Expense Reports

Your employees buy things for the business — client dinners, travel, supplies. Expense reports give them a way to submit those purchases for reimbursement without you chasing receipts.

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How It Works

1. Employee spends their own money on something for work
2. They submit an expense report with receipts
3. You (or a manager) approve it
4. They get reimbursed

Simple. The complexity is in the details: categories, policies, approvals, receipt requirements.

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Employee View

Employees access expense reports through their Pluvel account (or the mobile app). Submit an expense:

• Enter the amount, date, vendor, and category
• Upload a photo of the receipt
• Add notes if needed
• Submit for approval

View status:

• Pending (waiting for approval)
• Approved (waiting for payment)
• Reimbursed (done)
• Rejected (with reason)

Employees don’t need full Pluvel access. You can invite them as “expense only” users who can only submit and view their own expenses.

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Submitting Expenses

Employees can submit expenses: One at a time — Bought lunch with a client? Submit it immediately from your phone. As a batch — Traveling for a week? Save expenses, then submit them all as one report when you’re back. From email — Forward receipts to expenses@yourcompany.pluvel.com. We’ll create draft expenses from them.

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Expense Policies

Set rules for what’s allowed: Go to Settings → Expenses → Policies to configure. Expenses that violate policy get flagged. You can still approve them, but you’ll see the warning.

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Approval Workflows

Configure who approves what: Default approver — One person approves all expenses (common for small teams) Manager approval — Expenses go to the submitter’s manager Threshold-based — Under $100 auto-approves, over$100 needs manual approval Multi-level — Under $500 goes to manager, over$500 needs owner approval too Set this up in Settings → Expenses → Approvals.

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Approving Expenses

As an approver, you’ll see pending expenses in your dashboard and get email notifications. For each expense:

• View the receipt
• Check the amount and category
• See any policy violations
• Approve or reject (with a reason)

Approve multiple expenses at once if they all look fine. Or review each individually if you want.

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Reimbursement

Approved expenses need to be paid. Options: Add to payroll — Reimbursements go out with the next paycheck. Tax-free, but only works on pay dates. Direct reimbursement — Pay immediately via bank transfer. Separate from payroll. Manual — You write a check or Venmo them. Just mark it as reimbursed in Pluvel. Configure your default reimbursement method in Settings → Expenses → Reimbursement.

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Categories

Standard expense categories:

• Travel (flights, hotels, car rental)
• Meals & Entertainment
• Office Supplies
• Software & Subscriptions
• Professional Development
• Client Expenses (reimbursable to client)
• Other

Add custom categories in Settings → Expenses → Categories. Categories map to your chart of accounts for proper expense tracking.

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Mileage Tracking

For employees using their personal vehicles:

1. Create an expense with category “Mileage”
2. Enter miles driven
3. Pluvel calculates reimbursement at the IRS rate ($0.67/mile for 2024)

You can set a custom rate if your company pays differently.

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Receipt Requirements

Receipts matter for:

• Tax deductions (you need documentation)
• Audit trails (proving the expense was legitimate)
• Fraud prevention (employees can’t just make up expenses)

Pluvel stores receipts attached to expenses. They’re searchable and backed up.

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Reporting

Expense Summary — Total expenses by category, employee, or time period. Policy Violations — How often expenses exceed limits or miss receipts. Reimbursement Aging — Approved expenses waiting for payment. Find these in Reports → Expenses.

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Tips for Employees

• Submit promptly. Don’t hoard receipts for months.
• Take clear photos. Blurry receipts get rejected.
• Include business purpose. “Client lunch” not just “Chipotle.”
• Check your category. Miscategorized expenses delay approval.

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Tips for Approvers

• Set up policies and let them do the work. You shouldn’t manually check if lunch was under $50.
• Approve in batches. Once a week is usually fine unless it’s time-sensitive.
• Communicate rejections. “Rejected - missing receipt” helps employees fix it.