When someone pays for a work expense with their own money, they tick Reimbursable on the expense. Once it's approved, an Administrator records paying them back on the Reimbursements tab. Avaza keeps the record and can email the person. The money itself is paid outside Avaza, for example by bank transfer.

Mark an expense as reimbursable

Tick Reimbursable when you add or edit the expense. It starts unticked, so leave it that way for anything the company paid for directly, such as a company card.

The New Expense popup with Reimbursable ticked under the amount: a 38.60 AUD Rideshare trip, billable to Fernleaf Media's Marketing Campaign project

Only approved or automatically approved expenses can be reimbursed. If your account has Expense Approval Required switched on, the expense must be approved first.

Expense Details for a 48.50 USD travel expense with the Automatically Approved, Uninvoiced and Reimbursable labels

On the Expenses tab, the Reimbursable column shows a tick. To see how far each one has got, add the Reimbursement Status column with Fields, or open the expense: its approval, billing and reimbursement statuses are shown side by side.

The Expenses list with its Status, Billing and Reimbursable columns: some verified expenses have a tick under Reimbursable

Reimbursement status

Meaning

Not Reimbursable

Reimbursable isn't ticked, or an Administrator declined it.

Reimbursable

Ticked, and not yet part of a reimbursement.

Processing Reimbursement

In a reimbursement that isn't paid yet.

Reimbursed

In a reimbursement that's marked paid.

Pay people back

Only Administrators see the Reimbursements tab. It has three lists: Pending, Processing and Paid.

  1. Go to Expenses and open Reimbursements. Pending lists approved, reimbursable expenses, grouped by person, newest first. The tab's badge counts them.
    Use Filter to narrow the list, for example to one month, category, client or billing status, such as only invoiced expenses. The totals at the bottom show each currency and the total in your account currency.

    The Reimbursements tab on Pending, grouped by person, with one person's reimbursable expense, the Reimburse all button on their heading and the totals row

  2. Tick the expenses to pay back and click Create Reimbursement. One reimbursement covers one person's expenses. You can also click Reimburse all on a person's heading, or choose Create reimbursement… in a row's ⋮ menu.

  3. In Create Reimbursement Payment, check the summary: the number of expenses, their dates, totals by currency and the total in your account currency.
    Amount to Reimburse starts as that total. Change the currency or amount if you pay differently, but in your account currency it can't be more than the total. Reimbursement Date starts as today.

  4. Choose the status. Processing puts the payment on the Processing list to mark as paid later, which helps when you prepare several reimbursements and pay them together. Paid records it as complete: add a Payment Reference if you like, and keep Notify user ticked to email the person.

    The Create Reimbursement Payment popup with the expense summary, the amount and date, and Processing chosen as the status

  5. Add Reimbursement Notes if you like. The person can see them, and they're in the email. Click Create Reimbursement.

The expenses change to Processing Reimbursement or Reimbursed.

Mark a reimbursement as paid

Processing lists the reimbursements that aren't paid yet, with their Reimbursement Date, Expense User, Expense Count, Reimbursed By (who created it), Amount and Notes.

The Reimbursements tab on Processing, grouped by person, with one unpaid reimbursement payment

  1. Choose Mark as Paid… in the reimbursement's ⋮ menu, or open it and click Mark as Paid.

    The menu on a processing reimbursement, open below its row, with View details, Mark as Paid and Delete

  2. Enter the Payment Date (it starts as today) and, if you like, a Payment Reference and notes.

  3. Keep Notify user ticked to email the person, and click Confirm.

Its expenses become Reimbursed. The email gives the payment date, the amount, your notes and the list of expenses.

Check or undo a reimbursement

Paid lists paid reimbursements with their Payment Date and Payment Reference. On Processing and Paid you can search by person, payment reference, notes or amount, sort by any column, and filter or group by the expense user.

Click a reimbursement to open Reimbursement Payment Details. Summary shows its status, the amount paid, the total of the expenses in your account currency, who created and paid it, the dates, the payment reference and the notes. Expenses lists each expense with its exchange rate.

To undo one, choose Delete in its ⋮ menu or in the details, on either list. Its expenses go back to Reimbursable and appear under Pending again. Deleting only removes the record in Avaza: it doesn't reverse a payment you've made. Delete a reimbursement when an expense in it needs changing, because expenses in a reimbursement are locked. See editing a locked expense.

Decline a reimbursement

If an expense shouldn't be paid back, tick it under Pending and choose Not Reimbursable…, or use the row's ⋮ menu. Enter the reason. Reimbursable is unticked on the expense, its status becomes Not Reimbursable, and the person is emailed the reason with the list of expenses.

To reverse this, edit the expense and tick Reimbursable again. With approvals on, editing an approved expense that isn't invoiced sends it back to Verified or Draft, so it needs approving again. If Edit is greyed out, see editing a locked expense.