Toast Payroll: Get Started With Expenses

In this Article:

• Create an Expense Report
• Approve an Expense Report via To Do
• Expense Report Dashboard
• Approve Pending Expense Reports via the Dashboard
• Filter Summary
• Expense Reports on Payroll

Create an Expense Report

1. Employees may create expense reports by logging into Toast Payroll and navigating to My Profile > Assets & Expenses > Expense Report.
2. Select Add+ in the top-right corner.
   
   
   
   
3. Begin by naming the report. Next to Entries, select Add+ again to enter an expense to your expense report.
   
   
   
   
4. Record a description of the expense and verify the Company, Location, Department (if applicable), and Job.
5. Select an Expense Type that categorizes your expense. More expense types may be added if your management team contacts Toast Payroll.
6. Enter the Amount and Vendor of this expense. Now pick a Billing Type for this expense. Note the red text when Debit Employee or Company Paid are chosen.
7. Lastly, Attach a receipt or similar document if necessary and choose the Date of this expense.
8. Select Save.
9. More expenses can be added to the same report by selecting Add+ again. Employees may also select Save for Later if the report is not finished or they may Submit or Cancel the report. Once submitted, expense reports will need to be approved by the company before they will be processed.

Approve an Expense Report via To Do  

Once an employee has submitted an Expense Report for you to view, employers will receive a To Do notification on the Toast Payroll dashboard. Select it to continue.

Here, employers can either Approve, Reject or Mark as New.
 

• If Mark as New is selected, the notification will appear as New on the Dashboard.
• Approve will approve the expense report.
• Reject will reject the expense report for the employee.
• Add a note prior to approving or rejecting the expense report at the bottom of the To-Do. 

Selecting View Data will offer an outline of the information within the expense report that has been submitted for approval. This will also allow you to view a copy of receipts that have been attached. You may download this information as a PDF or XLS file.

Expense Report Dashboard

Employers can also view and approve Expense Reports for all employees they manage access to by navigating to Payroll > Expenses (in the Quick Actions menu).

On the dashboard, you can view the total Pending and Open expense totals on the right side of the page. To view an expense report for a particular employee, use the or type in the employee name in the gray bar.

This page will default to expense reports that are Open and Pending Approval. Expense reports can be in one of four different statuses:

• Open: These are timesheets that have not yet been submitted for approval by the employee (they might still being worked on by the employee). 
• Pending approval: These are expense reports in which employees have submitted for approval. These are ready for the manager to view. 
• Approved: These are expense reports that have been approved by the manager and are ready to be imported into payroll. 
• Paid: These are expense reports that have been imported and paid out to employees. These employees have been reimbursed or the expenses have been recorded on payroll (in cases where the employer is not actually reimbursing the employee) 

You will see up to six different buttons on this page. Different buttons will appear for expense reports depending on which status it is in.

With expense reports in an Open status, select the blue arrow to submit the report on behalf of the creator. Select the yellow edit pencil to edit the report or choose the trash can icon to delete the expense report entirely.

With expense reports in the Pending Approval status, select the blue eyeball icon to view more details about each expense report. Otherwise, choose the green checkmark or the red cancel icon to approve or deny the expense report.

Approved and Denied expense reports can be viewed only. To view these reports, select the 2 of 4 selected drop-down menu and checkmark these statuses. Then select the funnel icon on the right of this bar to filter the page to include approved and denied expense reports.

Approve Pending Expense Reports via the Dashboard

To approve expense reports on the dashboard that have been completed and are ready for managers to view, select the expenses that are in the Pending Approval status. 

You will see three different options on the right side of the page for the Pending Approval expense reports.

• View: To view the entries within the expense report, select the blue icon. 
• Approve: To approve the expense report, select the green check mark next to the employee’s expense report name. 
• Deny: To deny the expense report, select the cancel icon on the right hand side of the employee’s name to send back to them as not approved. 

Lastly, you may also approve expense reports on the employee’s profile by navigating to the employee's profile and selecting Assets & Expenses > Expense Report. On this page, you will also see the green checkmark and red cancel button to approve or deny expenses reports.

Filter Summary

On the Expense Reports dashboard found under Payroll > Expenses (from the Quick Actions menu), you may filter the reports using the drop-down menus in the gray bar.

• Employee Name: Type in the employee’s name to view their expense reports. 
• Status: All, Open, Pending Approval, Approved, and Denied
• Approved Date Between: Enter a date span that includes what you are looking for
• Submitted Date Between: Enter a date span that includes what you are looking for. 
• Paid Date Between: Enter a date span that includes what you are looking for

Select the Filter icon (funnel) to activate the filters. To view details of an expense report, select the blue icon next to the report. From here, you can approve, deny, or return the expense reports using the appropriate icons. 

Note: If you are denying an expense report, add a note before you select deny button so the employee knows why it was denied. Once an expense report is approved, it will appear under the import step on payroll in order to pay out the employee. 

Expense Reports on Payroll 

Once an expense report has been approved, the expense reimbursements will automatically flow through to the next payroll that is opened after the expenses are approved. The expense reports will appear on the Preview Step of payroll.

Selecting Next on the Preview Step will automatically pull anything attached to that Payroll, including expense reports.

Once employees have been reimbursed for their expenses, the pay date will populate on their expense report dashboard in their profile.

This content is for informational purposes and is not intended as legal, tax, HR, or any other professional advice. Please contact an attorney or other professional for advice.