Enter a new expense draft
Open Expenses and choose the permitted Add Expense action. Saving creates DRAFT, initial approval state and Amount Due equal to total. It does not yet create a journal or a reimbursement payment.
Fields
| Field | Current entry rule |
|---|---|
| Expense Date | Required in browser; local date of expense |
| Category | Required browser selection from the current enum |
| Description | Required in browser; maximum 500 characters |
| Total Amount | Required browser amount, minimum 0.01 |
| Currency | Select a recognised code from the autocomplete |
| Included Tax Amount | Optional on create; non-negative, omitted stores zero |
| Employee | Select verified existing User; required for meaningful ownership resolution |
| Manager | Optional User reference; does not assign decision authority |
| Account | Select actual EXPENSE account; required by create API despite optional label |
| Vendor | Required for COMPANY; active Supplier choice for new entries |
| Paid By | EMPLOYEE or COMPANY |
| Payment Method | CASH, BANK_TRANSFER, CARD, CHEQUE, ONLINE or OTHER |
The browser and create DTO do not enforce identical required/range checks. Use the documented complete browser fields and do not assume all API inputs receive the same validation merely because the form would block them.
Procedure
- Verify receipt/evidence and approved spending facts.
- Choose the actual User and confirm their intended primary unit.
- Enter date, category, meaningful non-sensitive description, total and currency.
- Record included tax only when it is genuinely included in that total.
- Select the approved expense account and vendor when company-paid.
- Choose Paid By and payment method accurately.
- Review all selected references and choose Add Expense once.
- Open the saved detail and verify DRAFT, total, tax, recipient context and approval requirement.
Example: Enter employee-paid GBP 120 travel including GBP 20 tax. The expense total remains 120; tax is not added again. The initial journal, if later posted, currently uses the full total rather than splitting recoverable tax.
There is no built-in receipt upload or creation idempotency key in this workflow. After a lost response, search/reload before another create. Do not repeatedly click Add Expense or infer rollback from a navigation error.