This article is for: employees, approvers and finance teams.
When one trip or event costs you several things (a train, a hotel, meals, mileage, a per diem), an expense group keeps them together as one report. Your approver reviews the whole trip at once, and finance sees what it cost in total.
Create a group and send it for approval
Overview
Use a group for anything with several costs that belong together: a business trip, a conference, a client visit. A group can hold regular expenses, mileage and per diems.
How to use
Create the group
- On the mobile app: go to Expenses, tap Add, then Group. Enter a Group title and tap Create new group.
- On the web: go to My spending > My expenses, click New expense and choose Add group (or Add group in the Groups tab). Enter a Group title, for example "Client visits Leeds & Birmingham, October", and click Create.
Add expenses
- New expenses: open the group, click New expense and choose Regular expense, Mileage or Per diem. In the app, tap New expense.
- Expenses you already created: in My spending > My expenses, select one or more drafts, click Add to group in the bottom bar, choose the group (or Create new group) and click Add expenses. In the app, open the expense and tap Add to a group.
- To take one out: open its menu and click Remove from group.
Send it
- Open the group and check that every expense is complete.
- Click Send for approval. You'll see "Group is ready to be reviewed".
Review a group (approvers and finance)
How to use
- Go to Spending, open the Groups tab and open the group.
- Filter by Needs review, Ready to approve, Approved or Paid. Click Approve group to approve the expenses waiting for you at your step, or Reject all.
To reset its approval flow, export it to PDF or remove it from payroll, see the FAQ below.
Tips and Best Practices
- Create the group when the trip starts and add expenses as you go. When you're back, you send it in one click.
- Name it after the trip and date, so approvers and finance recognise it straight away.
- Deleting a draft group (Delete group) also deletes the expenses you created in it. Card expenses are only taken out of the group.
Related articles: How do I claim mileage? · How do I claim per diems? · How do I export expenses? · How do I set up the approval flow?
Troubleshooting and FAQ
Troubleshooting
- I don't see Add group. Expense groups aren't turned on for your company. Ask your Expenses admin. Admins turn them on in Settings > Expenses, under Configuration > Expense groups, with Enable expense groups.
- I can't add an expense to a group. Only your own draft expenses go into your own draft groups. Take back a pending expense with Reset to draft first. An expense paid back in a different currency from the group's can't be added. If you add several at once, those are left out without a message, so open the group and check what's in it.
- My group disappeared after I took back its expenses. When the last expense leaves a group, the group is removed. Your expenses are in your list as drafts.
- I clicked Send for approval and nothing was sent. If an expense in the group is missing information, nothing is sent and you're told which expense to fix. Fix it and send the group again.
FAQ
1. Can I create a group for someone else?
No. A group always belongs to the person who creates it. If you report expenses on someone's behalf, create their expenses one by one; they can group them.
2. Why can't I change the reimbursement currency of an expense in a group?
A group is paid back in one currency (your legal entity's), so every expense in it uses that currency. You can still enter each receipt in the currency you paid in.
3. Can I edit a group after creating it?
Yes, while it's a draft: change its title or description, or add and remove expenses.
4. What happens if my approver rejects one expense in the group?
That expense stays in the group as Rejected and no longer counts in the total. The rest of the group carries on.
5. Can I export several expenses to one PDF without a group?
Yes, from the company expense list. See How do I export expenses?
6. Who approves the expenses in a group?
Each expense follows your company's approval flow. Your approver is notified once for the whole group (New pending group) and can review it from the group page.
7. How do I change a group after sending it for approval?
While the expenses are Pending, select them and click Reset to draft to take them back. They go back to draft and leave the group, so you can fix them and add them again. If you take back every expense, the group is removed.
8. Can One, our AI assistant, manage my expense groups?
Yes, if your company uses One. Ask it things like "Create a group called Leeds trip and add my drafts from last week" or "Send the Leeds trip group for approval". One only changes your own draft groups and expenses, and tells you if it can't add one.
9. What does Global approve do on a group?
Admins see Global approve on a group in Spending > Groups. It approves every pending expense in the group.
10. How do I send a group through the approval flow again?
If your approval flow changed, open the group in Spending > Groups and click Reset approval flow. You need permission to reset approval flows, and it works only when every expense in the group can be reset (each one Pending, Approved or Rejected).
11. How do I get a PDF of a group with its receipts?
Open the group in Spending > Groups and click Export to PDF. The PDF arrives by email.
12. I added an approved group to payroll by mistake. How do I undo it?
Open the group and click Remove from payroll. Its expenses go back to Approved, so they can be paid back another way.
13. Can finance pay back or export a whole expense group at once?
Yes. Finance can pay back or export an expense group in one go, instead of expense by expense.
14. How do I send an expense group for approval?
Open the group and check that every expense is complete. On the web, click Send for approval; on the mobile app, open the group and tap Send for approval. If one expense is missing information, nothing is sent and you are told which one.
15. Can I add an expense that is already pending, approved or paid to a group?
No. Only your own draft expenses go into your own draft groups. Take a pending expense back with Reset to draft first; an approved or paid expense can't be added. An expense that is already in another group has to be removed from it first.
16. Can I copy an expense group?
No, there is no copy option. Create a new group and add the expenses to it.
17. Can I put two different per diem rates in one trip?
Yes. Add several rates to one per diem (each rate once), or add a separate per diem to the group for each rate. See How do I claim per diems?
18. Can I approve a group from the mobile app without opening every expense?
Approving a whole group is done on the web, in Spending > Groups (Approve group). The mobile app has no Approve group action.