The expense management tab lets you add and view your general expenses and mileage expenses allowing your business to stay compliant with HMRC.

Adding a general expense:

1. Go to Main Navigation > Expenses Managment > Manage Expenses

2. Click the New General Expense tab

3. Choose the date the expense occured

4. Select the supplier and supplier branch

5. Enter a description of the expense e.g. coffee for meeting

6. Choose the relevant currency for the expense 

7. Enter the expense value

8. Choose the VAT rate from the drop down box

9. Select the GL and Sub GL Category

10. Upload a photo of the expense receipt

11. Enter the payment information

12. Choose Yes or No next to billable. This will link the expense to the relevant customer automatically.

12a. If the expense is billable assign it to a customer, branch, contract and project. This will add the cost of the expense to the cost of any associated project and contract and allows the expense to be sent directly to the customer in Clarity365.

13. Click Save to confirm the expense for review.

Adding a mileage expense:

1. Go to Main Navigation > Expenses Management > Manage Expenses

2. Click the New Mileage Expense tab

3. Enter the date of the journey

4. Choose the type of vehicle you used

5. Enter the purpose of the journey in the Description

6. Enter the distance travelled, this can be done in 1 of 4 ways.

Entering the distance in Miles:

If you know the exact amount of miles you travelled, use this method.

1. Select Miles from the drop down list

2. Type in the amount of miles travelled

3. Your expense amount will be calculated

Entering the distance using Origin and Destination:

Let Google Maps work out the exact distance travelled from your start and end points.

1. Select Origin and Destination from the drop down list

2. Enter the place your journey started (Origin)

3. Enter the place your journey ended (Destination)

4. Click Get Distance

5. Your distance and expense value will be calculated

6. Tick Remember this Journey if it is a regular journey and enter a description for it to be remembered by

Enter your distance using your Mileage:

Work out your mileage claim from your mileage at the start and end of your journey.

1. Select Mileage from the drop down list

2. Enter your mileage start and end figures

3. Choose whether or not it was a return trip

4. Click Get Distance

5. Your distance and expense value will be calculated

Enter your mileage from a Saved Journey

Choose your journey from a list of those previously saved.

1. Select Saved Journeys from the drop down list

2. Select the journey

3. Your mileage and expense value will be calculated for you

7. Fill in the payment details

8. Choose if the expense is billable and select the customer, contract or project

9. Click Save to submit the expense for authorisation.

You can easily assign an expense to a customer or project for reporting and external approval.

Assigning an expense to a customer or project:

1. Go to Main Navigation > Expenses Management > Manage Expenses

2. Click Add General Expense or Add Mileage Expense

3. Enter the details of the expense

4. Click Yes next to Billable

5. Select a customer from the drop down list

6. Optional: select a branch from the drop down list

7. Optional: select a contract from the drop down list

8. Optional: select a project from the drop down list

9. Optional: select a phase & task from the drop down list

10. Click Save to submit the expense for review by your approver

You can edit or delete an expense that has not yet been authorised by a manager or customer.

Editing an expense:

1. Go to Main Navigation > Expenses Management > Manage Expenses

2. Scroll down to the Expenses Table

3. Find the expense you want to edit and click the View icon

4. Click Details to view aspects of the expense that have been inputted currently including the description, cost, and associated projects or contracts if applicable

5. Please edit the expense as needed

6. Click Save to register these changes and replace the original expense claim - if you exit the page before saving these changes, you will lose these changes and the original details will remain

Please note, you can only edit an expense that has not yet been paid by a Manager or Owner. Once an expense has been paid, no changes may be made to the expense.

Deleting an expense:

1. Go to Main Navigation > Expenses Management > Manage Expenses

2. Scroll down to the Expenses Table

3. Find the expense you want to delete and click the View icon

4.Click Delete on the pop up

5. Click Ok when asked if you are sure you want to delete the expense. This will delete the expense from Clarity365 and will no longer be visible to an Approver.

If you are a manager or owner you have the ability to simply and quickly authorise a users expense for payment.

Authorising expenses:

1. Go to Main Navigation > Expenses Management > Authorise Expenses

2. Click the Authorisation tab

3. Scroll down to the Expenses Table

4. Filter by date and click Search

4a. You can also use an advanced search that allows you to filter your results by specific users - click Advanced to bring up the user search, type your user and click Search

5. Make sure the expenses you would like to authorise are selected

6. Click Authorise to begin the authorisation process - this will send the expense to the Approve for Payment section

Approving expenses for payment:

7. You will be redirected to the Payment tab

8. Here you can select the expenses you wish to approve for payment. If you do not want to do this at this time simply click off the tab. You can come back to approve for payment anytime by clicking Authorise Expenses and then the Payment tab

9. Make sure the expenses you would like to authorise are ticked and click Approve for Payment - you can approve expenses individually by selecting them and approving them in the pop up, or you can tick the tick boxes next to all the expenses you wish to Approve for Payment

This will send the Expenses to the final stage in the authorisation process: confirming payment. Please see below for more information.

Setting and confirming payments:

10. You will be taken to the Financials tab.

11. Here you can set and confirm payments for specific users. Again, like the payments tab, you can come back to confirm payment anytime by selecting Authorise Expenses and then the Financials tab.

12. You can open the expense to view more detailed using the View icon

12a. Here you can change the payment date, method and add any comments

12b. Click Save to confirm the details of the payment

13. Click Confirm - only the expenses that are ticked will be sent through to the final stage of confirmation

14. Click Confirm again to submit the expense as paid

Please note, if any mistakes are made at this stage, you are able to reverse payment. For more information, please see Reversing an Expense below.

You have the option to query or decline a users expense if you do not think it is correct. The user will be notified of this and if you query, able to respond inside the system. To find out how to use Clarity365's querying system, please read the following guide.

Querying an expense:

1. Go to Main Navigation > Expense Management > Authorise Expenses

2. Click Authorisation tab

3. Scroll down to the Expenses Table

4. Click Search

5. Find the expense you would like to query using the Expand icons

6. Click View next to the relevant expense

7. You will see an overview of the expense. Click Query

8. Enter the reason you are querying - for example, if you are confirming that the amount owed is correct

9. Click Submit Query to send the message to the user, who will be able to see the query when they view the expense on their system, and will be able to reply

Please note, Users are able to reply to queries - this will show the next time you view the expense.

Declining an expense:

1. Go to Main Navigation > Expense Management > Authorise Expenses

2. Click the Authorisation tab

3. Scroll down to the Expenses Table

4. Click Search

5. Find the expense you would like to decline using the Expand icons

6. Click View next to the relevant expense

7. Click Decline

8. Enter a reason for declining the expense - for example, you can decline an expense if you believe the company does not need to reimburse the user

9. Click Submit Decline to set the expense as declined

Adding Cost Centres

Cost Centres in Clarity365 allow your company to track your finances more specifically and allows you to assign expenses to individual sections of your company. This is usually done for accounting purposes and to allow you to break down where your finances are being directed and how efficient your cost centres are performing.

To add a cost centre to Clarity365 please follow these instructions:

1. Navigate to Main Navigation > Administration > Cost Centres - you will be directed to a summary of your current cost centres where you can view the current employees assigned to an individual cost centre or delete any redundant cost centres.

2. Select the New Cost Centre sub tab

3. Enter a description of the cost centre - this will be used to name the Cost Centre so you may wish to use the name of the department you are wanting to track with a cost centre

4. Enter a cost centre code

5. Click Save - this will save the Cost Centre in Clarity365 and you will be prompted to add users to the cost centre

6. Using the tick boxes select the users you wish to include in the new cost centre - please note all available users will be automatically selected, please untick any users you do not wish to associate with the cost centre you are creating

7. Click Save to assign these users to the cost centre and you will be brought to the Cost Centre Summary where you will be able to view your new cost centre

Adding a user to an existing cost centre

 In Clarity365 you are able to add users to a cost centre that already exists. To do this please follow the instructions below:

1. Navigate to Main Navigation > Administration > Cost Centres

2. Select the edit icon (a clipboard and pen icon) - this will bring up a pop up that shows the details of the cost centre

3. You may edit the description and code for the cost centre - you will need to click Save for these changes to be recorded in Clarity365

4. Select the Assign Extra icon to start adding your users to the cost centre - a list of users will show you who is currently available to add to your cost centre

5. Use the + icons to add individual users or click the Add All Users icon to start adding users to your cost centre and the - icons or Remove All icon to delete the users from the cost centre - you must click the Assign icon in order for these changes to save in Clarity365

6. You may remove assigned employees by selecting the edit icon (clipboard and pen icon) next to the relevant cost centre and deselecting the users using the tick box - you must click Save in order for these changes to register in Clarity365

Using Cost Centres

Using Cost Centres is simple in Clarity365. Whenever a user inputs an expense, they must select the cost centre to apply the expense to. Users may only select a cost centre which they are currently associated with. If a user cannot see a cost centre it is because they have not been allocated to that cost centre. To add a user to a Cost Centre please see above.

Once an expense has been inputted with a cost centre, that expense will be added to the expenses of that cost centre. This can be viewed in Reporting, which can be found by navigating to Main Navigation > Expenses Management > Manage Expenses and selecting Reporting. The User may filter their search by Cost Centre, GL Code and date to view expenses associated to specific cost centres.

Thresholds allow you to set up approvers for expenses within certain limits. These Threshold Approvers will be managers in Clarity365 and will be given control over all expenses that fall within their limit. This supersedes any departmental approval and gives you more minute control over your company's expenses. To learn how to add a threshold please see below.

Adding a Threshold

To add a Threshold please follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to Main Navigation > Administration > Thresholds

2. You will see a summary of your current thresholds and the approver associated with a threshold - you can view, edit or delete a threshold from this summary

3. To add a new Threshold, please click the New Threshold sub tab

4. Input a description of the threshold - this will act as the name for the threshold in the summary

5. Input the values you wish the threshold to apply to - e.g. inputting 1 and 100 will tell Clarity365 that any expense inputted by a user associated with this threshold whose total including VAT falls within this limit will be sent to the threshold approver for authorisation

6. Select the threshold approver from the drop down menu - you will only be able to select managers that are not currently assigned to a threshold

7. Click Save to submit the new threshold to Clarity365 - you will be able to add new users to the threshold from the pop up

8. Use the + and - icons to add and delete users from the threshold as needed - you must click Save for these users to be added to the Threshold

Adding Users to an existing Threshold

To add users to a threshold that you have already set up, please follow the instructions below:

1. Navigate to Main Navigation > Administration > Thresholds

2. On the Summary page you will be able to view, edit or delete Thresholds - to add users please select the edit icon (a clipboard and pen icon)

3. On the pop up summary for the threshold, you can edit the name, values and approver for the threshold - you must click Save for these changes to be submitted

4. Select the Assign Extra icon to start adding your users to the threshold - please use the + and - icons to start adding and removing users from the Threshold

5. Click Assign to submit these changes to Clarity365

6. On the Pop up Summary for the Threshold click Save to submit these Users to the threshold

7. You can delete Users from the Threshold from the Pop up Summary by deselecting the user using the tickbox and clicking Save

If you are set as an approver for an expense threshold you will be notified of expenses in the threshold that require your further approval. You do this as you would for a normal expense.

Authorising an expense marked as needs further approval:

1. Go to Main Navigation > Expenses Management > Authorise Expenses

2. Click the Authorisation tab

3. Scroll down to the expenses table and search for the dates of the expenses you would like to authorise.

4. Expenses that need further approval will appear with an orange triangle icon next to them

5. Click Authorise to bulk approve all expenses selected

6. Click View next to an expense to approve it singularly

Querying or declining an expense marked as needs further approval:

1. Follow the steps above to find the relevant expense

2. Click the View icon next to the expense

3. Click either Query or Decline

4. Enter a reason for your query or decline

5. This will be sent to the user for them to respond to

6. If you have queried the expense you can then authorise or decline as normal.

If you have paid an expense in error you can easily reverse an expense inside Clarity365 so that the payment is cancelled and the expense is rendered declined. Please note that reversal is the final state that an expense can enter, so once an expense is reversed, the expense cannot be authorised and paid again. A user must resubmit the expense as a new expense and it must go through the authorisation process again. Therefore, you must be certain that you do not want to pay the expense before reversing an expense.

Reversing an Expense

1. Navigate to Main Navigation > Expenses Management > Authorise Expenses and select the Reverse Expense tab

2. Use the time filter to search for all expenses set with a paid status

3. Select the department and user with the expand icon

4. Use the tick boxes to select which expenses you wish to reverse. Alternatively you can tick the box in the top left corner of the expenses table to select every expense in the table

5. Once you have selected the expense or expenses that you wish to reverse please click the Reverse icon to confirm that you wish to reverse the payment of the expenses that you have chosen

Please note, reversing an expense is final so ensure that you have selected only the expenses you wish to reverse and effectively cancel before clicking the Reverse icon. If you reverse an expense by accident, please ask the user to resubmit their expense so that it may go back through the authorisation process.

The Reporting function in Clarity365 allows you to examine your general and mileage expenses by cost centre and generate a report using this data for analysis. To find out how to use the reporting function, please read the following guide. If you wish to find out more on cost centres and how they are used in Clarity365, please see Cost Centres above.

To use the Clarity365 reporting system please use the following guide:

1. Navigate to Main Navigation > Expenses Management > Manage Expenses and go to the Reporting module

2. Use the time filter to select a date range for the expenses you wish to view

3. Select the cost centre and GL codes you wish to filter the report with - you can leave these section with All in order to bring up all data if necessary

4. Search to bring up a list of expenses that match your search criteria

5. You can view individual expenses on the list

6. Click Export to generate an excel version of your report for further use and analysis

Clarity365 lets you export expense statements, either to keep for your records, use for reporting or import into another system.

Exporting an expense statement:

1. Go to Main Navigation > Expenses Management > Authorise Expenses

2. Click the Statements tab

3. Filter by the dates you would like to export and click Search

4. A list of expenses will appear, click Export

5. Your data will be exported and sent to your email address registered to your Clarity365 account

Please note, if you did not receive the email, please check your junk/spam folders. If you still have not received the email, please check you are using the email that was registered to your Clarity365 account. You can contact our Support Team to help you resolve this issue.