ClickTime offers an additional Expenses Module that can be added to your account. Read on to learn how to set up and use the Expense features. Current customers can contact support@clicktime.com for a free 30-day trial of the tool.
Please see here for our training videos, or use one of the links below to skip to a specific section.
Setting up a Manager to Review and Approve Expenses
Setting an Expense Approver for an Individual User
Reviewing, Approving, and Rejecting Expense Sheets
Deleting an Expense Sheet
Overriding Expenses
Managing Expense Types
Managing Payment Types
Expenses Video
For instructions on how your staff can use the Expenses Module, please see the Using Expense Sheets & Expense Items (web) or Mobile Application Expenses guides.
Please be aware that in order for someone to track Expenses, they must have access to at least one Project for time entry (more details on Project Availability can be found in this guide).
Setting up Expense Sheet Approvers
To grant Expense access to a Manager, navigate to the Security & Permissions section of the Person Details page. This is where you can configure the different levels of permissions that this person has for reviewing expenses.
Administrator Permissions
All Administrators can approve or reject any person’s expense sheet, even if the Administrator is not specifically selected as a person’s approver. An Administrator may also override or submit any person’s expense sheet. In the Time Entry and Approval Requirements area (located on the Person Detail page), Administrators have the ability to configure themselves as their own expense sheet approver.
Manager Permissions
In order for a Manager to approve a person’s expense sheet, there are two different settings that must be configured. First, the Manager must have permission to review expense sheets. This can be done by configuring the Managerial Permissions area in the Person Detail page (see image below). If a Manager has permission to review expenses, they can also approve and override expenses.
Second, the Manager must be specified as a particular person’s approver. All Administrators and certain Managers (those with the appropriate permissions) may configure a Manager to approve expenses.
Please Note: In order for a Manager to approve (or reject) an Expense Sheet for someone, they must be set as that employee's Expense Sheet Approver. Giving them permission to "Lock and approve expenses" will mean they display as an option as the Expense Sheet Approver, but only Managers who are set as the Expense Sheet Approver for a user will be able to approve/reject their Expense Sheets.
Notifications After Approval
An email notification can be automatically sent to an Administrator or Manager once an expense sheet has been approved and is waiting for payment. Instead of regularly checking the system for expense sheets awaiting payment, this notification feature promptly notifies the Administrator whenever an expense sheet is waiting for payment.
To select the Administrator (or Manager) who will receive the payment notification, go to Timesheet and Expense Information under Company > Preferences.
In the “Timesheet and Expense Information” section, select an Administrator or Manager from the “notify this person when an expense sheet is approved for payment” drop-down list. When a person is selected to be notified, they will see an “expense sheets waiting for payment” link upon login.
Setting an Expense Approver for an Individual User
A person’s expense approval configuration can be edited on the Person Detail page. In the "Timesheet Settings and Approvals " section, checking the “This person's expenses must be approved by” checkbox allows the person to submit expense sheets for approval.
An expense sheet approver must then be selected from a drop-down list of all Administrators and any Managers that are configured with the appropriate permissions. A Manager or Administrator can be setup to approve his or her own expense sheet.
If your company requires electronic submission of expense sheets, you must make sure that the checkbox for “This person's expenses must be approved by” is checked and that an approver has been assigned. Otherwise they will not have the option to "submit" their expense sheets.
If your company requires manual submission (printed submission) of expense sheets, you do not need to check the “This person's expenses must be approved by” checkbox. Once an expense sheet has been manually approved, you can then locate the expense sheet in ClickTime and mark it as approved. Marking an expense sheet as “approved” prevents it from being edited.
As mentioned above, Managers will only be able to approve/reject Expense Sheets if they are set as that user's Expense Sheet approver on their Person Details page.
Only users with an Expense Sheet Approver set on their Person Details page will be able to submit their Expense Sheet for approval.
Reviewing, Approving, and Rejecting Expense Sheets
Once the employee is set up with an Expense Sheet Approver, they will see the "Submit For Approval" option on the Expense Sheet Details page:
Submitting the Expense Sheet will send an email to their Expense Sheet Approver letting them know there is an Expense Sheet waiting for approval:
The Expense Sheet Approvers will also see a notice on their Company --> Dashboard letting them know there are Expense Sheets waiting for approval. They can click the link to be brought directly to the Expense Sheet Review page for the Expenses they are set to approve:
Read on for more assistance in reviewing and approving/rejecting the Expense Sheets that have been submitted.
Reviewing Expense Sheets
Approving Expense Sheets
Rejecting an Expense Sheet that is "Waiting for Approval"
Rejecting an Expense Sheet that is already "Approved"
Re-submitting a "Rejected" Expense Sheet
Marking an Expense Sheet as "Paid"
An Administrator or Manager reviews the expense sheet, confirms that it has been completed satisfactorily, and marks the expense sheet as “approved.” If an expense sheet is rejected, the expense sheet is returned to the employee for correction.
The next section will cover using the Dashboard alerts to find specific Expense Sheets that are "Waiting for Approval", but you can always use the Expense Sheet Review options from the Company --> Expenses page to find specific Expenses:
You can then choose the specific employees you are looking for:
as well as Expense Sheets in a certain status:
The "Person(s)" drop-down will show you individual employees if you have 25 or less active employees. If you have 26 or more employees, you will be able to choose either "all people" or those in certain Divisions.
If you want more options, click the "more filtering options" link:
which will bring you to the Expense Sheet Review criteria page, where you can set a date range, select a specific status, and choose whichever employees you want to include:
Approving an Expense Sheet that is "Waiting for Approval"
From the Company Dashboard, click "Review" next to the notification "x expense sheets are waiting for your approval."
Select the checkboxes for the appropriate expense sheets. Make sure that you have selected "approve selected expense sheets" in the drop-down menu, and click on the "go" button.
You can also approve each expense sheet individually by clicking on the edit pencil icon to view the expense sheet and then clicking on the "Approve” button.
After the Expense Sheet as been "Approved" no further edits can be made to it without "Rejecting" the Expense Sheet as a whole - please see this section of this guide for more details.
Rejecting an Expense Sheet that is "Waiting for Approval"
When reviewing a submitted expense sheet, an Administrator or Manager can reject the expense sheet if it includes incomplete or incorrect information.
From the Company Dashboard, click on "Review" next to the notification "x expense sheets are waiting for your approval."
Select the checkboxes for the appropriate expense sheets. Make sure that you have selected "reject selected expense sheets" in the drop-down menu, and click on the "go" button. You can also reject each expense sheet manually by clicking on the edit pencil icon to view the expense sheet and then clicking on the "reject this expense sheet” button.
You may then enter an explanation as to why the expense sheets were rejected. When an expense sheet is rejected, an email is sent to notify the user that their expense sheet has been rejected.
Note: Once an expense sheet is rejected, the action cannot be undone. The end-user will need to re-submit the timesheet before it can be approved.
Rejecting an Expense Sheet that is already "Approved"
If the Expense Sheet has been Approved, no further edits can be made to the Expense Items or Expense Sheet details. Given the sensitivity of Expenses, the system will only allow you to "Reject" an Expense Sheet that is a "Waiting for Approval" status.
If you attempt to "Reject" an Expense Sheet that is "Approved", you will receive an error message indicating "the expense sheet cannot be rejected because of its current status".
To make an approved Expense Sheet available for edits, first find the "approved" Expense Sheet:
Next, click into the Expense Sheet and then click "Undo Approval":
Alternatively, choose the "undo approval of selected expense sheets" option from the drop-down menu, check the box next to the approved Expense Sheet, and then click "go":
The next pop up will then ask you if you wish to "Reject these expense sheets", which will allow the timesheet to be edited, or to "Return to waiting for approval status". Choose the first option to allow edits made to the Expense Sheet, add the required comment, and click "continue":
Then click "ok" on the confirmation menu to confirm that the Expense Sheet has been rejected.
Edits can now be made to the Expense Sheet. It must be re-submitted before re-approving the Expense Sheet.
Note: If the wrong person approved the Expense Sheet, you can instead "return to waiting" so the appropriate approver can review and Approve.
Re-submitting a "Rejected" Expense Sheet
Once the Expense Sheet is "Rejected", the employee can make the necessary changes. Alternatively, the Manager or Administrator can make changes on their behalf using the "Override Expense Sheet" options (more details on overriding are in this section of the guide).
Once changes are made, the Expense Sheet must be re-submitted:
In order to see the option to "Submit For Approval", the employee must have an Expense Sheet Approver set on their Person Details page:
Please note that approving "rejected" Expense Sheets has a slightly different workflow than approving "rejected" Timesheets. The system will allow an Administrator or Manager to approve an Expense Sheet without it being submitted initially, but "rejected" Expense Sheets must be submitted before they can be reviewed and approved.
Marking an Expense Sheet as Paid
Once an expense sheet has been approved, an Administrator or Manager with the appropriate expenses permissions has the ability to mark an expense sheet as paid or unpaid.
Go to the Expense Sheet Review page and select the appropriate expense sheets. Select “mark selected expense sheets as paid” from the drop-down and click “go.”
You may then enter comments and check numbers for the payment.
Once an expense sheet has been marked as “Paid,” only an Administrator can revert the status of the expense sheet to “Unpaid.” This can be done on the Expense Sheet Detail page.
Note: If a check number is entered when the expense sheet is marked as paid, the number will be erased when the expense sheet is reverted to unpaid.
In order to delete an Expense Sheet, it must be in either an "Open" or "Rejected" state. End-users can delete their own Expense Sheets when viewing them.
If the Expense Sheet has been marked as "Paid", you'll need to first find the Expense Sheet and "Revert to Unpaid:
Then, choose to "Undo Approval":
and make sure to select the "Reject" option:
Administrators and Approving Manager can delete the Expense Sheet by using the the Override Expense Sheet option.
If you do not see the Expense Sheet when in override mode, check the filters to make sure you are viewing "Open" or "Rejected" Expense Sheets:
Then click into the Expense Sheet and choose to "Delete":
If you do not see the option to "Delete", that means the Expense Sheet has been submitted and/or approved, so it must first be rejected.
An Administrator or Manager with the appropriate permissions may override a person’s expense sheet in order to make changes or to submit expense sheets on behalf of people who are sick or on vacation. The override permission gives an Administrator or Manager the ability to override single expense items, submit the expense sheet for approval, and unsubmit the expense sheet for approval. All of these actions are recorded in the expense sheet’s history.
In order to use this option, the Expense Sheet must either be in an "open" or "rejected" state. Timesheets that are "waiting for approval", "approved", or "paid" cannot be edited without changing the status to "rejected".
If you already know which Expense Sheet you want to edit, go to the Company --> Expenses page. From the Override Expense Sheets section, select the person you want to override and click "Override Expense Sheet."
Once in Override mode, you can create Expense Items on behalf of your staff by following the instructions in the Tracking Expense Items guide.
If you are an Administrator you can also use the Expense Sheet Review page to find the Expense Sheet, click into the specific Expense Item, and make changes without first using the Override option.
An Expense Type provides a method of categorizing expenses. Expense types can be added or edited, but not deleted. The ClickTime Expense Module pre-populates certain default values for Expense Types. These default values are editable or can be made inactive. You also have the ability to create new expense types for your company (e.g., airline tickets, client lunches, rental car).
Adding an Expense Type
Expense Type Properties
Editing Expense Types
Deleting Expense Types
The following steps will allow you to Add a new Expense Type:
- Go to the Company --> Expenses page.
- Click the “Expense Types” link.
- Click “Add Expense Type” in the upper right corner.
- Enter the Expense Type name and select Standard or Mileage type.
- Click “Save” once you are finished.
Each Expense Type has the following fields:
Name: A General description of an expense (e.g. cab ride, hotel, etc.). Each expense type must have a unique name. This field is required
Type: Standard (default) or mileage. For a Mileage expense type, you must fill out the Rate (amount per mile / kilometer unit). If you change the mileage unit, the new rate can apply to new expenses or to all non-approved expenses (even in the past). The mileage unit that your company is using can be found under Company Preferences > Timesheet and Expense Information.
Description: A description entered by admin/Manager with a maximum of 2000 characters. (optional)
Active status: Only active types appear in pop-down lists. This is required.
Rate: This is only used for mileage Expense Types. Corresponds to the rate used to calculate the reimbursable amount to the employee. This is required when using a Mileage Expense Types.
To edit an Expense Type, go to the Expense Type list page and click on the edit pencil icon for a particular Expense Type. Be sure to save your changes.
An Expense Type cannot be deleted. We suggest that you inactivate expense types that are no longer applicable.
Payment Types provide a way to categorize expenses with regard to how a person paid for the expense. The ClickTime Expenses Module pre-populates certain default values (Visa, MasterCard, Cash, etc) for payment types. A company may edit the default values and also create new payment types.
Adding a Payment Type
Payment Type Properties
Editing a Payment Type
Deleting a Payment Type
To add a new Payment Type, go to the Company --> Expenses page and click the "Payment Types" link:
Then click “Add Payment Type” link in the upper right corner:
On the next page you will be required to enter a unique name for the Payment Type. The Description text field is used to add any notes or comments.
Click “Save” once you are finished.
Each Payment Type has the following properities, which you can edit at any time:
Name: A general description of a payment method (e.g. credit card, check, cash, etc.). Each payment type must have a unique name.
Accounting package payment type ID: This is an optional field that can be used if you are synchronizing ClickTime Expense data with another program. These details will display when expenses are exported.
Reimbursable: This status is used to identify if an Expense is reimbursable and determine the amount that the employee should be reimbursed.
Status: Only active Payment Types will appear in pop-down lists.
Description: A description entered by an Administrator or Manager with a maximum of 2000 characters.
To edit a payment type, go to the Payment Type list page and click on the edit pencil icon for a particular payment type.
A Payment Type cannot be deleted. We suggest that you inactivate expense types that are no longer applicable. This is done by changing the "status" to "inactive" and clicking "Save".
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