Reimburse Reports
Reimbursements are the payments made to the employees for the expenses incurred by them on behalf of your company. Whenever an employee incurs business expenses, they can record them as reimbursable expenses and add them to an expense report. Admins and users with permission to reimburse reports can then reimburse that expense report once it gets approved.
You can have a complete track of the reports that are reimbursed by recording them in Zoho Spend.
Note: In this help document, we’ve mentioned the steps to record reimbursements for reports manually. You can also reimburse reports online using online payment methods. Read the help document of the respective online payment method to learn more.
Record Reimbursements
Once employees submit expense reports containing reimbursable expenses and they are approved, the employee can be reimbursed, and the reimbursement can be recorded in Zoho Spend. Only admins and users with permission to reimburse expense reports can process reimbursements for employees.
To record reimbursement for expense reports:
- Go to Reports on the left sidebar.
- Click the Awaiting Reimbursements tab to view the list of approved reports that need to be reimbursed.
- Select the report you want to reimburse and click Record Reimbursement in the top right corner.
- Fill in the Reimbursed on, Paid Through, Notes, and Reference#.
- Click Record Reimbursement. The report’s status will be marked as Reimbursed.
Record Reimbursements in Bulk
You can also reimburse multiple reports at once. Here’s how:
- Go to Reports on the left sidebar.
- Click the Awaiting Reimbursements tab to view the list of approved reports that need to be reimbursed.
- Select the reports you want to reimburse and click Reimburse at the top of the page.
- Fill in the Reimbursed on, Paid Through, Notes, and Reference#.
- Click Record Reimbursement. The status of the selected reports will be marked as Reimbursed.
Record Refund or Carry-Forward Excess Advance
If the employee’s report total is less than the advance applied to the report, the admin can receive the balance amount from the employee or allow the employee to carry-forward the remaining advance amount, which employees can apply to another expense report.
If the employee returns the balance advance amount, the admin can record an advance refund. However, if the admin wants the employee to carry-forward the remaining advance amount, the admin can record an advance carry-forward. Let’s look at a few scenarios to understand this better.
Scenario 1: Bailey is the Sales Manager of Zylker. She is to go on a business trip to Dubai to pitch her company’s product. She receives an advance of 1000 AED from her company, out of which she spends 800 AED for Lodging, Travel, and Meal expenses during the business trip. Once she returns from the trip, she returns the balance advance of 200 AED to her company. Now, when she submits the expense report with an advance of 1000 AED, her company can record an advance refund for the balance advance in the Advance Refund section.
Scenario 2: Patricia, Zylker’s Sales Executive, is visiting London for an Annual Business Conference. She received an advance of 800 GBP from her Finance Team. Patricia had to spend only 500 GBP at London as other expenses were taken care of. After returning from the trip, she submitted an expense report with an advance of 800 GBP. Since Patricia had to attend another meeting in London the following month, her Finance Team decided to carry-forward the excess advance so that she can use it on future reports. In this case, the Finance Team can carry forward the advance in the Advance Carry Forward section.
Scenario 3: Brandon is the Project Manager of Zylker. He frequently travels to the United States for business meetings. Now, Brandon is scheduled to go on a business trip from India to the United States on 25 November. Since he has another meeting at Canada on 27 November, he decides to take a side trip to Canada. Before leaving for the business trip, Brandon has received an advance of 1000 USD and 1000 CAD from his organisation.
On his way to the airport, he spends 500 INR for the cab. During the business trip, Brandon spends 800 USD and 500 CAD. Once he returns from the trip, he returns the balance amount of 500 CAD and submits an expense report with the advances of 1000 USD and 1000 CAD.
In this case, Brandon’s Finance Team records an Advance Refund of 500 CAD and decides to record an Advance Carry-Forward of 200 USD, as he travels to the US frequently. For the expenses spent in INR, the Finance Team can record a manual reimbursement.
To record an advance refund or an advance carry-forward:
- Go to Reports on the left sidebar.
- Click the Awaiting Reimbursements tab to view the list of approved reports that need to be reimbursed.
- Select the report you want to reimburse and click Record Reimbursement in the top right corner.
- Click + Record Advance Refund under Advance Refunds if the employee has returned the balance amount, and fill in Date, Amount, Refunded To, Reference#, Attachment, and Notes. A refund will be created, and it will be adjusted with the report’s reimbursable total.
- Click + Record Advance Carry Forward under Advance Carry Forwards if you want the employee to carry-forward the advance, and fill in Date, Amount, Carry Forwarded To, Reference#, and Notes. An advance will be created for the employee, and they can apply it on future reports.
- Click Record Reimbursement.
Undo Reimbursement
If you reimbursed the wrong report, you can undo the reimbursement. Here’s how:
- Go to Reports on the left sidebar.
- Click the Reimbursed tab to view the list of reimbursed reports.
- Click the report for which you want to undo reimbursement.
- Click Undo Reimbursement in the top right corner of the page.
- In the pop-up that appears, specify the reason for undoing the reimbursement record and click Confirm. The record of reimbursement will be deleted.