This article is for: employees, approvers, finance teams, admins and HR teams.
Ask One, our AI assistant, in plain words and it does the Expenses work for you: receipts become expenses, approval queues clear, spend questions get answered. One works within your permissions: it only sees and does what you could yourself.
What One can do for you
Overview
Your company needs the Expenses module, and One must be available to you. Open One and say what you need.
| You are… | One can… | Try asking |
|---|---|---|
| Employee | Create expenses from receipts, match them to card payments, log mileage, edit drafts and fix what blocks sending (budget, project, cost centre, missing field), take back a pending expense, group, delete or comment, say who approves next, request a virtual or single-use card, freeze or unfreeze it (blocks new payments, reversible), show card limits | "Here are my receipts from the Leeds trip, create them" · "Who has to approve my taxi expense next?" |
| Approver | List your queue, approve or reject in bulk with your rules, request changes, show who's next, answer team spend questions, send a scheduled summary or approve on a schedule (routine) | "Approve the in-policy ones under £20" · "How much did my team spend on travel last quarter?" · "Every Monday, send me my team's pending expenses" |
| Finance team | Analyse spend in tables, charts and dashboards, create Excel, PDF, PowerPoint or Word files, set as paid or undo it, check budgets and alerts | "Spend by cost centre, last 6 months" · "Export my team's Q3 expenses to Excel" · "Which budgets are over?" |
| Admin | Set up the approval flow and Expense checks by chat, read rates and categories, issue cards, freeze any card, open the expenses card account, create expenses for someone else | "Auto-approve expenses under £20" · "What's the official per diem for Germany?" · "Issue a virtual card with a £500 monthly limit for our new sales rep" |
| HR team | Add approved expenses to the current or next payslip, or take them out (depends on your permissions and plan) | "Add Ana's approved expenses to the next payslip" · "Take the hotel expense out of Ana's payslip" |
Reading and acting
- Questions only cover expenses you're allowed to see. If One finds nothing, it may be because you don't have access.
- Actions run as you: if Factorial wouldn't let you, One can't either. Most actions happen as soon as you ask; deleting always asks you to confirm.
Where One works
| Where | What's different |
|---|---|
| Web | Everything, including dashboards and settings setup. |
| Mobile app | Text only: no dashboards, charts or settings setup. Confirmation windows still show. |
| Other assistants connected to One | Text only, no settings setup; confirm actions by typing yes. |
| Routines (scheduled) | Run on a schedule without you there, as you, and email you the result. They can also act, for example approve expenses that match your instructions. |
Tips and Best Practices
- Say it in one message when you're sure, for example "create these and send them for approval". Otherwise One creates drafts and asks first.
- Check before bulk actions. Approving or setting as paid happens straight away, so ask One to list the expenses first.
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Full steps by role:
- Employees: How do I submit expenses by sending receipts to One? · How do I claim mileage? · How do I edit or take back an expense? · How do I group expenses from one trip? · How do I delete an expense? · How do I leave a comment on an expense? · Expense statuses and alerts · Expenses FAQ for employees · How do I create or request a virtual, physical or single-use card? · How do I pay with my Factorial card, add the receipt and deactivate it if it's lost?
- Approvers: How do I approve expenses with One? · How do I find the expenses I need to approve? · Why is an expense stuck in Pending or with the wrong approver? · How do I set up expense notifications and alerts?
- Finance teams: How do I analyse expenses with One? · How do I see what my company spends? · How do I mark an expense as paid, or undo it? · How do I pay back expenses with a SEPA file?
- Admins: How do I set up the approval flow? · How do I check expenses against my expense policy? · How does Factorial catch duplicates and other mistakes automatically? · How do I write an expense policy that One can check? · How do I add an expense for someone else?
- HR teams: How do I pay back expenses through payroll? · How do I set up how expenses appear on the payslip? · What happens to expenses when an employee leaves?
Troubleshooting and FAQ
Troubleshooting
One says it can't do something I asked.
You don't have the permission for it in Factorial, or the expense's status doesn't allow it (for example it's already approved). One does only what you could do yourself.
One says it found no expenses.
One only reads the expenses you're allowed to see. Check the period and filters in your question, or ask an admin about your access.
I can't see a dashboard or set up the approval flow on my phone.
Dashboards and settings setup work on the web only. On the mobile app, One answers in text.
FAQ
1. Does One ask before it acts?
For deleting, yes, always. When it creates expenses from receipts, it creates drafts and asks before sending, unless you asked to send them in the same message. Approving, rejecting and setting as paid happen as soon as you ask.
2. Can I set up the approval flow with One?
Yes, admins can set up the approval flow or Expense checks by chatting with One on the web.
3. Where can I use One?
On the Factorial web, in the mobile app and in other assistants connected to One.
4. Can One see my colleagues' expenses?
Only if you could see them in Factorial, for example because you approve them or have permission to view them.
5. What is a routine?
A task One runs on a schedule, for example "Every Monday, send me my team's pending expenses". It runs as you and emails you the result. A routine can also approve expenses on a schedule, for example "Every Friday, approve my team's in-policy expenses under £50", but only the ones you could approve yourself. Check the instructions One shows you before you save it, because it runs without you watching. To approve now instead, see How do I approve expenses with One?