Expense claim review

You check that every pound, dollar or euro claimed was spent on the business, within policy, with a valid receipt, and is coded and taxed correctly. The standard: a reviewer could pick any line in your report and find the receipt, the policy rule you applied and the reason for your recommendation. You recommend approve, query or reject; the owner or the claimant's manager approves, and the owner reimburses.

When to use

• "Check this month's expense claims."
• "Go through the company card statement and find the missing receipts."
• "Is this claim OK?"
• "We need an expense policy."
• Before a reimbursement run or the month-end close.

What you need

• The expense policy. If the owner has none, draft one from references/policy-and-checks.md for them to approve. Never enforce limits you invented.
• The claims: claim forms or the expense tool export, plus receipt images or PDFs.
• Company card statements for the period.
• Access, best first: the accounting or expense software as a connected app (Xero, QuickBooks) on the Connections page; your own browser signed in by the owner; or files the owner shares. If none is there, ask with clarify.
• The business's tax position: registered for VAT or GST or not, and whether input tax is reclaimable on each category.

Method

1. Load every line into a table with execute_code: claimant, date, merchant, amount, currency, category claimed, description, receipt file name.
2. Read every receipt with vision_analyze (or the PDF text). Extract merchant, date, total, tax amount, tax number of the merchant, currency, items. Mark receipts that are unreadable, cropped or card-terminal slips without itemisation.
3. Match receipt to claim on date, amount and merchant. Any mismatch is a query. A claim in a foreign currency uses the rate the card or bank actually charged (from the card statement) or the rate the policy sets; never a rate you picked.
4. Apply the policy, line by line:
   • Business purpose stated and plausible for the claimant's role.
   • Within the limit for the category (meals per person, hotel per night, travel class).
   • Pre-approval present where the policy needs it.
   • Attendees named for client entertainment.
   • Mileage: distance is plausible for the route and the rate is the approved one. Rates that are tax-free for the employee are set by each country and change (for example the UK approved mileage allowance payments or the US IRS standard mileage rate). Check the current rate with web_search and cite the source.
   • Per diems paid at the policy rate, with no separate meal claims for the same days.
5. Look for duplicates and red flags:
   • The same receipt claimed twice, or claimed on a personal claim and also paid on the company card.
   • Sequential receipt numbers from the same merchant on different days, or hand-written receipts in quantity.
   • Round-number amounts without itemised receipts.
   • Claims just under an approval limit, repeatedly.
   • Weekend, holiday or home-town spending without a stated reason.
   • Alcohol, personal items, family members, fines and penalties (often not allowable as business costs). Raise these as queries, factually. Do not accuse anyone; the owner decides.
6. Tax treatment. Reclaim input tax only with a valid tax receipt that shows the supplier's tax number where the local rules require it. Entertainment, some travel and some gifts are restricted or blocked for reclaim in many countries. Some reimbursements and benefits are taxable for the employee and have to go through payroll. Check the rules for the country and flag anything you are unsure of for the accountant.
7. Company cards. Match each card line to a receipt. List missing receipts by cardholder with date, merchant and amount, and draft a chaser for each cardholder. Give a deadline that suits the close calendar.
8. Recommend per line: Approve, Query (what is needed), or Reject (which rule). Total the recommended reimbursement per claimant.
9. Hand over. The approver signs off. Reimbursement goes through payroll or a bank payment that the owner makes. You do not pay. Once approved, code the lines (or hand over the coded sheet) and file receipts against the transactions if you have permission.

Worked example: one claim

Claim from Priya, 14 lines, 612.40 claimed.

• Line 3, hotel, two nights, 310.00. Policy limit 140.00 a night in that city. Receipt itemised and matches. Over the limit by 30.00 with no reason given: Query ("155.00 a night against the 140.00 limit: was a cheaper option unavailable?").
• Line 5, Pret, 7.85, receipt matches: Approve.
• Line 7, client dinner, 96.00, attendees named, pre-approved. Valid tax receipt, but input tax on entertainment is blocked in the owner's country (rule checked, source noted): Approve, with the no-reclaim tax code.
• Line 9, mileage, 84 miles at the approved rate. Route checked: 41 miles each way, plausible. Approve, rate and source cited.
• Line 11, online marketplace, 42.99, card slip only, no itemisation: Query for the itemised invoice.
• Line 12, the same Pret receipt as line 5 (same date, time and amount): Reject as a duplicate, worded factually. Result: approve 251.56, query 352.99, reject 7.85; 612.40 in total, which ties to the claim. The two queries go to Priya in one message with a date to reply by.

Tax treatment: what to check per category

Category	Usual position (varies by country: check and cite)
Travel and hotels	Often reclaimable with a valid tax receipt in the business's name
Staff meals while travelling	Often reclaimable; per diems have tax-free ceilings set by the authority
Client entertainment	Often blocked for reclaim, and sometimes not deductible for the business
Mileage in a personal vehicle	Tax-free up to the authority's rate; anything above it is taxable pay
Gifts	Per-recipient annual thresholds in many regimes
Home office, phone, broadband	Mixed-use rules; usually apportioned, sometimes taxable
Fines, penalties, personal items	Not reimbursable under most policies; never a business cost
The rule you checked for the owner's country wins over this table; write the source next to the line it affected.

Output

• expenses-<period>.xlsx: Lines (claimant, date, merchant, amount, currency, category, account code, tax code, receipt status, policy check, recommendation, reason), Missing receipts, Queries, Summary by claimant, Checks.
• A show_card: claims reviewed, amount claimed, amount recommended, queries, rejections, missing receipts by person.
• Drafted queries to claimants, sent only on the owner's go-ahead.

Checks before you finish

• Every line has a receipt status: matched, mismatched, missing or unreadable.
• Total recommended plus total queried plus total rejected equals total claimed, per claimant.
• Every input tax reclaim has a valid receipt behind it.
• Every rejection quotes the policy rule; every query says what is needed.
• No limit applied that is not in the approved policy.
• Card lines matched to receipts plus missing receipts equals all card lines for the period.

Pitfalls

• Approving a total, not the lines. Check each line; problems hide in the middle.
• Using limits that are not in the policy. If the policy is silent, query, and suggest a policy update.
• Ignoring tax. Reclaiming tax on entertainment or without a valid receipt creates a liability later.
• Accusing. Write "receipt total 48.20, claimed 84.20: please check" not "this claim is wrong".
• Letting card receipts slide. Missing receipts compound every month. Chase within the close calendar.
• Missing taxable benefits. Some reimbursements count as pay. Flag them for the accountant or payroll.

See also

• categorise-bank-transactions, payroll-run-preparation, month-end-close.