Understanding the terminology used in Factorial’s Expenses and Cards modules can make your experience faster and easier, especially when setting things up or asking for help. This glossary defines the key concepts, roles, and processes so you always know what’s what.

Whether you're an employee submitting expenses, a manager approving them, or part of the finance team configuring budgets and rules, this is your go-to reference.

Glossary of Key Terms in the Expenses and Cards Modules

A

• Alert: A notification triggered when an expense or transaction violates a predefined rule or limit, such as a spending policy or submitting a duplicate receipt. Alerts help approvers and finance teams detect risky expenses in real-time.
• Approval Flow: A set of rules that defines who needs to approve an expense and in what order. You can set up single-level or multi-level approval workflows with one or more approvers in each level.
• Auto-approval: A smart rule that automatically approves expenses that meet specific conditions (e.g., below a certain amount or from a specific team) without requiring a manual review.

B

• Budget: An assigned spending limit for a team, department, project, or individual. Budgets help control and monitor company-wide expenses and track against real-time spending.

C

• Card: A physical or virtual corporate card issued through Factorial. All card transactions are automatically tracked and can be converted into expenses, which streamlines submission, approval, and reconciliation.
• Card Expense: An expense that is automatically generated from a transaction made with a Factorial corporate card. These expenses only need a document attached before they can be submitted.
• Category Conflict: An issue that occurs when an expense for meals or beverages is submitted for the same dates as a per diem expense, which should already cover those costs.
• Cost Center: An internal label used to group and track expenses based on department, project, or business unit.

D

• Document: Proof of payment (e.g., a photo of a receipt or invoice) that must be attached to an expense to validate it.
• Duplicate: An expense that appears to have been submitted more than once. Factorial uses AI to detect and flag potential duplicates based on the information present on the attached document.

E

• Expense A cost incurred by an employee on behalf of the company, typically submitted for approval and reimbursement (e.g., meals, transportation, software).

F

• Finance Role: A role in Factorial with permissions to view all expenses, configure rules and budgets, and export data for reporting or payroll.

G

• Group: A collection of individual expenses submitted together as part of a larger report, often for a specific trip, month, or project.

M

• Manual Expense: An expense submitted manually by an employee (not linked to a card) that requires the user to enter the amount, select a category, and upload a receipt.
• Mileage: An expense based on distance traveled using a personal vehicle. Factorial automatically calculates the reimbursement amount based on configured rates.

P

• Per Diem: A fixed daily allowance for employees on business trips, based on predefined rules set in the expense policy.
• Policy: A set of rules that define what kind of expenses are allowed, limits per category, and who can submit or approve them. Policies can vary by team, location, or seniority.

S

• Smart Rule: An automated rule used to trigger specific actions, such as auto-approval or notifications, based on conditions like amount, team, or category.
• Submitter: Any user who creates and submits an expense. This is typically an employee but can also be an assistant submitting on behalf of another person.