The Expense Settings page on Natural HR contains many options for configuring the Expenses and Mileage modules within the system.  These options are only available to Administrator users and can be found at:

Administration > Company > Settings > Expenses > Expense Settings

The settings are divided into 5 sections.

Click on the section heading below for information on the settings contained therein:

General settings
Currencies
Features
Mileage
Approvers

General Settings

• Enable Expenses - Set to "Yes" to enable the expense module.
  
  
• Expense Declaration - This is a declaration which the user will be required to agree to when submitting their expense report.  If left blank, this feature will be disabled.
  
  

Currencies

• Currencies - A list of currencies which can be enabled to allow users to submit expense reports in that currency.  The currencies are denoted by their ISO 4217 currency code.  A list of these currency codes can be found in Wikipedia (External Link).
  
  
• Currency selection - Choose "Line" to allow users to choose a different currency for each line in their expense report.  Choose "Claim" to allow the user to choose a single currency for the entire expense report.
  
  
• Currency conversion - This setting determines whether the currency of the claim or line is converted to the company's home currency.  There are 3 options available here:
  
  
  • No - Currency is not converted.
  • Yes - employee can overwrite value - Currency is automatically converted, and the employee can overwrite the converted value.  
  • Yes - employee cannot overwrite value - Currency is automatically converted, and the employee cannot overwrite the converted value.
    
    
• Percentage alert threshold for conversion overwrite - If a value is entered in this field, and the currency conversion option is set such that the employee can overwrite the converted value, then if the employee's entered value is x% greater than the automatically converted value (where x is the value entered in this field), this will be highlighted on the expense report at time of approval.
  
  

Features

• Enable online receipts - This setting determines whether the employee can attach expense receipts to their expense report.  There are three settings available here:
  
  
  • No - Expense receipts cannot be attached.
  • Yes - line - An expense receipt can be attached to each line in the expense report.
  • Yes - claim - One expense receipt can be attached to cover the entire expense report.
    
    
• Enable receipt OCR - This setting enables Natural HR to communicate with OCR, enabling receipts to be read and automatically populate the expense claim fields. 
  
  
• Record expense payments - When set to "Yes" this enables you to record whether an expense claim has been paid.  The expense approver, after marking the expense as approved, can further mark it as having been paid.
  
  
• Expenses tax entry - This determines how tax is entered for each line:
  
  
  • Category - The amount of tax for each line is calculated based on the selected expense category.
  • Line - The amount of tax for each line can be entered by the employee.  In this case, the tax rate set against the expense category is ignored.
    
    
• Allow expenses and mileage claims to be split - If this is set to "Yes" this will allow approvers to split a pending expense or mileage claim into two separate claims.  This allows the approver to approve part of a claim, and reject another part, independently.
  
  
• Use timesheet references on expenses - If set to "Yes", the user will be allowed to choose a Timesheet Reference for each expense line.  Further information on TImesheet References is available here: Timesheet References Option.
  
  
• Use billable on expenses - If set to "Yes", the user will be able to choose whether this expense line is billable using a Yes/No drop-down box.
  
  
• Use payment method on expenses - If set to "Yes", the user will be able to choose a payment method to record against the expense line.  Payment methods can be added under Administration > Company > Settings > Expenses > Expense Employee Payment Types.
  
  
• Show to/from on travel type expenses - If set to "Yes", for any expense line where the chosen category is a travel category, the user will be able to enter the start and end point of the journey.
   
• Expenses nominal code lookup - When set to "Category" the nominal code will be drawn from the list of expense categories set up in Admin > Company > Settings > Expense Categories.  When set to "Employee" the nominal code can be drawn from employee-specific information which has been bulk-uploaded into Natural HR under Admin > Company > Bulk Upload > Employee Nominals.
  
  
• Timesheets, expenses and mileage - allow pushback - If you choose "Yes", approvers will be able to push an already approved timesheet, mileage or expense report back to an employee by changing the status back to "Draft".  This will allow the employee to edit and update the original report, after which they then need to resubmit and go via the approval process again.
  
  
• Show timesheets information against expense lines - If you choose "Yes", when viewing or approving an expense claim you will be able to see matching timesheets submitted for the same date for that employee.
  
  

Mileage

• Enable mileage claims - Set to "Yes" to enable the mileage module.
  
  
• Enable Mileage Claim Receipts -  This setting determines whether the employee can attach mileage receipts to their mileage report.  There are three settings available here:
  
  
  • No - Mileage receipts cannot be attached.
  • Yes - line - An mileage receipt can be attached to each line in the mileage report.
  • Yes - claim - One mileage receipt can be attached to cover the entire mileage report.
    
    The following file formats can be uploaded and viewed when uploading receipts:
    
    • JPG
    • jpeg
    • PDF
    • PNG
    • XLS

• Mileage summary - When setting this option to "Yes" this will display a summary of the entered mileage claim before it can be submitted for approval.
  
  
• Default mileage rates - These fields allow you to enter default mileage rates to be used for mileage claims.  Enter a number of miles and the rate paid for that number of miles.  If you only have one rate or after a certain distance all additional are paid at a flat rate then enter 0 for distance and the appropriate rate.  Please note, you should ensure all your employees use the same claim unit (i.e. miles or KM) as this rate does not differentiate between different units. If you set individual mileage rates and apply these to a job role then they will override these defaults.
  
  
• Passenger mileage rate - If you pay an additional rate for passengers travelling on business in a vehicle, enter the rate per passenger per mile/KM here.
  
  
• Ignore first x of any entry - This setting allows you to ignore the first x miles/km of any expense claim when calculating the mileage rate.
  
  
• Mileage limits year - This setting determines whether the mileage values entered in "Passenger mileage rate" are calculated based on the Financial Year or Calendar Year.  So, for example, if in mileage rates you have entered that the first 10,000 miles are paid at 45p per mile then this will apply to the first 10,000 miles in either the financial year or the calendar year (based on today's date).
  
  
• Use timesheet references on mileage - If set to "Yes", the user will be allowed to choose a Timesheet Reference for each mileage line.  Further information on TImesheet References is available here: Timesheet References Option.
  
  
• Use billable on mileage - If set to "Yes", the user will be able to choose whether this expense line is billable using a Yes/No drop-down box.
  
  
• Use Google address lookup - If set to "Yes", when entering data into the "To" and "From" fields, the system will use Google Maps data to display a list of addresses from which the user can choose.
  
  
• Use Google distance lookup - If set to "Yes", then the distance between the To and From entries will be automatically calculated based on Google Maps navigation data.  This will always use the shortest route between the two points returned by Google Maps for navigation query and the driving method.
  
  
• Percentage alert threshold for distance overwrite - If you enter a value, and the employee overwrites the distance calculated by Google, this threshold will result in any value which is the x% (where x is the entered value) greater than the Google calculated distance being highlighted on the report when approving.
  
  

Approvers

• Expense approver 1 - When not using an Expense Approval workflow, this person will be the first approver of any expense or mileage claim submitted.
  
  
• Expense approver 2 - When not using an Expense Approval workflow, this person will be the second approver of any expense or mileage claim submitted.  If set to "None", only one approval will be required.