Documentation
Expense Policies
Expense Policies let organizations apply targeted rules by employee and operating context, evaluate claims/vouchers and surface blocking or exception conditions before processing.
Purpose
Expense Policies define reusable controls that can be evaluated against Expense Claims and Direct Expense Vouchers. Policies can be scoped to organization and operating/employee context rather than applying one rigid rule to every transaction.
Open Expense Management -> Setup -> Expense Policies, choose Create or open an existing policy.
Save, Apply and Close
Save validates the policy and all active rule rows, saves the changes and returns to the list.
Actions -> Apply saves the policy/rules and keeps the record open.
Close leaves the workspace without performing a new save.
Tabs and responsibilities
Policy tabs
| Tab | What you maintain |
|---|---|
| General | Organization, Policy Code, Policy Name and Description. |
| Applicability | Employee grade, department, designation, branch/location, business unit, cost center, Expense Category, report type and payment responsibility filters. |
| Controls & Validity | Priority, Stop on First Failure, Active and effective dates. |
| Limits & Budget | Amount, frequency, approval-threshold and configured budget-related rules. |
| Receipts & Documentation | Receipt thresholds and justification/documentation requirements. |
| Timing & Compliance | Submission deadlines, duplicate checks, allowed payment methods, weekend/future-date controls and other compliance rules. |
General fields
General
| Field | Requirement | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Organization | Hard-save mandatory; locked after creation | Policy owner/context. |
| Policy Code | Hard-save mandatory; locked after creation | Stable policy identity. |
| Policy Name | Hard-save mandatory | Readable policy title. |
| Description | Optional | Explains the policy's intended business use. |
| Priority | Required whole number >= 0 | Controls evaluation precedence when multiple policies apply. |
| Stop on First Failure | Control | Stops evaluation when the configured behavior calls for an immediate failure outcome. |
| Active | Control | Only active/effective policies should govern new evaluations. |
| Effective From / To | Optional validity | Defines when the policy is in force. |
Applicability
Use applicability fields only when the rule truly belongs to that group. For example, a branch-specific travel policy can be scoped by Branch; a grade-based allowance can be scoped by Employee Grade; a Petty Cash-only control can be scoped by payment responsibility.
Leaving a dimension blank generally makes the policy broader for that dimension, subject to the current matching logic.
Rule rows
Rules are maintained in the standard editable grid. Each active rule requires a Rule Type, a positive unique Rule Sequence and a Policy Message. Threshold amounts/quantities cannot be negative.
Use the message to tell the user what is wrong and what action is expected; a vague message such as 'Policy failed' is not operationally useful.
Policy evaluation on transactions
My Expenses and Direct Expenses expose Evaluate Policy. The action first saves the current transaction data and then evaluates applicable policies.
Confirm/Submit also evaluates policy. A blocking policy result prevents the document from proceeding until the underlying condition is corrected or the configured process permits a justified exception.
Submission timing
Submission timing should be governed by policy rules rather than arbitrary hard-coded date windows. Configure a clear submission-deadline rule when the business requires claims within a defined number of days.
- Organization, Policy Code and Policy Name are required.
- Priority must be a whole number of zero or greater.
- Effective To cannot be earlier than Effective From.
- Every active rule requires Rule Type, positive unique Sequence and Policy Message.
- Threshold amount/quantity values cannot be negative.
Good practice
- Use blocking rules only for conditions that should genuinely stop processing.
- Use warning/exception-style controls where Finance should review but the business can proceed under an authorized exception.
- Write policy messages in user language and include the correction needed.
- Test each policy against representative employee, branch, category and payment scenarios before production rollout.
Related pages
Frequently asked questions
Does saving a policy immediately change historical expenses?
Policies govern evaluation according to active/effective and applicability rules. Do not rewrite historical policy meaning; use effective dating for changes.
Why is my claim blocked?
Open Policy Review and read the evaluated rule/message. Correct the transaction or use the organization's authorized exception process.
Where should receipt timing rules be configured?
Use the appropriate policy rule groups: Receipts & Documentation for receipt requirements and Timing & Compliance for submission timing.