Why do we need receipt checking?

What's the purpose of receipt checking?

The receipt checking built into ExpensePlus is an administrative step, typically done by a member of the finance team who knows the difference between a valid and invalid receipt. Its purpose is to ensure that the submitted receipt is:

• readable (can you tell what it is?)
• acceptable (is the amount*/supplier/date correct?)
• in a suitable form for your statutory financial records (would your Independent Examiner/Auditor accept it?)

Getting this right at the point purchases are submitted will save you lots of time at year-end. Don't forget that you have to keep receipts and other financial records for 7 years - so it's worth having them in good order!

*sometimes the receipt amount is less than the expense claim amount if the claim is only for part of the purchase - this is OK if, for examplef, the cost is to be shared between your organisation and another party.

This process should take 5 seconds maximum per receipt, and if any receipts are rejected, the purchase submitter will be emailed explaining why their receipt was rejected (including the reasons given by the receipt checker), with instructions on how to upload a correct receipt.

How is that different to approvals?

The Approvals module allows budget holders to have visibility and control over how their budget is being spent in real-time. This is different to receipt checking since it's not about whether the receipt is appropriate for the purchase, but whether the purchase is acceptable and appropriate for that particular budget category.

In smaller organisations, the same Finance Officer, Treasurer, or Administrator might be responsible for both receipt checking and the majority of approvals. You might choose in that instance to disable the Approvals module either entirely, or for certain categories, or for certain purchase types. There are more details about the various ways you can customise the Approvals module here: How to customise approvals within ExpensePlus.

Can I switch off the receipt checking stage?

Receipt checking cannot be disabled in ExpensePlus as it's a necessary step for creating compliant financial records. However, in system settings, you can mark receipts as optional for Direct Debits and Supplier Refunds.

Uploading several receipts in our first year is going to take a while - can ExpensePlus help?

We've built two features to help you if you are migrating to ExpensePlus part way through a financial year and have several historic transactions:

1. You can upload receipts in batch - see Mid-Year Migration - Uploading Receipts
2. If you have several receipts stored elsewhere and don't want to upload them to ExpensePlus, our support team can mark receipts for all purchases up to a certain date as held outside of ExpensePlus. Just get in touch and we can arrange this for you.