categories are flagged for human review.
If violations are detected, the workflow pauses and routes to a finance manager for review. If compliant, the workflow continues to approval routing.
The automation sends a structured approval request to the employee's manager or email, including a summary of the expense items and total amount. The approver responds with yes or no.
Once approved, the automation creates expense entries, assigning the correct account codes and cost center based on category mappings.
The automation initiates a bank transfer or check request in QuickBooks and logs the transaction. It sends a confirmation notification to the employee or email.
Receipt images and approval records are automatically stored in a cloud folder with metadata tags for easy retrieval during audits.
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