# Submit and approve an expense

Record a cost a distributor pays on the road, send it to the expense officer, approve or reject it, then register its payment from a bank or cash journal.

Fuel, a car wash, a parking ticket: the costs a distributor pays on the road are recorded as his expenses, sent for approval, then paid. These expenses have their own screen and approval in **Distributors**; an approved one becomes a vendor bill or an employee expense.

## Before you start {#before-you-start}

- The **Expense Officer** of [Distributors settings](distributors-settings) must be set, or **Send** stops with "No expense officer is configured in system settings."
- A distributor records and sends his own expenses; his **Expense Officer** or a **Distributor Manager** approves them.
- The lines take products marked **Expense Product**, such as Fuel in the demo.

## Record the expense {#record}

1. Open **Distributors/Expenses** and click **New**. The **Type** is **Distributor**; a manager can choose **Branch** for a cost of the branch itself.
2. Choose the **Distributor**, the **Supplier** and the **Date**, and attach the receipt in **Attachment**.
3. Tick **On Tax Declaration** when the cost comes with a tax invoice from a supplier that has a tax ID: the approval then creates a vendor bill.
4. In **Invoice Lines**, add the product, the **Qty** and the **Price**, here Fuel at 25.00.

![A fuel expense of the distributor, with the supplier and On Tax Declaration ticked.](https://jaah.app/web/image/9836-4a284719/distributors-expense-expense_new-en.png)

5. Click **Save manually**.

## Send it for approval {#send}

Open the **Actions** menu and choose **Send**. The expense becomes **Sent**, and a to-do **Expense Approval Required** is scheduled for the distributor's expense officer; for a branch expense, for the officer of the settings.

![The expense is sent and its officer has a to-do to review it.](https://jaah.app/web/image/9840-3b464ad1/distributors-expense-expense_sent-en.png)

## Approve or reject it {#approve}

**Approve**, in the **Actions** menu, marks the to-do done and turns the expense **Approved**.

- With **On Tax Declaration**, it creates a draft vendor bill to the supplier, opened by the **Bills** counter. It refuses when the supplier has no tax ID or when a product is not marked **On Tax Declaration**.
- Without it, it creates one employee expense for the employee of the distributor's user, or for yours when he has none, opened by the **Expenses** counter.

![Approved; the expense now has a vendor bill in draft.](https://jaah.app/web/image/9844-9fad2ad5/distributors-expense-expense_approved-en.png)

On a phone, the counters sit behind the lightning button of the form.

**Reject** asks for a **Reason**, chosen from **Distributors/Configuration/Expense Reject Reasons**. **Submit** marks the to-do done, turns the expense **Rejected** and shows its **Reject Reason**.

![Rejecting an expense asks for one of the reject reasons.](https://jaah.app/web/image/9852-5403385d/distributors-expense-reject_dialog-en.png)

![The rejected expense shows its reason.](https://jaah.app/web/image/9854-0c105e84/distributors-expense-expense_rejected-en.png)

## Register the payment {#payment}

1. Choose **Register Payment** in the **Actions** menu of an approved expense. Check the **Payment Date** and choose the **Payment Journal**, a bank or cash journal.

![The date and the bank or cash journal the expense is paid from.](https://jaah.app/web/image/9846-4f2fc3c7/distributors-expense-expense_payment-en.png)

On a phone, the dialog opens full screen with the same fields and buttons.

2. Click **Register Payment**. The expense becomes **Paid** and keeps the date and the journal.

![The expense is paid, with the date and journal of the payment.](https://jaah.app/web/image/9848-ad28b324/distributors-expense-expense_paid-en.png)

With a vendor bill, the bill is posted on the payment date and paid in full from that journal. The bill takes the taxes of the product, so its total can be higher than the **Amount** the dialog shows. With an employee expense, nothing is posted here: the reimbursement follows the Expenses app, see [Vendor bills and expenses](/docs/vendor-bills).

## FAQ {#faq}

### Send says no expense officer is configured. {#no-officer}

Set the **Expense Officer** in [Distributors settings](distributors-settings). The officer chosen on each distributor does not replace it.

### Approve asks for the supplier's tax ID. {#supplier-vat}

An expense **On Tax Declaration** needs a supplier with a tax ID and only products marked **On Tax Declaration**. Choose another supplier, or untick the option to create an employee expense instead.

### Approve says an employee is needed. {#employee}

Without **On Tax Declaration**, the approval creates an employee expense, which belongs to an employee. Link an employee to the distributor's user or to yours.

### Can an approved or rejected expense be changed? {#reset}

A **Distributor Manager** can choose **Reset to Draft**: the vendor bill or the employee expense is removed or cancelled, and the expense goes back to draft.

### Where do the expenses count at closing? {#closing}

The **Expenses** tab of the closing lists the expenses of the round with the draft, rejected and approved totals. **Approved Expenses** (approved and not yet paid) is taken off the cash the distributor is expected to hand in; an expense already **Paid** is no longer counted there.

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- Source: https://jaah.app/docs/distributors/submit-and-approve-an-expense
- Updated: 2026-10-23
- Version: Distributors 19.0.1.1.0
- Verified: 2026-10-23