Expenses

Record out-of-pocket costs, submit them for approval, approve or reject them, and mark them reimbursed.

Expenses are costs people paid on the organization’s behalf, such as travel, software or a client lunch, that need approving and paying back. You record an expense and submit it. Someone with approval rights approves or rejects it, and approved expenses are marked reimbursed once the money has been paid back.

How it works#

Expenses move through a fixed sequence: draft → submitted → approved → reimbursed. A submitted expense can also be rejected. Each step belongs to a particular person:

Step	Who	Button
Record the expense	Anyone with `finance.create`	Record expense
Submit it for approval	The person who recorded it	Submit
Approve or reject	Anyone with `finance.approve`	Approve / Reject
Confirm it was paid back	Anyone with `finance.approve`	Mark reimbursed

Who can use it#

Permissions

finance.readfinance.createfinance.approve

Recording and submitting need finance.create. Approving, rejecting and marking reimbursed need finance.approve, which by default only Owners and Admins have. Anyone with finance.read sees every expense in the organization, not just their own.

Record and submit an expense#

Open the Expenses tab
Go to CommerceExpenses.
Fill in the form
Enter the Amount (for example 42.50) and pick the Date you spent the money. Both are required, and the amount must be greater than zero. Optionally add a Category, such as Travel, and a Description, such as Taxi to the Everyrealm offsite.
Select Record expense
The expense is saved as a draft in US dollars, recorded as yours.
Select Submit
When you are ready for it to be approved, select Submit on the expense. Its status changes to submitted.

Only the author can submit

The Submit button shows on every draft for anyone with finance.create, but only the person who recorded the expense can actually submit it. Anyone else sees Only the expense author can submit it.

Approve or reject an expense#

Find submitted expenses
On the Expenses tab, submitted expenses show Approve and Reject buttons if you have finance.approve.
Check the details
Each card shows the amount, category, description and expense date.
Approve or reject
Approve records you as the approver, with the time. Reject closes the expense. Both take effect immediately.

A rejected expense is final

A rejected expense can’t be edited or submitted again. If it was rejected for a fixable reason, such as the wrong amount, the author records a new expense with the correct details. The Commerce page has no field for a rejection reason, so tell the person why.

Mark an expense reimbursed#

After paying the person back through payroll or a bank transfer, select Mark reimbursed on the approved expense. That’s the end of the process. UnitX doesn’t make the payment itself.

Expense statuses#

Draft: Recorded, not yet submitted. Only the author can submit it.
Submitted: Waiting for someone with approval rights.
Approved: Accepted and waiting to be paid back.
Rejected: Declined. Final.
Reimbursed: Approved and paid back. Final.

Limitations#

The Commerce page can’t edit an expense. Through the API, the author can change a draft (amount, date, category, description and receipt), but not after it has been submitted.
Linking an expense to a project or customer, attaching a receipt file, or using a currency other than US dollars is only possible through the API.
Expenses have their own approval steps. They don’t appear in Approvals and don’t follow approval delegation.
UnitX doesn’t stop someone with finance.approve from approving an expense they recorded themselves. If you want the two duties separated, agree that as a team rule.
Expenses can’t be deleted.

I don’t see Approve or Reject on a submitted expense.

Your role doesn’t include finance.approve. Ask an admin, or ask someone who has it to review the expense.

I recorded an expense with the wrong amount.

If it is still a draft and you don’t use the API, simply don’t submit it; record a corrected one instead. A draft that is never submitted is never approved or paid.

Do expenses post to the ledger?

No. If you keep your books in the UnitX Ledger, post the reimbursement there as its own transaction.

Still stuck? Search the docs with ⌘K, open Help inside UnitX, or contact support.