Background information
The expense natures are the core of Cleemy Expenses. They correspond to the different types of expenses that your co-workers might have to submit.
The setup and the creation of an expense nature can be performed by observing the four following steps:
- Creating the nature
- Setting up the expense account
- Setting up VAT recovery policies
- Setting up the applicable expense policy (accessibility, limits) using Cleemy Expenses application profiles
1. Creating the nature
You will access the settings interface for the expense nature via Settings > Natures.
There are two ways of creating a nature:
- duplicating a preexisting nature
- adding a nature by clicking on the Add nature button on the top right hand side of the page
Once the nature has been created, you will be able to set it up on the right hand side panel of the screen. To find out more about Meals natures and Mileage expenses, please visit our dedicated articles.
You also specify if receipts, comments or providers are compulsory, optional or disabled.
2. Setting up expense accounts
For each chart of accounts configured in Cleemy Expenses, the nature will have to be assigned to a matching expense account.
To complete this step, please go to Settings > Charts of account and click the "Expense accounts" tab.
You will then be able to:
- Link the nature to a preexisting expense account
- Create an expense account and link the new nature to it
- If the expenses for this new nature should not be exported in your accounting books, please link the nature to the "Not exported" account.
To associate the nature to an account, please click on the expense account, then select the nature on the right hand side of the screen.
3. Setting up VAT recovery policies
The VAT recovery can be configured in the "VAT recovery" tab.
From this interface, you can tick in the various VAT recovery rates that may apply to each nature..
4. Setting up expense policy, visibility and thresholds
As a last step, you will need to determine the group of employees, which are identified by their profiles, who are allowed to use this nature.
Via Settings > Expense policy, can tick in the box to activate the nature in this profile. This interface also allows you to set up spending limits and thresholds that may apply to this nature. For additional information on expense profile management, please here.
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Creating, duplicating, deleting and re-organizing expense natures
Creating and duplicating
By clicking the “Add nature” button in the top right hand side of your screen, you can create and set up a new nature.
To ease the creation process, we recommend you to duplicate a preexisting nature with close settings to the one you wish to create. You can do so by clicking the duplication folder icon displayed next to the nature title.
The new nature will not automatically be linked to a profile. You will need to add it to an expense profile so as to make it accessible to co-workers.
Nature hierarchy
Whenever a user creates a new expense, Cleemy Expenses will display the drop-down list of all expense nature accessible to this co-worker (i.e. those included in the profile) in a menu. These natures are displayed in the order of appearance of the nature setup interface.
To change a nature's order of appearance, just click on the symbol to the left of the nature title, then drag and drop it to the desired position.
Deleting and deactivating
It is possible to delete an expense nature by clicking the recycling bin icon next to its title.
Natures can be deleted only if that they have not been used yet, so as to not erase their history of declaration.
Nevertheless, you can deactivate a nature by unticking the “Enable” box you will fins in the nature settings panel. A deactivated expense will not be offered to users anymore, but existing expense reports will not affected.
Mass update of expense nature settings
At the top of the interface, two tabs will help you to simultaneously modify the specifications of several natures: General settings and Analytical and custom fields.
To change the settings of a field (i.e.: dematerialised receipt) for several natures at the same time, you need to:
- Tick in the natures you wish to modify (the box at the very top of the list allows you to all check them at once)
- In the headers, open the drop-down menu of the field you want to edit.
- Select the new setting that must apply to all checked natures.
Display analytical fields or customize an expense nature
With the "Analytical and custom fields" menu, which you will find at the very top the Natures module, you can identify the natures for which analytical and custom fields should be activated.
This interface allows you to perform mass changes similar to those offered by the "General settings" menu.