Expensify Review: Features, Pricing & Alternatives 2023

Policy Screen

Before you begin utilizing the app, it’s best to set up your expense policies. Expensify lets you set standard rates and quantities.

Setting up Expense Policies

The Expense Policies screen will instruct Expensify on how to treat your transactions. You can set cash expenses as reimbursable or nonreimbursable by default. You can enable tax tracking for mileage, specify the unit of measure, and set mileage rates. Expensify has its default rate, but you can add more rates as you see fit. Aside from mileage, you can also set your billable hourly rate.

Setting up Per Diem Policies

If your company allows per diem for employees, Expensify can automate it based on your per diem rates. You can import your rates from a spreadsheet, and Expensify will apply them to your future transactions. It also lets you set the per diem on a default category for easier pooling of per diem expenses.

If you click Expenses in the left menu bar, it’ll bring you to the Expense tab. This will show you all expenses encoded in the system. Each expense is marked depending on its status:

• Unreported (white): Expense hasn’t yet been added to any report
• Open (light blue): Expense has been recorded and added to a report
• Processing (dark blue): Report has been submitted but not yet approved
• Approved (light green): Report has been approved but not yet reimbursed
• Closed (gray): Report has been approved but not reimbursed
• Reimbursed (dark green): Expenses in an approved report has been reimbursed

Expense Overview

There are two ways to encode an expense: manually or via SmartScan. If you have to enter several expenses, you can add multiple entries in a single window, as shown in the image below.

Encoding Multiple Expenses

When encoding expenses manually, you can enter the merchant, applicable tax, amount paid, expense category, attendees, and a brief description of the expense. You can also add a PDF copy of the receipt or its image.

Entering Expenses Manually

Once everything is laid out, you can add expenses to a new or existing employee’s expense report. Just click the drop-down menu beside the Report tab, and it’ll show all your reports. In case there are no existing reports, Expensify can auto-generate a report for you. Once you click Save, the expense’s status will be Open.

Expensify can record mileage expenses in two ways: entering miles manually or via map. You can use your odometer to track your miles and input them into Expensify. The app will compute your mileage cost automatically based on the mileage policy and applicable taxes. Alternatively, creating mileage expenses via map allows you to enter your starting point and destination, and Expensify will compute the number of miles automatically.

Entering Mileage Expenses

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Entering Mileage Expense Using the Map

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Expenses incurred based on billable hours are also accepted by the system. You can simply add the number of hours billed, and Expensify will do the rest.

Entering Expenses Based on Billable Hours

If you want to see a brief snapshot of your expenses, the Expense screen provides essential analytic tools like charts and graphs to visualize your transactions. You can also filter specific expenses based on status to assess your efficiency in approving expenses.

Visualization of Expense Categories

All expenses are pooled into a report that is then submitted to the approver. If you click Reports, it’ll show you all reports. The approver will review the report and approve or reject some of the items enumerated. Only approved items will move forward in the process.

Reports Overview

If the approver rejects a report, it goes back to the submitter and is marked as “Retracted.” All expenses in a rejected report will become Open again. However, after making the necessary changes, the submitter can resubmit it for approval.

Rejecting a Report

Modes of Reimbursement

After approval, expenses are now ready for reimbursements. The system lets you reimburse via direct deposit or manual reimbursement. For direct deposit, you have to set up your bank account within Expensify, and it’ll reimburse via an automated clearing house (ACH). Manual reimbursements let you transfer cash physically while Expensify only marks the report as Reimbursed.

Approved and Reimbursed Report