Reimbursements tracks the out-of-pocket expenses your team should be paid back for — mileage, per diem, tools, lodging — and attaches them to a payroll run so they're paid alongside wages.
Where to find Reimbursements
From the left sidebar choose HR & Payroll, then Reimbursements.
The page has two tabs: Entries (the reimbursement requests themselves) and Categories (the kinds of expense you reimburse).
The Entries tab
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Employee | Who's owed the money. |
| Project / Task | The job the expense belongs to, if any — so the cost lands on the right work. |
| Category | The kind of expense — Mileage, Lodging, Tools & Equipment, and so on. |
| Notes | What the expense was for. |
| Expense COA | The Chart of Accounts account the expense posts against. |
| Occurred / Submitted | When the expense happened and when it was entered. |
| Qty / Rate / Amount | For unit-based expenses (like mileage), the quantity and per-unit rate; Amount is what gets paid. |
| Taxable | Whether the repayment is taxable (most reimbursements aren't). |
| Status | Where the entry sits in its approval flow (see below). |
| Payroll # | The payroll run the entry is attached to, once attached. |
| Receipt | A link to the receipt, if one was provided. |
Adding a reimbursement
Right-click the grid and choose Add to open the reimbursement dialog: pick the Category, Date, and Amount, then optionally the Person, Project, Task, a Description, a Quantity (for mileage-style entries), and a Receipt URL. Right-click also offers Clone and, for Draft entries, Delete.
The approval flow
Every entry moves through a simple lifecycle, driven from the right-click menu:
- Draft — just recorded. Submit it for approval (or edit/delete it).
- Submitted — waiting for review. A reviewer chooses Approve or Reject… (rejecting requires a reason).
- Approved — cleared to pay. Approved entries appear on the Reimbursements tile in the Payroll Control Center, where they're attached to a run.
- Attached — riding on a payroll run (the run's number shows in the Payroll # column). Detaching from the run returns it to Approved.
- Paid — the run paid out.
Approved or Rejected entries can be voided (with a reason, recorded in the activity log) to remove them from the workflow. Select several rows to run the same action on all of them at once. The menu also offers Copy From Archive… to bring back entries from archived history.
Reimbursements are typically non-taxable repayments of money the employee already spent — they're paid in addition to wages, not as part of taxable pay. The Taxable flag covers the exceptions.
The Categories tab
Switch to Categories to manage the kinds of expense you reimburse. Each category can carry its own default expense account, so a Mileage entry and a Lodging entry post to the right places automatically. Use the bulk assign action to assign a category to many existing entries at once — handy when you introduce a new category and want history reclassified under it.
How Reimbursements connect to the rest of the app
Approved reimbursements attach to a payroll run so they're paid out with that run — see the Reimbursements tile in the Payroll Control Center. The Expense COA on each entry (or its category) decides where the cost lands in your books when the run posts.
Permissions
Viewing requires HR view access; recording, approving, and voiding reimbursements are separately permission-controlled, so you can let field staff submit while keeping approval with HR. See Roles & Permissions.
Tips & best practices
- Tie entries to a project whenever the expense belongs to a job — that's what makes job costing complete.
- Use quantity and rate for mileage instead of typing a lump amount — the math stays auditable.
- Reject with a clear reason. The reason is stored on the entry, so the submitter knows what to fix before resubmitting.
Common questions
Why can't I delete an entry? Only Draft entries can be deleted. Anything further along should be voided instead, so the record of what happened is kept.
How does an approved entry actually get paid? Attach it to a payroll run from the Reimbursements tile in the Payroll Control Center. When that run pays, the entry is marked Paid.
Can I fix a rejected entry? Yes — a Rejected entry can be re-opened to Draft, corrected, and resubmitted.