Most expense problems come from a few habits: a missing receipt, the wrong category, an expense sent weeks later. Below is ready-to-share guidance so each role knows the handful of things that matter. Factorial helps with the rest: it can read receipts, check expenses against your policy and route them to the right approver.

What to tell employees

Employees want to be paid back fast and not have expenses sent back. Share these five habits:

1. Snap the receipt when you pay. Take a photo in the Factorial app, or upload the PDF. Factorial fills in the amount, date, merchant and taxes from it.
2. Check what Factorial read, then pick the category. The category decides the accounting, so Hotel and Meals aren't interchangeable.
3. Say what it was for. "Client lunch with Acme, 3 people" beats "Lunch".
4. Read the policy check before you send. While the expense is a draft, you'll see Good to send or Worth a look before you send, with the reason. Fix it now instead of having it come back.
5. Paying with a Factorial card? The expense is created for you. Just add the receipt.

What to tell approvers

1. Approve within your company's deadline, for example two working days. You can approve from the app.
2. Use the recommendation. Each expense shows Approval recommended, Review recommended or Rejection recommended, with the reason. Spend your time on the ones that need it.
3. Request changes instead of rejecting when something is fixable, and say exactly what to fix.
4. Don't approve what you don't understand. Ask a question in the comments first.

What to set up as finance or admin

The fewer choices employees face, the fewer mistakes.

1. Keep categories simple. Turn off what you don't use and add a few clear subcategories, with a ledger account each.
2. Make important fields required in Settings > Expenses > Expense form, for example project or attendees, and hide the rest.
3. Write your policy once, in Expense checks. Describe it to One in plain words. See How do I check expenses against my expense policy?
4. Let the approval flow route expenses. Describe who approves what to One; auto-approve what's in policy. See How do I set up the approval flow?
5. Let everyone who spends create expenses. If your company pays per user, add them as Expenses users; otherwise give them the permission to create expenses.

Tips and Best Practices

Troubleshooting and FAQ

Troubleshooting

An employee can't create expenses.
They aren't an Expenses user yet, or don't have the permission to create expenses. An admin sets it up. See How do I add people to Expenses?

Expenses keep coming back for the same reason.
Check the reason in the policy result. If it's always the same rule, explain it to the team or adjust the check.

FAQ

1. Is a receipt always required?

It depends on your policy. The ready-made Expense checks flag regular expenses without a readable receipt. Flagged expenses can still be sent: the approver decides.

2. Can employees send an expense that is flagged?

Yes. Policy results never block sending or approving: the approver decides.

3. Do approvers need to know our policy by heart?

No. Expense checks apply it to every expense and tell the approver what to look at.

4. How can employees know where their expense is without asking finance?

Employees can check the status in Factorial: Pending, Approved, In payroll, Sent to pay, Paid, or Changes requested if something needs fixing. See Expense statuses and alerts.

5. Why should approvers approve quickly?

Approvers keep money flowing: a slow approval delays every reimbursement after it. Agree a deadline, for example two working days; approvers can approve from the mobile app.

6. Why does the finance or admin setup matter?

Your setup decides how easy it is to do the right thing. With Expense checks, every expense is checked against the policy you describe to One.