Expenses

Defining Expense Rules for Policies

Yes, each Expense Policy created on Keka can have different rules configured for the expenses.  Multiple Expense Policies can have same Expense Type associated to it, but the rules of expense claim can differ.

Few examples of such scenarios:

1. Management team can claim INR 20,000 per month for any travel made under expense type Air Fare, without having to submit the receipt/invoice. But, Sales team under expense type Air Fare, can only make a claim of INR 5,000 per month, given that they are submitting the receipt/invoice for the same.
2. Only sales team can claim fuel reimbursement of INR 8000 per month, without having to submit the receipt. Other employees are not eligible for fuel reimbursements.

To configure/define rules for expense types under given policy, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Expenses

Step 2: On the policy listing screen, start configuring the rules/guidelines by clicking on ‘Edit’ icon against the Expense Type you want to configure.

Step 3: On the next screen, define the rules and guidelines around expense amount that can be claimed.

Once you have configured the rules/guidelines, click on ‘Save & Continue’ to save this configuration.  The rules will be applied automatically to all claims made by employee having this Expense policy (along with expense type) associated with them.

You can follow these steps to configure different rules for each Expense Type under each Expense Policy.

If you are having trouble creating expense rules, write to support@keka.com.

In order to assign expense types to an expense policy, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Expenses

Step 2: On the expense policy page, click on ‘+ Add Expense Type’ to start adding expense type to this policy.  Use checkboxes to select expense types for the policy, click on ‘Assign Expense Types’ button.

Related: What are expense types?

Step 3: Once you have finished assigning the Expense Types to Expense Policy, the rules/guidelines for the Expense Types within the policy can be configured.  To start configuring the rules/guidelines, click on ‘Edit’ icon against the Expense Type you want to configure.

Step 6: On the next screen, define the rules and guidelines around expense amount that can be claimed.

The rules defined in the image above are:

1. Upper limit of expense is INR 20,000/month, i.e. the organisation will reimburse maximum INR 20,000/month only, for any claims made against Flight Tickets.
2. This expense can be claimed only 2 times per month.  
   • In case the employee has already claimed INR 20,000 on 1st incident, the 2nd incident (irrespective of claim amount) wont be considered for reimbursement.
   • In case the amount claimed for 1st incident was 15,000, and 2nd incident was 10,000. A total of INR 20,000 will only be reimbursed (INR 15,000 + INR 5,000) since the rules restricts the maximum amount to INR 20,000.
   • In case there were 3 claims submitted in a month for Flight Tickets – 1st claim as INR 10,000, 2nd claim as INR 4,000 and 3rd claim as INR 12,000.  The total amount that would be considered for reimbursement will be INR 10,000 + INR 4,000 (first 2 incidents), since only 2 claims per month is allowed.
3. Any claim under this expense type needs to be made within 30 days of incurring this expense. Any claim made after 30 days would not be considered for reimbursement.
4. If the amount of expense/claim is more than INR 10,000, employee is required to provide the details/reason for this expense as comment.
5. If the amount of expense/claim is more than INR 10,000, employee is required to attach receipt/invoice of the expense when claiming this expense for reimbursement.

Once you have configured the rules/guidelines, click on ‘Save & Continue’ to save this configuration.  The rules will be applied automatically to all claims made by employee having this Expense policy (along with expense type) associated with them.

Important: Expense Types configuration can be different for each Expense Policy created.  The configuration of same Expense Types are independent for each Expense Policy created.

If you are having trouble assigning Expense Types to an Expense Policy, write to support@keka.com.

Assigning Expense Policy to employees

An organisation can have multiple expense policies in place, which is assigned to an employee, or group of employees based on his/her designation, role, department etc.  Keka helps you assign these expense policies to employees so that both employees as well as employer can determine if the submitted expense claims are reasonable and appropriate.

In case you have created single/multiple expense policies and want to assign it to employees, follow the steps below:

• Assigning expense policy to an individual employee

Step 1: Go to employee’s profile by typing the employee’s name in the search bar

Step 2: Go to ‘Job’ tab of the employee’s profile

Step 3: Under ‘Job’ tab, go to ‘Time & Attendance’ section and you will find ‘Expense Policy’. Choose Expense Policy from the drop-down and click on ‘Update’ button to assign the Expense Policy.

The new Expense Policy has now been assigned to the selected employee.

• Assigning Expense Policy to multiple employees in bulk

Step 1: Go to Employees >> Employees >> Quick Links >> Import Employee Job Details

Step 2: From the new screen that you see, click and download the Excel Template

Step 3: Open the Excel file that you just downloaded.  Go to column R named ‘Expense Policy’ and select the applicable Expense Policy from the dropdown that appears on the selection of the cell against each employee.  Once done with updating the Expense Policy, save this file.

Step 4: Once you are done with saving the updated file, go back to the previous screen and click on the ‘Upload Excel File’ button.

Step 5: Once done with uploading, you will be asked to review the information.  Once you have verified the correctness of data being imported, click on ‘Import’ on the next screen to import the data.

Step 6: Once the data is imported, you will see a confirmation screen, click on ‘Complete’.

You have successfully updated the Expense Policy of employees in bulk.

In case you are not able to update Expense Policy for your employees, write to support@keka.com.

Editing an Expense Policy

In order to edit an existing expense policy, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Expenses

Step 2.0: If you want to edit the Name, Description or Currency of an existing expense policy, click on ‘Edit’ link against the Policy you want to edit.

Step 2.1: If you want to add/remove Expense Types from an existing Expense Policy, click on ‘+ Add Expense Type’ link against the Policy you want to edit. On the next screen, use checkboxes to assign new Expense Type or remove an already assigned Expense Type from the policy.  Once done, click on ‘Assign Expense Types’.

Step 3: In case you want to change an existing Expense Type configuration under an Expense Policy, click on ‘Edit’ icon against the Expense Type you want to re-configure.

Step 6: On the next screen, edit the rules and guidelines around expense that can be claimed.

Once you have re-configured the rules/guidelines, click on ‘Save & Continue’ to save this configuration.  The rules will be applied automatically to all claims made by employee having this Expense policy (along with expense type) associated with them.

Deleting an Expense Policy (or Expense Type from an Expense Policy)

Step 1: If you want to delete an existing expense policy completely, click on ‘Delete’ link against the Policy you want to delete.

Important: Deleting an Expense Policy will also delete its assignment from all employee.  You will have to re-assign a new Expense Policy to these employees.

Step 2: In case you want to delete an existing Expense Type from an Expense Policy, click on ‘Delete’ icon against the Expense Type you want to delete.  This will delete the Expense Type from the Expense Policy completely and employees won’t be able to make any claim against this Expense Type going forward.

If you are having trouble editing or deleting an Expense Policy, write to support@keka.com.

Yes multiple expense policies can be created and assigned to different set of employees.  Follow the links below to understand how expense policies can be created and assigned to either individual employee or group of employees.

Creating Expense Policy: How do I create new expense policy?

Assigning Expense Policy to different set of employees: How do I assign an expense policy to employee(s)?

If you are having trouble creating Expense Policy or assigning it to employees, write to support@keka.com.

Generally, the expenses that are covered/included in any Expense Policy, for claim purpose, are termed as Expense Types.  Common examples of Expense types would be Air Fare, Meals, Hotel Accommodation, Cab, Fuel Reimbursement, etc.

Here’s an example to understand Expense Types better:

Example Expense Policy:

Under this policy, the claims can be made for following:

• Air Fare:
  • Maximum amount of INR 20,000 can be claimed per month.
  • Expense can be claimed up to 3 times each month.
  • Expense expires if not submitted within 30 days of incurring.
  • Requires submission of receipt/invoice in case amount of expense is greater than INR 5000.
• Accommodation:
  • Maximum amount of INR 10,000 can be claimed per month.
  • Expense expires if not submitted within 10 days of incurring.
  • Requires submission of receipt/invoice in case amount of expense is greater than INR 3000.
• Cab/Travel:
  • Maximum amount of INR 10,000 can be claimed per month.
  • Expense can be claimed up to 30 times each month.
  • Requires submission of receipt/invoice irrespective of amount of expense.

• Fuel/Bike Reimbursement:
  • Maximum amount of INR 10,000 can be claimed per month.
  • Expense expires if not submitted within 15 days of incurring.
  • Mileage unit to be specified in Kilometers
  • Mileage Rate is INR 8/Km
  • Does not require submission of receipt.
• Telephone Expense:
  • Maximum amount of INR 4,000 can be claimed per month.
  • Requires submission of receipt/invoice irrespective of amount of expense.

In the example above, Expense Types would be:

• Air Fare
• Accommodation
• Cab/Travel
• Fuel/Bike Reimbursement
• Telephone Expense

The rules/guidelines for Expense Types vary from policy to policy.

Related: Can I add a new expense type?

Adding a new expense type

Generally, the expenses that are covered/included in any Expense Policy, for claim purpose, are termed as Expense Types.  There can be many reimbursable expenses that exists in your organisation and you would want to add all of them on Keka to make it easy for employee to claim it for reimbursement.  Though employees can claim the expenses defined by you, it is you who will decide the rules/guidelines for claiming these expenses.  Also, the expenses defined by you can be assigned to a various expense policy which later can be assigned to employees, thus giving privilege to selected employees to claim expenses.

Related: What are expense types?

There are 2 ways to add Expense Types on Keka:

Adding Expense Type from Payroll Settings

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Payroll >> Salary Components & Structures

Step 2: On the next screen, navigate to 3rd step ‘Adhoc Components’.  Under ‘Reimbursements’, you can view list of existing expense types, as well as find an option to add a new reimbursement.  Click on the ‘+ Add Reimbursement’ to add a new expense type.

Step 3: You will be asked to provide few additional information (Name, Expense Code*, Description, Type), before this Expense Type can be added.

Once done, click on ‘Save’ to create a new Expense Type.

*Expense Code – This code is used by organisations for accounting purpose.  You can either choose the existing code from your accounting software, or add a new one.

Adding Expense Type from Expense Settings

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Expenses

Step 2: Click on ‘+ Add Expense Type’ link against the Expense Policy you want to add this Expense Type to

Step 3: On the next screen, you can view list of all expenses, along with an option to add new expense.  Click on ‘+ Add new Expense Type’ link. You will be asked to provide few additional information (Name, Expense Code*, Description, Type), before this Expense Type can be added.

Once done, click on ‘Save’ and the new expense type will be created.

To learn about assigning and configuring rules/guidelines for an Expense Type assigned to a policy, please go to: How do I create new expense policy? (Step 4 onwards)

If you are having trouble creating Expense Type, write to support@keka.com.

An expense policy is designed to help employees report expenses that were incurred while conducting organisations’ business activities.  Keka helps you create multiple expense policies which can be assigned to different group of employees based on their job role, department, designation, etc.

Related: What is an expense policy?

In order to create a new expense policy, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to Settings >> Expenses

Step 2: Under “Expenses”, click on “Add New” to create a new expense policy.

Step 3: Give a Name and Description to the new expense policy for easy identification.  Choose the default currency in which claims needs to be made.  Once done, Save this policy.

Step 4: As next step, we are going to assign and configure Expense types for the new Expense Policy.  On the listing screen, you can now view the newly created Expense Policy.  Click on ‘+ Add Expense Type’ to start adding expense type to this policy.  After choosing the expense types for the policy, click on ‘Assign Expense Types’.

Related: What are expense types?

Step 5: Once you have finished assigning the Expense Types to Expense Policy, the rules/guidelines for the Expense Types within the policy can be configured.  To start configuring the rules/guidelines, click on ‘Edit’ icon against the Expense Type you want to configure.

Step 6: On the next screen, define the rules and guidelines around expense amount that can be claimed.

The rules defined in the image above are:

1. Upper limit of expense is INR 20,000/month, i.e. the organisation will reimburse maximum INR 20,000/month only, for any claims made against Flight Tickets.
2. This expense can be claimed only 2 times per month.  
   • In case the employee has already claimed INR 20,000 on 1st incident, the 2nd incident (irrespective of claim amount) wont be considered for reimbursement.
   • In case the amount claimed for 1st incident was 15,000, and 2nd incident was 10,000. A total of INR 20,000 will only be reimbursed (INR 15,000 + INR 5,000) since the rules restricts the maximum amount to INR 20,000.
   • In case there were 3 claims submitted in a month for Flight Tickets – 1st claim as INR 10,000, 2nd claim as INR 4,000 and 3rd claim as INR 12,000.  The total amount that would be considered for reimbursement will be INR 10,000 + INR 4,000 (first 2 incidents), since only 2 claims per month is allowed.
3. Any claim under this expense type needs to be made within 30 days of incurring this expense. Any claim made after 30 days would not be considered for reimbursement.
4. If the amount of expense/claim is more than INR 10,000, employee is required to provide the details/reason for this expense as comment.
5. If the amount of expense/claim is more than INR 10,000, employee is required to attach receipt/invoice of the expense when claiming this expense for reimbursement.

Once you have configured the rules/guidelines, click on ‘Save & Continue’ to save this configuration.  The rules will be applied automatically to all claims made by employee having this Expense policy (along with expense type) associated with them.

Important: Expense Types configuration can be different for each Expense Policy created.  The configuration of same Expense Types are independent for each Expense Policy created.

Related: How do I assign an expense policy to an employee?

If you are having trouble creating Expense Policy, write to support@keka.com.

An expense policy is designed to help employees report expenses that were incurred while conducting organisations’ business activities. A common example would be, an employee travelling for work, where the expenses like air fare, accommodation, travel, meals etc. are paid back by the organisation.

The rules and guidelines around expense amount that can be claimed, vary from organisation to organisation. Having an expense policy helps both employee as well as employer to determine reasonable and appropriate expenses.

Keka helps you create multiple expense policies which can be assigned to different group of employees based on their job role, department, designation, etc.

Few guidelines that should be considered when drafting an expense policy:
1. What types of expenses are covered under a particular expense policy?
2. Is there an upper limit on the amount that can be claimed under each expense type?
3. How many times can this expense be claimed in a given period of time?
4. Does the expense expire if not claimed in a given period of time?
5. Is receipt required as proof for any expense made?

Here are couple of examples of expense policies:

Example 1:

Expense for Management team

Expense Types Included (and rules/guidelines around them)

• Air Fare:
  • Maximum amount of INR 20,000 can be claimed per month.
  • Expense can be claimed up to 3 times each month.
  • Expense expires if not submitted within 30 days of incurring.
  • Requires submission of receipt/invoice in case amount of expense is greater than INR 5000.
• Accommodation:
  • Maximum amount of INR 10,000 can be claimed per month.
  • Expense expires if not submitted within 10 days of incurring.
  • Requires submission of receipt/invoice in case amount of expense is greater than INR 3000.
• Cab/Travel:
  • Maximum amount of INR 10,000 can be claimed per month.
  • Expense can be claimed up to 30 times each month.
  • Requires submission of receipt/invoice irrespective of amount of expense.

Example 2:

Expense for Sales team

Expense Types Included (and rules/guidelines around them)

• Fuel/Bike Reimbursement:
  • Maximum amount of INR 10,000 can be claimed per month.
  • Expense expires if not submitted within 15 days of incurring.
  • Mileage unit to be specified in Kilometers
  • Mileage Rate is INR 8/Km
  • Does not require submission of receipt.
• Cab/Travel:
  • Maximum amount of INR 10,000 can be claimed per month.
  • Expense can be claimed up to 20 times each month.
  • Requires submission of receipt/invoice irrespective of amount of expense.
• Telephone Expense:
  • Maximum amount of INR 4,000 can be claimed per month.
  • Requires submission of receipt/invoice irrespective of amount of expense.

As evident from the example above, you can create multiple expense policies that exists within your organisation and can assign it to respective groups of employees based on their role, department or designation.

Related: How do I create new expense policy?