Odoo 14 - Module expenses
Easy administration of our employees expenses
29 April, 2021 by
Odoo 14 - Module expenses
manaTec GmbH, Tom Pohling
 


In our blog posts on the Recruitment and Personnel modules , we have already described how we are digitizing our recruitment and HR and contract management and seamlessly integrating them into our business processes. Now we should think about which sub-processes can be linked to this. In this way, we not only reduce further manual effort, but also ensure that we can map our processes in the ERP system in a fully digitized way and evaluate our data consistently.

A useful sub-process, which is linked to our sales process in addition to personnel management, is the mapping and billing of our employees' expenses. For this purpose, Odoo offers a clear and at the same time very well-integrated option with its Expenses module to reimburse our employees for their expenses, to allocate them to our customer projects if necessary, and to invoice them to our customers. We describe exactly how this works in today's blog.

The basic functionality of the Expense module is that an employee creates individual expense objects and sends them collectively as a report to his manager for approval. Individual expense objects can be created and later combined into a report. Alternatively, a report can be created directly and the corresponding expense objects added. The manager of an employee is defined in the Employee object in the Personnel module.

There are four different access rights for the use of the module Expenses, which are mainly related to the approval process of submitted expenses. The users without a specific access right see the module in the dashboard and have the possibility to create expense objects and submit them to their manager as a report. Two additional access rights define whether a user as a manager can only share the expense reports of his employees or of all employees. The user of the "Administrator" rights group has additional access to the reporting system as well as to the configuration of the module.

The menu of the module includes four menu items - My Expenses, Expense Reports, Reporting and Configuration. In the "My Expenses" menu item we can access various views of each user's expenses as well as their expense reports.

The overview of all expense objects.
The overview of all expense objects.

The list view already gives us a good overview of the details of the individual objects, which we will go into later when creating an expense object. Switching to alternative views, such as the Kanban view, is also available, as are the familiar Odoo functions for searching, filtering, grouping and favorites.

In the menu item "Expense Reports", Odoo also provides us with various views of the reports, each filtered according to the various statuses of the reports, as well as an overview of all expense reports without any filter.

The overview of all expense reports.
The overview of all expense reports.

Here, too, the most important information about the expense reports is displayed to us. Switching views and customizing the display through the search or filters is done in the same way as the view above.

Reporting offers us different views to evaluate our expenses based on different KPI's. So we have a graphical or a pivot view with different filter functions available. The graphical view is displayed as a bar chart, line chart or pie chart.

Within the configuration we find two important settings. The first optional setting is the definition of an e-mail alias, with which our expense objects can be generated automatically from incoming e-mails. This will automatically select the expense product by having the subject of the email contain the reference and name of the expense product. If we then also add the costs in the subject of the email, these will also be automatically stored in the expense object.

The second setting involves creating our expense products. In addition to specifying a product name, we also define standardized costs as well as a reference of the product. However, specifying the costs is only useful if a product always incurs the same costs. As described before, specifying the reference helps us automate the creation of expense objects via incoming emails. In addition, we can upload an image to the product, specify the billing rule and define taxes and expense account. Finally, we optionally add our expense product to a company in a multi company environment.

Alternatively, we can also create our expense products using the purchsing, sales, Warehouse or Website modules. In addition to the default product configuration , we make sure to check the "Can be used as expense" checkbox.

Now we have an overview of the different menu items as well as the basic configuration options of the Expenses module in Odoo. With that, we now look at mapping this process and start by creating an expense object. To do this, we navigate to "My Expenses" and create an expense object using the "Create" button.

First we enter a description and select one of our expense products. Based on the specification of price, number and taxes, Odoo will automatically calculate the total price for us. Entering the employee as well as the company in a multi-company environment are mandatory fields. Optionally, we can still enter a receipt number and date, as well as customize the expense account. Related receipts can be added as attachments. Finally, we select whether the expense was borne by the employee and must be reimbursed or has already been paid by the company.

The creation of an expense object.
The creation of an expense object.

Now we can create the expense report by clicking the "Create report" button. In case we want to create additional expense objects and add them to the expense report, we first create the additional expense objects. In their overview we can then select all the expense objects that belong to the expense report and combine them into one expense report using the "Create report" button or Action --> Create report.

Once we have created the expense report, Odoo will automatically create an activity for the employee's manager and remind them to review and confirm the expense report. Once the expense report is confirmed by the manager, Odoo changes the status of the expense report to "Approved".

The confirmed expense report.
The confirmed expense report.

At this point, the expenses are reimbursed from the company to the employee and the expense report is marked as paid. As described above, it is possible that the expenses are incurred in the context of a customer project and should therefore be billed to our customer. For this we go back to the expense object.

There we can also select a Sales Order, which links the sales order or the customer project with the expense. As soon as the expense report is confirmed and we generate an invoice from the sales order, the expense item is automatically included in the invoice.

The billing of an expende via a customer project.
The billing of an expende via a customer project.

This means that we can digitize another sub-process with our expense report and map it in Odoo with little effort and seamlessly integrated into the adjacent processes. The creation of expense products is familiar to our users from purchasing or sales and requires no adaptation. The usability is supported by the alignment to known processes as well as by the focus on the most important functions in the module Expenses.

Are you looking for an ERP system with which you can map and settle your expenses or do you have questions about the Expenses module in Odoo? No problem! Contact us now and we will be at your disposal as a competent Odoo partner with comprehensive expertise from numerous Odoo projects!


Sources: www.odoo.com

 
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