QTC-11Service / PSAAdministratorUser

How to Manage Expenses and Reimbursements in CrmLeaf

All editions. Core feature - no add-on required.

Part 3 · Quote to Cash8 min readIncludes a Service / PSA lens

Availability: All editions. Core feature - no add-on required.

Overview

Expenses in CrmLeaf cover both company costs and money employees need reimbursed. An expense is recorded against a category, supported by a receipt, allocated to a project or task where relevant, and approved before it is paid. Expenses marked billable flow into client invoices, so recoverable costs are not lost.

How It Works

An employee records an expense, an approver reviews it, and it is paid. Billable expenses can then be billed to the client.

Record → Attach receipt → Approve → Pay → Bill to client

Expense statuses are pending, approved and paid.
There are two entry points: Expenses for your own and company expenses, and Manage Expenses for an Administrator or approver working across employees.
An expense carries a category, a receipt, and an optional project or task allocation. Mileage can be recorded.
Category access is role-scoped, so a User only works with the categories their role allows.
Recurring expenses generate on a schedule.
Expenses can be brought in by CSV Import for bulk entry.
Expenses marked billable flow into invoices, and the expense, HRMS expense and income-vs-expense reports draw on this data.

Who Can Use This Feature?

Administrator

Create and maintain expense categories and control which roles may use them.
Use Manage Expenses to review expenses across employees.
Approve or Reject submitted expenses and mark approved expenses as paid.
Set up recurring expenses and run a CSV Import.

User

Record your own expenses and attach receipts.
Record mileage and allocate an expense to a project or task.
Mark an expense billable so it can be recovered from the client.
Track the status of your expenses through pending, approved and paid.

Access depends on the modules and role assigned by your Administrator. Expense visibility and category access are role-scoped.

Prerequisites

Expense categories must exist and be available to your role.
Currencies must be configured.
The project or task must exist if the expense is being allocated to project work.
To bill an expense, the project must have a client and an invoice must be raised.

For Administrators

Step 1: Set up expense categories

What to do: Create the expense categories your business uses and set which roles may record against each one. Select Save.

What to verify: A User in each role sees only the categories intended for them.

Step 2: Review expenses across employees

Go to: Work → Expenses

What to do: Open Manage Expenses to see expenses submitted across employees. Use Filter to work through the pending ones.

What to verify: Every submitted expense has a receipt and a valid category.

Step 3: Approve and pay

What to do: Select Approve for a valid expense, or Reject where it is not supported. Once the reimbursement or payment is made, mark the expense paid.

What to verify: The status moves from pending to approved, then to paid.

Step 4: Set up recurring expenses and bulk import

What to do: For a cost that repeats, create a recurring expense with its schedule. For a batch of historical or bulk expenses, use Import with a CSV file.

What to verify: The recurring expense generates on its schedule, and imported rows appear with the right category and amount.

For Users

Step 1: Record the expense

Go to: Work → Expenses

What to do: Select Add. Enter the amount, the date and the currency, select the category, and complete every mandatory field. Where the cost belongs to project work, allocate it to the project or task. Record mileage where the expense is travel by vehicle.

What to verify: The category, amount and allocation are correct.

Step 2: Attach the receipt

What to do: Upload the receipt to the expense so the approver can verify it.

What to verify: The receipt is attached and readable.

Step 3: Mark it billable where the client pays

What to do: Where the cost is recoverable from the client, mark the expense billable before submitting it.

What to verify: The expense is flagged billable so it can be brought onto a client invoice.

Step 4: Submit and track

What to do: Select Submit. The expense is pending until an approver acts on it. Track it until it is approved and then paid.

What to verify: The status reflects where the expense has reached.

Step 5: Bill the expense to the client

Go to: Sales → Invoices

What to do: Raise or open the client's invoice and bring the approved billable expenses onto it.

What to verify: The expense appears as an invoice line and is no longer available to bill again.

Field and Option Reference

Field / Option	Description	Required
Category	Classifies the expense. Availability is role-scoped.	Yes
Amount	The value of the expense, in the selected currency.	Yes
Date	When the cost was incurred.	Yes
Receipt	The supporting document uploaded to the expense.	No
Project or task	The project work the expense is allocated to.	No
Mileage	Distance recorded for a travel expense.	No
Billable	Marks the expense as recoverable from the client so it can be billed on an invoice.	No
Recurring schedule	Generates the expense repeatedly for a cost that recurs.	No

Expected Result

The expense is saved with status pending, moves to approved once an approver accepts it, and to paid when the reimbursement is made. Approved billable expenses can be brought onto a client invoice.

Service / PSA lens

Why This Matters for Service Organisations

Client-facing work generates cost that belongs to the client: travel to a site, a specialist tool bought for one engagement, a subcontractor's invoice. In a service organisation this is thin-margin money, recovered only if the cost is captured against the right engagement and then actually reaches an invoice. Allocating an expense to a project or task, approving it, and marking it billable is what turns a recoverable cost into recovered cash rather than absorbed overhead.

How It Supports Professional Services

An expense can be allocated to a project or a task, so cost sits against the engagement that caused it instead of in a general overhead pool.
An expense marked billable can be brought onto a client invoice, which is the cost-recovery path alongside billable time.
Only approved expenses flow through. Cost that is still pending is invisible both to billing and to a project's derived budget actuals, so an approval backlog understates what the engagement has really cost and overstates what is left to spend.
Mileage and receipts cover the reality of consultants and engineers working away from the office, and category access is role-scoped so a team only records against the categories that apply to it.
Recurring expenses handle continuing costs such as a tool subscription attached to a long engagement.

Typical Service Workflow

Cost incurred → Allocate to project → Approve → Bill to client → Recover

Expenses feed both the billing step and the cost side of a project's derived actuals. The product makes approved billable expenses available to an invoice and derives budget actuals from approved expense data; approving promptly, and checking that billable cost was in fact billed, are practices the organisation operates.

Other Product-Type Use Cases

The same module handles employee reimbursement, company overheads and site costs, so a manufacturer, an installer or a purely internal team uses it without any client recharge at all.

How to Create and Send Invoices — where approved billable expenses are recovered from the client.
How to Bill Tracked Time on an Invoice — the other billable source on the same invoice.
How to Read Budget vs Actual and EVM Analytics — approved expenses are one of the sources project actuals are derived from.
How to Use Finance and Income vs Expense Reports — the reports expense data feeds.

Important Notes

Menu names and their position can differ between product editions and can be customised for your account, so your sidebar may not match these paths exactly. Use Search or your Quick Access items if you cannot find a screen.
Expenses covers your own and company expenses. Manage Expenses is the entry point for approvers working across employees.
Expense category access is role-scoped, so two users may legitimately see different category lists.
Only approved billable expenses should be billed. Mark the expense billable before it is approved so it is not missed.
Expense data feeds the expense, HRMS expense and income-vs-expense reports, so an unapproved backlog distorts reporting.

Common Scenarios

Example: employee travel reimbursement. A team member drives to a client site, records the mileage as an expense with a receipt for parking, and allocates it to the project. The approver approves it and it is marked paid after reimbursement.

Example: a recoverable project cost. A subcontractor invoice is recorded as a project expense and marked billable. Once approved, it is brought onto the client's invoice so the cost is recovered.

Example: a monthly subscription. A recurring software cost is set up as a recurring expense, so it is recorded automatically each month instead of being re-entered.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Possible Cause	Resolution
The required category is not available	Category access is role-scoped and your role does not include that category	Ask your Administrator to grant your role access to the category.
The expense cannot be billed to the client	The expense is not marked billable, is not approved, or has already been billed	Mark it billable, have it approved, and check whether it was already billed on an earlier invoice.
An expense stays `pending`	No approver has acted on it	Ask the approver to review it in Manage Expenses.
A recurring expense stopped generating	The recurring schedule is no longer active	Review the recurring expense and its schedule.
Imported expenses are missing	Rows in the CSV file were incomplete or used a category the role cannot access	Correct the file and run Import again.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the expense statuses?

pending, then approved, then paid.

What is the difference between Expenses and Manage Expenses?

Expenses is for your own and company expenses. Manage Expenses is the Administrator and approver view across employees.

Can an expense be charged to the client?

Yes. Mark it billable, and once approved it can be brought onto a client invoice.

Can I add many expenses at once?

Yes. Use Import with a CSV file.

Still need a hand?

Our support team answers on business days. Reference QTC-11 so we can jump straight in.

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