Configuring expenses

With the expense process, employees record business expenses, either directly in invoiceR or with the mobile app. In addition to the photo or scan of the receipt, an expense form asks for further details about the expense. This form can be customized extensively and designed differently per role.

Structure

Table	Content
conf.ExpenseForms	the forms, for example “Standard” and “Management”. Each form belongs to a role.
conf.ExpenseCategories	the categories of an expense, for example lunch, car journey, train journey
conf.ExpenseFields	the form fields, for example cost center or number of people
conf.ExpenseFormFields	links forms, categories and fields

This is how recording works:

1. The user gets the form they have access to through their roles.
2. conf.ExpenseFormFields determines which categories the form offers.
3. The user chooses a category.
4. invoiceR shows the fields stored for this category.

Expense options on the organization unit

You maintain the categories of an organization unit in the user interface:

1. Open Administration > Organization Units.
2. Click the purple credit card icon next to the organization unit (Spesen-Optionen bearbeiten, edit expense options). If there are no expense options yet, right-click and create them under Expense options.

For each category you define, among other things, the title, AI description, default account, cost center and project, and the related fields.

Expense options window of an organization unit with the list of categories and the edit area of a category

Expense forms

There can be one or more forms, for example a standard form and one for external staff. Which role may use a form is stored in conf.ExpenseForms.VisibleFilterRoleId.

Further columns in conf.ExpenseForms:

Column	Meaning
Name, Description	name of the form
BackendUrl	address to which the mobile app sends the recorded data. Each form can have its own recipient, for example a gateway in the DMZ.
CustomerToken	GUID the recipient uses to recognize which customer the data belongs to
IrVersion	version of the data format (currently 0.1.0)

Note

The data model allows several forms per user. However, the user interface currently offers only one form per user.

Form fields

The field type is stored in conf.ExpenseFields.Type. Depending on the type, different parameters can be set as JSON in conf.ExpenseFields.Options.

Type	Field	Options
1 Input	single-line text, for example “Lunch with customer”	minLength, maxLength, default
2 Date	date, for example “Valid from”	allowPast, allowToday, allowFuture (each true/false)
3 Radio	choice from fixed values, for example a cost center	the choices as key and text
4 Number	number, for example number of people	minValue, maxValue, default
5 Km	kilometres, with help for calculating the distance	minValue, maxValue, default
6 Text	multi-line text, for example a note	minLength, maxLength
7 Hidden	hidden field that is not displayed	depending on use

Examples for Options:

{ "minLength": 5, "maxLength": 30, "default": "Meal" }

{ "allowPast": true, "allowToday": true, "allowFuture": false }

{ "1000": "Cash", "1010": "Bank", "1020": "Third-party account" }

{ "minValue": 0, "maxValue": 500, "default": 20 }

Loading choices dynamically

Sometimes the choices should not be fixed in the form, for example because each user sees different cost centers. Instead of creating a separate form for each user, fill in conf.ExpenseFields.OptionsSource. invoiceR then loads further values in addition to Options.

OptionsSource has the form method://parameter. Currently there is the SQL method: the part after :// is a query on the invoiceR database. The first column becomes the key, the second the displayed text.

SQL://SELECT [Id], [EmailAddress] FROM [dbo].[AbpUsers] WHERE Id = @UserId

invoiceR replaces these placeholders before running the query:

Placeholder	Value
@UserId	Id of the current user
@UserName	user name of the current user
@ExpenseCategoryAdditionalStr1 to @ExpenseCategoryAdditionalStr5	additional fields 1 to 5 of the selected category