Linking Expenses to Spend Requests

Emburse Professional's Spend Request feature enables end-users to budget for an expense before the spend occurs. Once the Spend Request is submitted, a Manager can see the expected costs for specific projects, trips, or people, providing opportunities for increased spend management. 

After the initial Spend Request has been approved by a Manager, expenses can then be uploaded and linked to the request. A Spend Request can be linked to an Expense Report in two ways.

This article shows you, a Emburse Professional User, how to link expenses to Spend Requests.

Creating a New Expense Report

One way to link expenses to an approved Spend Request is to create a New Expense Report.

1. Under the Spend Request action on the Emburse Professional homepage, click Approved.

   

2. The My Spend Requests page opens to the Approved tab. From here you can also view any Drafts, submitted Requests, or Archived requests.

   

3. Click the Notepad icon under the Actions column. If a Spend Request has already been linked to an Expense Report, the Notepad icon will appear gray and the report will show under the Expense Report column.

   

   Recurring Spend Requests can be linked to multiple expense reports, so the Notepad icon will remain black even after linking to a previous spend request. 

4. A New Expense Report is created and automatically linked to the selected Spend Request.

   

5. To add specific expenses from your Emburse Professional Wallet to the New Expense Report, check Import All Items from Date Range.

   

6. Click Next to generate the Expense Report.

   

7. The report then appears in your Expense Report Drafts.

   

Existing Expense Reports

Another way to link expenses to a Spend Request is via an existing Expense Report.

1. On the Expense Report Drafts page, click an unlinked Expense Report.

   

2. The Expense Report opens. Click the Pencil icon next to the Report Name.

   

3. Select a Spend Request from the drop-down menu.

   

4. Click Save and link the Spend Request to the Expense Report.

   

5. Once the Expense Report is linked to a Spend Request, and all expenses have been uploaded, click Submit for Approval.

   

Spend Tracker

Now that the spend request is linked to an expense report, you will see the Spend Tracker tool at the top of your expense report. 

The Spend Tracker visualizes your spend against the pre-approved amount from the spend request. Spend Tracker currently tracks any expense in the expense report which is one of the following expense types:

• Cash Expense (Miscellaneous)
• Lodging
• Meals
• Rentals
• Travel

This is used for Itemized, Recurring, and Lump Sum spend requests. When an Itemized spend request is linked to an expense report, the user will be able to expand the Spend Tracker to see a breakdown of spend by expense type.