Success in expense management decides the financial success of a firm. For a small business, large scale business and other operations, the expenses for the business will be managed in different ways. Sometimes, the employees will have to purchase 

components or equipment for the company without getting the advance payment. 

Having a specific strategy for managing your spending will save you time and work in the long run. You don’t even need to download separate software to manage all of your company’s expenses because the Odoo Expenses module combines all of the expense management functions into a single platform.

The Odoo Expenses module is ideal for tracking trip expenses, office supply costs, and purchases, among other things. This module makes it simple to create cost reports, manage reports, analyze expenses, and document them. 

In this blog we are going to discuss the operations and uses of the Expense Management Module in Odoo.

Basically there are four different access rights for the use of the Expenses module, which are mainly related to the approval process of submitted expenses. The users without a specific access right see the module in the dashboard and have the possibility to create expense objects and submit them to their manager as a report. Two additional access rights define whether a user as a manager can only share the expense reports of his employees or of all employees. The user of the “Administrator” rights group has additional access to the reporting system as well as to the configuration of the module.

To get started with expense management, click the ‘Expenses’ module icon. You will be given the information of your expenses to report as soon as you join the module. 

Expense Dashboard helps employees to submit all expense details along with soft copies of the receipts for approval. The Odoo module makes all the operations including Create, Validate, Approve and Refuse simpler.

On the Expense module dashboard you can find Expense Date, Accounting Date,the description of the expense, the employee’s name, Paid by, Analytical Account, Taxes, Total amount, and the status of the expenses are all listed in an organized way.

Configuration: Go to the Configuration Tab > Select setting from drop down menu > Activate Incoming Emails and Reimburse in Payslip via tick mark on checkbox. And save the changes.

My Entire Expenses : The view of all expenses made in this module is shown in the screenshot below. From this window, the manager will be able to see all requests for expense approval. This covers the list of expenses that have been submitted for approval as well as reports that have been authorized. 

Create an Expense : Generating Expenses is important to run a business. With Odoo a user can manage different types of expenses. You can utilize the ‘Create’ option on the ‘All My Expenses’ dashboard to create a new expenditure report.

Expenses > My Expenses > All my expenses > click on the create button.

From the above image you can see all the expenses listed here. For a new one click on the “Create button”.

Employee has to fill the columns. While some of the columns are optional some are mandatory. Fill in the details with a description of the expense, the Product, Unit Price, Quantity, Taxes, Bill Reference, Date, Employee name, Analytic Account, Company, and Paid by Whom. 

Description : This field can be used to provide the details including reference to bill/ticket.

Employee Name : The purchased product name can be given to specify the expense type.

Paid By : The person who made the payment.

Expense Date : The date on which the expense was made.

Unit Price : The price of the product per unit. If the expense is travel expense, the unit price will be based on the distance travelled.

Accounting Date : The date on which the expense report is accounted for.

Currency : The currency used for transactions.

Taxes : Taxes charged on expenses.

After filling all the needed information click on the save button to create.

After saving the form you will be on the new window. In the new Window you will be able to attach bills and other documents.

After attaching the required receipt, now you can submit this by clicking on the Submit To Manager tab.

After submitting the Expense Report the employee will be able to review the status of the report.

Expenses View : Here you can view all your expenses which are yet to be reported. The Expenses View enables the user to take a look at all expenses. The manager can view all requests for expense approvals. The date of submission of the request, accounting date, the product purchases, the details of the employee and the person who made the payment will be listed in an easy to understand pattern. This feature will help an employee to submit the report without fail.

A user will be able to create new expenses to report or make changes in the already created reports from here.

My Reports : You can find this feature under the My expenses Tab. This can be used by an employee to view all expense reports prepared by him. The status of the report prepared by the employee can also be viewed from here.

An employee can view here, name, accounting date, expenses report, company name, next activity, total amount, status and payment status. To create a new report click on the “Create button”.

Mention the type of expense, employee name, manager, paid by, and company name when creating the expense report.

You can add the spending data you’ve made to submit to the manager under the ‘Expense’ page. To do so, select the ‘Add a line’ option and a selection of expenses to report will appear. 

Using ‘Create Report,’ select the appropriate expense or create a new expense. You can submit the expense report to the manager for approval after adding the expense line.

When you click the ‘Submit To Manager’ option, the manager will be able to accept, deny, or rest the expense report draft. For reference you can see the screenshot below.

Reports on Expenses : We have various choices under Expense Reports, such as Reports to Approve, Reports to Post, Reports to Pay, and All Reports.

Approved Reports : This option will show you a list of all expense reports that have yet to be approved. This list contains the reports that employees have submitted for the management’s approval, and the manager can choose the reports, review them, and take appropriate action. In the Odoo Expenses module, these actions can be readily managed with just a few clicks. 

As a team manager you can easily find the expense reports of your team members. You need to be set as manager in the detail form of those employees.

Reports to Post : The expense management process does not stop after the approval stage. After the approval stage, an expense report has to be posted. This means, the Expenses Report has to be entered in a journal to document the report. 

Reports to Pay : This feature of the Expense Reports to Pay feature helps to review the payment status. The reports paid, the reports submitted, reports in draft and other details can be viewed. Using this feature, a user can prepare an Expense Report summary. 

We can create a report to pay via Create Button, so click on the create button.

You can fill in the details and save the report.

All report : You can see all of the reports in the Expenses module in this area. This field allows you to easily manage and create reports. The dashboard displays the status of reports, allowing you to take action on them as needed. 

Expenses Product : Through this menu, you may customize the expense products. This menu’s dashboard will include all-expense goods that will be used to generate reports in the Odoo Expenses module. For Expense products go to the Expense module > Configuration > and then click on the Expense Product.

If you want to add a new expense product to the list, click on the ‘Create’ button  and fill out the form. Now click on the create button and a new window will appear. For reference you can see the screenshot below.

Add all relevant details and save. Then you will get a new expense product.

Expenses Analysis : Expense analysis features help to review the pattern of Expense. It will also help to review the expenses along with receipts.

The Odoo Expenses Module has given you the ability to make reports and analyses of the operations carried out across several modules. Almost all Odoo modules provide a reporting capability that allows you to build useful records and summaries of company activity.

The ‘Reporting’ option in the Expenses module allows you to analyze your daily, weekly, and monthly costs. 

The reports are provided in graphical, Pivot, List, and Kanban formats, and we may switch between Bar Chart, Line Chart, and Pie Chart in the graphical view. Change the metrics to suit your needs and analysis. 

You can find this analysis from Expenses > Reporting > Expenses Analysis

This is how The Expense module works. I hope this information will help you. Like this you can read our other blogs also from here Planet-Odoo