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Expenses

The smallest module in the system — three registers, all about one thing: the money the company and an employee owe each other. Not wages (those live in HR) and not supplier payments, but advances: cash handed out for a trip, spent, accounted for, with the balance returned or the overspend reimbursed.

The whole module rests on one account — 372, settlements with accountable persons. It works as an employee's personal account with the company, and every document here only moves it one way or the other.

Video walkthrough: Employee expenses in ERPJS step by step — cash advance, expense claim, change, zero balance.

The route: the advance cycle

Cash out (advance item) → Dr 372: the employee owes the company
              ↓
Expense claim → Cr 372: the costs are recognised, the debt shrinks
              ↓
   the balance goes back to the till  |  an overspend is repaid by a personnel payment
  1. Handing out. Money leaves through cash out with the advance item. The employee's debt grows.
  2. Expense claim — the person accounts for it: receipts, dates, amounts. Every line carries an expense claim article, and the article is the expense account the amount lands on.
  3. Settlement. Spent less — the cash comes back through cash in. Spent more — the company owes them, and the debt is cleared by a personnel payment, usually created by a button from the claim itself.

A zero balance on 372 for an employee means you are square. A non-zero one means either they are holding the company's cash or the company owes them.

What is worth understanding

An expense claim article is an expense account. The logic is the same as with cash book items: the reference is picked on the line, and an account sits behind it. So "fuel", "travel", "stationery" are not labels for a report but where the money goes in the books.

A personnel payment is not payroll. Wages are paid through cash out with the payroll item and clear the payroll settlement account. A personnel payment clears 372 — the advance debt. Confusing the two produces "extra" wages in reports and an unexplained balance on 372.

Objects belong here as well. Fuel for a particular vehicle, travel for a particular project — all of it is set by objects on the line, or the costs merge into one heap.

Two journals and the trial balance. The module has no settings of its own, and two reports: the advance reports journal (what was reported, with expense rows and an object filter) and the personnel payments journal (what was reimbursed, with totals per payment method). Both are built from documents. Who still owes how much is shown in the nominal ledger: the trial balance per account for 372 broken down by objects is the report on accountable persons.

Where to start in a new database

  1. Advance Reports Articles (expense claim articles) — fuel, travel, office; each with its own expense account.
  2. An advance item in the cash book — so that handing out money lands on 372.
  3. Objects — if you need analysis by vehicle, project or department.
  4. The first hand-out — and the cycle is running.

Common tasks

You need Where to go
hand out money against an advance Cash out with the advance item
accept an employee's claim Advance Reports
take back what was not spent Cash in
reimburse an overspend Personnel Payments
see who has not accounted for what Trial balance per account for 372
list the month's advance reports, unposted ones Advance Reports Journal
what was reimbursed and from which cash desk Personnel Payments Journal
split costs by vehicle or project objects on the claim lines

Everything in the module

Documents: advance reports · personnel payments

References: advance reports articles

Reports: advance reports journal · personnel payments journal

Where to look next