Employee Reimbursements

#Understanding Employee Reimbursements

Reimbursement is when an employee pays for a business expense out-of-pocket and is paid back by the company. This is different from corporate card spending (which is billed directly to company).

Common reimbursable expenses:

• Travel (airfare, hotel, car rental, meals)
• Office supplies purchased from personal funds
• Client entertainment
• Professional development
• Healthcare expenses (if company covers)

#Setting Up Employees for Reimbursement

#Adding Employees

Employees are set up as users in Light:

1. Navigate to Users ()

2. Click + Create user

3. Enter:

   • Employee Name
   • Email: Employee email address
   • Role: Assign the reimbursement role for the employee to be able to file reimbursements

4. Click Create

#Employee Banking Information

Add banking details for reimbursement payments:

1. Open the employee's profile

2. Navigate to Banking Details

3. Enter:

   • Bank Name and Country
   • Account Number
   • Routing Number (for US employees)
   • Or IBAN (for international employees)

4. Optionally, add secondary account

5. Click Save

Light uses this to automatically pay reimbursements.

#Employee Reimbursement Settings

Configure reimbursement preferences:

1. Open the employee's profile

2. Navigate to Reimbursement Settings

3. Set:

   • Default Cost Center: Default GL account for expenses

4. Click Save

#Submitting Expenses for Reimbursement

Employees submit expenses, which creates bills/reimbursements in the AP module. See Expense Management articles (8.x) for detailed submission instructions.

Once submitted, expenses appear as:

1. In Pending Reimbursements queue
2. Require manager approval (via Expense Approval Workflows)
3. After approval, become AP reimbursement bills
4. Finance processes reimbursement payments

#Expense Aggregation

#Grouping Individual Expenses

Multiple expenses submitted by one employee can be:

1. Reviewed individually by manager
2. Approved individually or as group
3. Reimbursed individually or batched

When processing reimbursements:

1. Navigate to Reimbursements
2. View approved expenses by employee
3. Click Create Reimbursement Batch (groups expenses with same employee)
4. Light shows:
   • Employee name
   • Total approved amount
   • Individual expenses included
   • Any duplicates or suspicious items flagged

#Reimbursement Approval

#Manager Review

Managers review submitted expenses:

1. Navigate to My Approvals

2. View pending expense reimbursements

3. Click on employee's reimbursement request

4. Review each expense:

   • Receipt image (uploaded by employee)
   • Description and amount
   • Date and category
   • GL account assignment

5. Click Approve or Request Changes

If requesting changes, employee gets notification and can adjust.

#Finance Review (Optional)

Before processing payment, Finance can do final review:

1. Navigate to Reimbursements > Approved

2. Select reimbursements ready to process

3. Click Review

4. Check:

   • All receipts present
   • Amounts reasonable
   • GL accounts appropriate
   • No policy violations

5. Click Approve for Payment or Return for Correction

#Processing Reimbursements

#Creating Reimbursement Bills

Once approved, create bills for accounting:

1. Navigate to Reimbursements > Approved

2. Select reimbursements to process

3. Click Create Reimbursement Bills

4. Light creates reimbursement records for each employee:

   • Employee: Name from user profile
   • Amount: Total approved expenses
   • Line items: Expense categories from submitted receipts
   • GL accounts: Posted to appropriate accounts

5. Click Create

#Automatic Payment

With configured automation, Light can:

1. Automatically create reimbursement bills
2. Post them to GL
3. Create payment batch
4. Execute payment to employee bank account

Enable in Settings > Automation > Auto-Process Reimbursements

#Manual Payment Processing

For more control:

1. Review and confirm reimbursement bills
2. Navigate to Payments
3. Select reimbursement bills to pay
4. Click Create Payment
5. Enter payment date
6. Click Schedule Payment or Execute Payment

#Reimbursement Reconciliation

#Tracking Reimbursement Status

1. Navigate to Reimbursements

2. View status of all reimbursements:

   • Submitted: Employee submitted, awaiting approval
   • Approved: Manager approved, waiting for Finance
   • Processing: Finance approved, bill created
   • Paid: Payment executed to employee

3. Click on a reimbursement to see full details

#Employee Reimbursement Portal

Employees can check reimbursement status:

1. Access employee portal or Light app

2. Click Reimbursements

3. View all submitted reimbursements:

   • Status (submitted, approved, paid, denied)
   • Amount approved
   • Date approved/paid
   • Payment reference (if paid)

4. Download receipt images or expense receipts

#Expense Policies and Limits

Enforce compliance through policies:

1. Navigate to Settings > Reimbursement Policies

2. Create policies defining:

   • Eligible expenses: What can be reimbursed
   • Limits: Maximum per category (e.g., meal limit of $75)
   • Documentation: Receipt requirements
   • Pre-approval: When approval needed before spending

3. Assign policies to employees or departments

4. Light validates submissions against policies

5. Flags policy violations for manager review

#Duplicate Detection

Light detects potential duplicate reimbursements:

1. When reviewing expenses, Light checks for:

   • Duplicate expense descriptions and amounts
   • Same receipt submitted multiple times
   • Same expense submitted by multiple employees

2. Duplicates are flagged with warning

3. Manager confirms legitimacy or rejects duplicate

#Reimbursement Reports

#Reimbursement Analytics

1. Navigate to Reports > Reimbursement Summary

2. View:

   • Total reimbursements by period
   • By employee (who submits most)
   • By category (common expenses)
   • Average reimbursement size
   • Approval time (days to process)

3. Filter by employee, department, date range

4. Export for analysis

#Policy Compliance

Monitor policy compliance:

1. Navigate to Reports > Policy Compliance

2. View violations detected:

   • Exceeded limits
   • Ineligible expenses
   • Missing documentation

3. See which employees/departments need training

4. Track corrective actions

#Related Articles

• Entering and ingesting bills
• Submitting expenses via Slack
• Expense approval workflows