Expense Reports

In this help document, you’ll learn the preferences you can configure for the Expense Reports module in Zoho ERP.

To access the Preferences page of the Reports module:

• Go to Settings on the left sidebar.
• Click Expense Reports under Travel and Expense.

In the Preferences tab, you can configure the following:

Auto-Generate Report Number

You can provide your own prefix or the auto-generated prefix, and specify a Start With number or use the auto-generated number for the expense reports created in your ERP organization.

Report Name Automation

Generate report name automatically: You can auto-generate report names by choosing the placeholders with which a report name should be created. Click the Placeholders dropdown and select the preferred placeholders. For example: If you select Customer and Trip Number, the report name will bear the name of the customer with which the report is associated followed by the number of the trip with which the report is associated.

Customize PDF Templates{customize-pdf-templates}

You can configure how you want to see your report when you export it in PDF by clicking Go to PDF Templates.

Custom Status{custom-status}

In addition to the pre-defined statuses, Zoho ERP allows you to create new custom statuses for your Submitted, Approved, Rejected, and Reimbursed reports. In your business, when you approve and reimburse reports, you may have intermediate stages such as Reimbursement Initiated, Reimbursement Pending, or more. If you want the stages in your business to match with the report’s status in Zoho ERP, you can create them as custom statuses using the Custom Status option.

Submission Preferences

Upon report submission, you have options to:

• Configure the last day for report submission: This option allows you to set deadlines before which users are required to submit their expense reports every month. Employees will not be able to submit their reports after the last day of submission of the respective month.
• Allow submitters to attach documents to a report after submission: This option allows submitters to attach documents to a report even after submitting the report for approval.
• Notify approver via email when reports are submitted: If you mark this checkbox, an email will be sent to the approver when a report is submitted for their approval.
• Attach report as a PDF file to the notification email: Upon submission, the expense report will be sent as a PDF file along with the notification email to the approver.
• Copy the submitter in the email: A copy of the expense report submitted will be sent to the submitter via email upon the submission of the report.
• Receive a copy of the report: A copy of the report will be sent as an email to the user you select from the dropdown, once it is submitted.
• Display Terms & Conditions: You can add the terms and conditions for the submission of expense reports. This will be displayed in the Submit Report page when an employee tries to submit a report.

Approval Preferences

Approval preferences allow you to:

• Mandate reason for editing expenses.
• Allow approvers to reject the expenses in expense reports.
• Allow approvers to approve their own expense reports.
• Set the number of days within which an expense report should be approved. (Applicable from the date of submission)
• Notify approver when submitted expense reports are nearing their due dates.
• Restrict users from recalling an expense report if one of the approvers in the approval flow approves it.
• A copy of the report will be sent as an email to the user you select from the dropdown, as soon as it is approved.

Send Notifications When{send-notifications-when}

You can configure when you want to send notifications to employees. You can notify the employees when reports are approved or rejected, marked as reimbursed and when comments are added to a report.

• Expense reports are approved or rejected: Mark this checkbox to notify employees when an expense report is approved or rejected.

• Expense reports are marked as reimbursed: Mark this checkbox to notify employees when an expense report is marked as reimbursed.

• Comments are added to expense reports: Mark this checkbox to notify submitters when an approver adds comments to an expense report.

• Once you’ve configured your preferences, click Save.

Fields

While creating an expense report in Zoho ERP, you may be prompted to enter data in several fields. These fields might not be required or sufficient for your organization. In order to make your expense reporting experience more efficient, Zoho ERP provides you with the ability to customise existing fields or add more fields based on your organization’s needs.

You can add more fields by creating custom fields to receive additional information and choose the input fields your users would view. You can also choose to make these fields mandatory and add them to the report PDF. Once done, click Save.

Approvals

You can set up either Hierarchical approval or Custom approval based on the approval process for the reports in your organization. Then click Save.

Links and Buttons{links-and-buttons}

Links open an external link. You can create them using a deluge script and execute actions based on the functions you add. A button allows you to perform specific actions to purchase orders when the button is clicked.

Report Types{report-types}

Associate report types with expense reports to help users quickly identify the type of expenses within a report. You can easily classify reports based on their types and trigger custom approvals and workflows for different report types. Read our help document on Report Types to learn more.

Validation Rules{validation-rules}

Validation Rules in Zoho ERP help you create new rules that set restrictions for the data being recorded. If the value entered in the field violates the condition you’ve set, an alert message is displayed, and the record is not created. You can also set multiple validation criteria for a single validation rule.