Introduction

The AccountsIQ Mobile App is a handy productivity tool that's designed to automate:

• Employee expense claims capture.
• Purchase approval processes.

The Expense Claims Process

Employees create and submit expense claims via their mobile devices. When an expense claim is submitted via the app, a Purchase (Item) Invoice is created in your company and sent to the nominated approver. 

The approver can then view full details of all expenses included in the claim along with any receipts attached by the employee. The approver can approve or reject the claim. Employees will be notified of any rejected claims via their mobile devices and will be able to amend the claim and re-submit for approval. Once approved, invoices can be posted, and payments processed just like any Purchase Invoice in the system.

Prerequisite

To use the app, your company must have a valid AccountsIQ subscription including the expenses app and workflow approval.  

Email support@accountsiq.com to add the app to your package or to find out more.

See:

Employee Expense Overview (21.0) - AIQ Academy (vimeo.com)

  Employee Expense Pre-requisites (21.1) - AIQ Academy (vimeo.com)

  Add Edit Employees - from existing suppliers (21.2) - AIQ Academy

  Add Edit employees - creating new suppliers (21.3) - AIQ Academy

  Add Edit Expense Categories (21.4) - AIQ Academy

Invite employees to mobile app (21.6) - AIQ Academy (vimeo.com)

  AccountsIQ Mobile Purchases Approval App‍ 

  Using the mobile Employee Expenses App‍ 

Set up Supplier Based Approval

To use the expense app, supplier-based workflow approval must be enabled in the company where expenses are to be submitted. If you are already using Supplier-based approval, skip to the next section (Add/Edit Employees).

Currently, budget holder approval is not compatible with the expense app, and it is not possible to use both approval methods within one company.

Setting up Supplier-based Approval

1. Go to Setup > Company Details &Settings.
2. In the Approval Settings tab:
   • Select Purchase Approval Enabled.
   • For Approval Type, select Supplier. 
3. Click Save.

Setting up Purchase Approvers

1. Go to Approver Setup > Purchase Approvers > New Purchase Approver.
2. Enter approver details and click Save.
   

Add/Edit Employees from Existing Suppliers

Viewing the Default Approver

1. Go to Purchases > Suppliers.
2. Click Add/Remove Columns and select Default Approver and Email, then click Save.
3. Check that there are no blanks in the Default Approver column for your employees. 

Using Enhanced Revenue Reporting (Ireland only)

• VAT No: Enter the employee's PPS Number.
• VAT Exempt Ref: Enter the employee's payroll number.
  
   

Importing Employees from Supplier Records

1. Go to Employee Expenses > Employees > Import Employees.
2. Download the Excel template.
3. Fill out the New Employee from Supplier tab in the template, adding the supplier codes that you want to create employees for.
4. If relevant, fill out the Initial Employee Mileage worksheet. This brings forward mileage balances for new employees coming from other companies.
5. Upload the completed file and click Import. When you import, you can choose whether to send expense app invites to new employees. If you are not ready to do this, select No and you can email the invites from the Employee tab when you are ready.
6. If there are any errors in the import sheet, you will see a validation error and you will be able to download the template showing details of any errors. You should correct these and then re-import the sheet.

Editing Employees

1. Go to Employee Expenses > Employees.
2. Click on the employee code to open their record and make the relevant edits. 
   
   
3. Delete

   Info

   Note, that employee email addresses cannot be edited. If you need to change the email address of an employee, contact the support team at support@accountsiq.com.

   
   

4. Click Process when complete.

Add/Edit Employees by Creating New Suppliers

If you don't have supplier accounts set up yet, you can import suppliers and create employee records in one step. Importing is the quickest and easiest way to do this, but you can create the supplier and employee manually if you only have a few to create.

Importing New Suppliers and Employees

1. Go to Employee Expenses > Employees > Import Employees.
   
2. Download the Excel template.
   
3. Fill out all mandatory fields in the New Supplier & New Employee tab:
   • Supplier Code: You can create a different coding convention to easily identify employees from trade suppliers.
   • Name: Enter the employee’s name.
   • Email address: Enter the employee's email address. The email address must be unique for each employee, and an employee can only be set up in one company. This is the address that the mobile app invitation will be sent to. The employee will need to be able to access this email account from their mobile device to successfully set up the app. 
   • Expense Claim Approver email: Enter the email address of the approver. They must be set up as an approver before importing the data.
   • GL Account: Enter the default GL Code for supplier invoices.
   • Control GL Code: Enter the creditor's control account.
   • Paid from Bank Account: Enter the bank account that expenses will normally be paid from.
   • Credit Terms: Enter the credit term description (not the code).
4. All other fields are optional, but we recommend using the following if needed:
   • Payment Method: Enter the payment method description. This is useful if you want to use batch payments.
   • Employee's bank account details: These are particularly important if you want to use batch payments.
5. If relevant, fill out the Initial Employee Mileage worksheet. This brings forward mileage balances for new employees coming from other companies.
6. Upload the completed file and click Import on the same screen. You can choose whether to send the expense app invites to new employees at this point. If you are not ready to do this yet, select No and you can email the invites from the Employee tab when you are ready.
7. If there are any errors in the import sheet, you will see a validation error and you will be able to download the template showing details of any errors. You should correct these and then re-import the sheet.

Manually Creating New Suppliers and Employees

1. Go to Purchases > Suppliers > New Supplier.
2. Create a new supplier, following the instructions in Managing Supplier Master Records.
   
   
3. Delete

   Info

   Ensure that you enter an email address when setting up supplier accounts for employees. Once the supplier account is linked to an employee record, the email field will become locked and can only be updated by contacting support@accountsiq.com.

   
   

4. To meet Revenue's newest expense reporting requirements (Ireland only), enter the following in the Finance Settings tab‍:
   • VAT No: Enter the employee's PPS Number.
   • VAT Exempt Ref: Enter the employee's payroll number. 
5. Go to Employee Expenses > Employees > New Employee.
6. Select the above supplier from the list and enter an email address if not already created for the supplier.
   Delete

Editing Employees

1. Go to Employee Expenses > Employees.
2. Click the employee code and update as required.
   
   
3. Delete

   Info

   Note, that employee email addresses cannot be edited. If you need to change the email address of an employee, contact the support team at support@accountsiq.com.

   
   

4. Click Process when complete.

Add/Edit Expense Categories

Expense categories should be set up for each item you want employees to record their expenses against, for example, travel, and hotel accommodation. To set up mileage as an expense category, see How Do I Set Up the Mileage Expense Module?‍ 

You can set up as many categories as needed. Each category has a default tax and GL code. If you want to post expenses to different tax or GL codes, you should set up a category for each expense.

Creating a New Expense Category

1. Go to Employee Expenses > Expense Categories > New Expense Category.
2. Complete the following:
   • Code: Enter a code for the expense category. This will be visible to the employees on the app so should be meaningful to them. Codes must not include spaces or special characters.
   • Description: Enter a description for the expense category. Like the code, this is visible to the employee so should be meaningful to them.
   • Tax Code: The employee will not be able to see or amend this. Employees should enter the gross amount for each expense and the system will calculate the VAT at the default rate. This can be amended by the finance office on the Purchase Invoice before posting or adjusted via a journal.
   • GL Account Code: This is the default GL code that each expense will be recorded against. We recommend using at least one expense category for each GL code that you would like expenses recorded against.
   • Requires Quantity: Select if you would like a quantity recorded against the expense. 
   • Reimbursement Rate: This can only be set when the required quantity is selected. The employee will not be able to see the rate, but this will be calculated automatically when they enter a quantity against categories using a rate. It is a good idea to add details of the rate to the Description.
   • Tax Reporting? (Ireland only): This is used for enhanced Revenue reporting. Check to include the expense categories in the report.
   • Category Group and Category Sub Group (Ireland only): Select an option for each to include them in the Revenue report.
3. Click Process to save the Expense Category.

Editing Expense Categories

1. Go to Employee Expenses > Expense Categories.
2. Click the expense category code and update as required.
3. Click Process.

If you need to delete expense categories, email the details to support@accountsiq.com

Invite Employees to the Mobile App

Sending an Invite

Sending an invite to employees lets them securely link the app on their mobile device to your company without the need to set up usernames or passwords. You can send invites to employees in bulk if you import your employees (see Add/Edit Employee sections). Otherwise, or if an employee needs another invite,  you can send invites from the system if you have an Admin user role.

1. Go to Employee Expenses > Employees.
2. Next to each employee's name, go to Actions > Send mobile expenses app invite.

Accepting an Invite

The employee should then:

1. Download the AccountsIQ mobile app.
2. Click the Getting Started link in the email to link the app to the company they will be submitting expenses to.
3. Allow the app to access notifications, camera, and photos.

Viewing Employee Expense App Status

Go to Employee Expenses > Employees to view the following two status columns.

Access Status column

• Enabled: The employee invitation has been sent. Go to Actions > Disable Access to Mobile Approval App if you no longer want the employee to be able to access the app.
• Disabled: The employee invitation has not been sent. Go to Actions > Send Mobile Expenses App Invite to enable access.

Is Mobile Invite Accepted column

• No: The employee's app is not connected to the database, and they will not be able to submit expense claims.
• Yes - Expenses Only: The employee has installed and connected the Expenses app successfully.
• Yes - Approval and Expenses: The employee has installed and connected the app and can use it for expenses and approval.

Employee Expense Report (Ireland Only)

The report "Employee Payments" is available in the Report Manager under Purchase Reports. Note that expense claims will only appear in the report when they are marked as paid/allocated to the payment.

It is automatically available for all users with the system administrator profile and can be added to the permissions for any other user via Maintain Menu Profiles.

See:

Using the Report Manager‍ 

Managing Group and Entity Users‍ 

FAQs and Troubleshooting

Why can't I see the Employee Expenses and/or Approver Setup tab(s)?

You must have a valid subscription to use both employee expenses and workflow approval. If you have a subscription and cannot see the tabs, ask your local admin user to check that you have the correct permissions enabled in your profile.

You can check this at the group layer. Go to Actions > Maintain Menu Profiles next to the required company ID.

• To access the Approver Setup tab, Purchase Approver Setup should be ticked.
  
  

• To access the Employee Expenses > Employees, Employees should be ticked.
• To access the Employee Expenses > Expense Categories, Expense Items should be ticked.

Remember, if you enable a feature in the Menu Profiles, all users assigned to that profile will have access to the feature.

How can employees submit expense claims in different currencies?

The expense app only supports expense claims in a single currency per employee. Check the currency code by going to Purchases > Suppliers and clicking on the employee.

The app does not support multiple currency claims.

Can employees submit claims to more than one company?

The expense app only supports expense claims being sent to one company.

How can I delete an expense category?

There is no way to delete an expense category currently. If you need categories deleted, email the details to support@accountsiq.com and we can do that on your behalf.

Can I use the expense app with budget holder approval?

The app is only compatible at the moment with supplier-based approval.

How can employees use the app for credit card expenses?

The app has been designed to work with reimbursable expense claims. When a claim is submitted, a Purchase Invoice will be created with no automatic payment or allocation.

If an employee wants to use the app to record only credit card claims, you can set the payment terms against the supplier to "credit card". You must create a local process to ensure that these invoices are not paid to the employee - the expense claim will create an unpaid purchase invoice, and the system will not automatically exclude these invoices from payment runs.

It is not recommended to use the app for a combination of credit card and reimbursable expense claims. 

My employee has not received the invitation email.

Ask the employee to check their junk folders. If the email is not there, send a new one by going to Employee Expenses > Employees, followed by Actions > Send Mobile Expenses App Invite next to the employee's name.

My employee can't connect to the app.

Most connectivity problems arise if more than one invitation is sent to an employee. In this case, they must use the most recent email sent.

If an employee is having trouble connecting to the app:

1. Ask the employee to delete all invitation emails and the app from their mobile device.
2. When the employee has deleted the app and the emails, send a new invitation email from Employee Expenses > Actions > Send Mobile Expense App Invite.
3. Ask the employee to download the app and then click on Getting Started in the invitation email.

If they are still having difficulties, please email the following information to support@accountsiq.com:

• Which Operating system is being used - Android or IOS?
• Which App version is being used?
• Are all users affected?
• User Id and e-mail of affected User(s)?
• What are the company ID expenses being raised against?
• Has the user ever connected the app to another company?

How does the app work if I use it for both expenses and purchase approval?

There is one mobile app that will allow users to manage their expenses and/or purchase approvals depending on the level of access the local administrator has set up.

1. Check by going to either:
2. Go to Approver Setup > Purchase Approvers.
3. Go to Employee Expenses > Employees.
4. Check Is Mobile Invite Accepted:
   • No: The employee's/approver's app is not connected to the database and they will not be able to submit expense claims.
   • Yes - Expenses Only: The employee/approver has installed and connected the Expenses app successfully.
   • Yes - Approval Only: The employee/approver has installed and connected the approval app but will not have access to expenses.
   • Yes - Approval and Expenses: The employee/approver has installed and connected the app and can use it for expenses and approval.

• You can update access rights by clicking Actions next to the employee or approver.