Setting up Multi-Nature Controls

Background information

In addition to limits and restrictions on the number of expenses defined for a given nature (Settings > Expense policy > Natures and Rules), Cleemy Expenses also allows you to establish complex controls shared by multiple natures.

Depending on the desired settings, this article will demonstrate why it is sometimes necessary to establish both a single rule per nature and an advanced rule for multi-natures (see the ‘Strict restrictions: limiting the number of entries for each nature in the list’ section).

Setting up multi-nature controls

You can find this setting in the ‘Advanced rules’ tab on the profile administration interface (Settings > Expense policy).

Limits on the number of expenses

In this example, the ‘Lunch - Guests’ and ‘Lunch’ expenses can be claimed a maximum of once per day. This way, an employee cannot claim both lunch with guests and lunch on the same day.

These are the warning messages that appear when entering an expense:

Some expenses are incompatible with one another. For example:

• if you have a ‘Lunch - actual cost’ nature and another ‘Lunch - allowance’ nature, you do not want the user to be able to claim both an allowance and be reimbursed for actual costs. You also do not want them to be able to claim allowances twice in one day.
• if an employee uses their personal vehicle, you do not want them to be reimbursed for fuel in addition to their mileage expenses. However, they can take multiple trips during the day, so they can claim mileage expenses multiple times.

You can make these controls automatic using Cleemy Expenses. In the advanced rules, you can use the ‘Create a new constraint’ button to define a number of expenses, a period and a list of natures:

Flexible restrictions: making natures incompatible

In the example in the main screenshot above, in the same day, you can create:

• Unlimited mileage expenses, as long as you do not claim fuel
• As many diesel fill-ups as desired, as long as you do not claim mileage expenses or petrol. The same is true for petrol.
• However, if the user claimed mileage expenses, they will not be able to claim diesel or petrol.
• The same is true if they claim a diesel fill-up: they will no longer be able to claim petrol or mileage expenses during the period.

If a three-expense quantity limit was set:

• The user could have claimed two mileage expenses and then a diesel fill-up before being blocked (this would apply equally to the three natures)
• The user could have claimed more than three mileage expenses, as long as they did not claim diesel or petrol.

Strict restrictions: limiting the number of entries for each nature in the list

In some cases (see the example of actual lunch costs and allowances), natures must be made mutually exclusive and restrict the number of expenses on each of them.

To do this, you need to create both:

• an advanced rule applying to all natures as described in the previous paragraph;
• a single rule for each nature to limit expenses on each.

This way, for the hotel example, we would have created:

• A multi-nature restriction with a limit of 1 expense per day
• A limit of 1 expense per day on lunch allowances
• A limit of 1 expense per day on actual lunch costs

Common limits

Limits on several natures are managed by currency, and several limits can be applied to the same list of natures, in the same way as ‘rules by nature’.

In practice, Cleemy Expenses will add up expenses across all natures listed that were submitted during the period and compare them with the warning or blocking threshold defined for the advanced rule.

Like rules by nature, guest portions and quantities will be taken into consideration and will adjust the warning or block trigger threshold upwards.

For more information about the different rules and controls you can set up, visit the Managing Your Expense Management Policy page.