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Understanding expense types

Managing business expenses can be time-consuming, confusing and prone to errors—but not anymore. Zudello's expense management system streamlines your expenses process with purpose-built expense types that accommodate different business scenarios, making expense reporting more accurate and easier for everyone.

Purpose built expense types​

Zudello's customisable expense types empower your team to:

  • Process expenses more efficiently
  • Ensure correct accounting treatment and tax handling for each expense category
  • Reduce administrative burden on both finance teams and employees
  • Track spending patterns more effectively with properly categorised expenses
  • Speed up approvals and reimbursements
  • Maintain better compliance with tax regulations and company policies

Expense types in Zudello​

Zudello supports the following four types of expense records to handle the variety of costs your business incurs:

Expense with receipt​

This standard expense type is used for business expenses that require a receipt or other supporting documentation. Common examples are:

  • Office supplies
  • Client meals and entertainment
  • Travel expenses
  • Professional development costs
  • Subscriptions and memberships

You can upload receipts and other documentation through multiple channels:

  • Capture and upload via the mobile app
  • Email to your team's dedicated expenses inbox
  • Manually upload via the Zudello web application

Zudello automatically extracts key information from receipts, making coding faster and more accurate. For more information on uploading receipts or supporting documentation, see Uploading expenses.

Expense without receipt​

The expense without receipt type is for minor expenses where documentation isn't available, or for expenses that don't typically generate receipts, you can create an expense without an attachment:

  • Public transport fares
  • Parking meter charges
  • Small cash purchases under your company's receipt threshold
  • Tips and gratuities

While these expenses don't require an attachment, you may need to provide additional justification depending on your company's expense policy.

Mileage​

The mileage expense type is specifically designed for tracking vehicle travel expenses, such as:

  • Business trips using personal vehicles
  • Travel between office locations
  • Client or site visits
  • Conference or event travel

When creating a mileage expense, you'll record:

  • Travel date
  • Starting point and destination
  • Purpose of the trip

Zudello will then use Google maps to display the route and determine the distance travelled. The reimbursement amount will be automatically calculated based on your organisation's configured mileage rates.

Claiming different expense types​

Different expense types follow slightly different claiming processes and have specific considerations:

Expense restrictions​

When creating claims, be aware that:

  • Mileage and allowance expenses cannot be included in corporate card reconciliation claims
  • Expenses with blocking errors cannot be added to any claim
  • Personal and corporate card expenses cannot be mixed in the same claim
  • Different expense types may have different approval workflows based on your organisation's settings

Personal vs corporate card expenses​

Zudello distinguishes between expenses by payment method:

Personal Spend​

Personal spend is an expense paid by an employee using their own funds. Personal spend expenses typically:

  • Require reimbursement to the employee
  • Require bank account information to be verified before submission
  • Can include all four expense types (expense with receipt, expense without receipt, mileage, allowance)

Corporate Card Spend​

Corporate card spend, also known as card spend, is an expense paid using a company credit card. Card spend expenses are typically:

  • Used for reconciliation rather than reimbursement
  • Limited to expense with receipt and expense without receipt types
  • Cannot be used for mileage expenses

FBT and tax considerations​

For certain expenses, such as entertainment and travel, additional information is required to be collected before submitting a claim. This ensures that all information required by regulation is collected before claims are submitted for approval.

Entertainment expenses must include:

  • Internal attendees (the employees who attended)
  • External guests if applicable
  • Whether the event was on-site or off-site (relevant for FBT rules)
  • Business purpose justification

FBT-applicable expenses can also be flagged to ensure proper tax handling.

For more information on working with expenses, see these related articles: