In CRM For Claims an expense is entered as Pending, and someone with the right to approve moves it to Approved. Only approved expenses can be ticked and paid on the Unrealized Expenses screen.
Accounts payable for roofing and restoration contractors: approve each job expense, then pay the month in one run
Accounts payable on an insurance job is a stack of small debts: a crew, a dumpster, a permit, a measurement report, a sales rep's share. In CRM For Claims each one is an expense on its project with a status, and the status tells the office whether it may be paid yet.
Drawn example with made-up amounts: five statuses an expense can have
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Denied 1
Turned down, not to be paid.
$180Meals, PO 7031 -
Pending 2
Entered, waiting for a yes.
$640Dumpster/Trailer, PO 7044$95Measurement Reports, PO 7052 -
Approved 2
Owed, and ready to pay.
$4,800Labor, PO 7044$1,250Sales rep share, PO 7019 -
Issued 1
A check is out, not cleared yet.
$310Permit/Registration Fees, PO 7031 -
Paid 2
Cleared on the payee's account.
$9,600Building Materials, PO 7019$450Temporary repair (tarp), PO 7052
What an expense asks for, and when it asks
The Add New Expense form opens on the project's Expenses page. Some fields are needed from the first save. The payment fields stay closed until someone says money has actually gone out, so nobody types a check number for a bill that is still waiting.
From the first save
Any status
- Payee
- Payment Amount (USD)
- Status
- Type Of Expense
- Assign to Project Trade
When it is Issued or Paid
The money has left your account
- Payment Account
- Issued Date
- Payment Method
- Reference No.
- Paid Date
Type Of Expense is a fixed list that includes Labor, Building Materials, Permit/Registration Fees, Dumpster/Trailer, Measurement Reports and Temporary Repair Fees (such as tarp); Other asks for a description of its own. The vendor's bill, the payment record and photos can be attached to the same expense. Because every expense names a trade, it lands in the right column of job costing for that project.
Who may put an expense in which status
Approval rights are set per person, in each user's permissions. A project manager can be allowed to enter expenses as Pending and nothing more, while the office manager decides what is Approved and what is paid. These rights sit beside the rest of roles and permissions.
| Right | Denied | Pending | Approved | Issued | Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Page [WP50-A01]Sees every expense of the project | |||||
| Add Expenses in Status "Approved" [WP50-A02]Sees only the approved ones they entered | |||||
| Add Expenses in Status "Pending" [WP50-A03]Sees only the pending ones they entered |
Once an expense is Paid, its status is locked on the edit form, and a payment account that has been chosen stays fixed too. The payee can be any contact of your company, including the installer crews kept on subcontractor management.
The month-end run on Unrealized Expenses
Unrealized Expenses is the screen for paying your own people: the reps, managers and staff who are CRM users, or the company a user is paid through. It scans every project of the company, so nobody opens jobs one by one. Here is a made-up run for three people.
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Pick payees and the period
Choose several people or All Payees. To starts on the last day of the previous month, and From starts at all time.
3 payees -
Read the totals
Two tiles show the total amount due and the count of unpaid expenses, with the projects listed below by PO number.
$7,340 due -
Tick what you pay
The box beside a project ticks all of its expenses. Pending rows have no box until someone approves them.
7 of 9 ticked -
Pay selected
One form takes the payment method, the account, the reference number, both dates and the proof of payment.
1 payment
Money coming in the other way is on accounts receivable.
What one confirmation writes on every expense
Pressing Confirm Payment does the bookkeeping for each ticked expense, not only for the batch as a whole. Later, anyone who opens one of those expenses on its project sees how and when it was paid.
Example: 7 expenses, 3 projectsPay selected
- The status becomes Paid and the paid date is recorded.
- The payment fields the expense form requires are filled in, so none is empty later.
- The same proof of payment file is attached to every expense in the run.
- The transaction is posted against the payment account you chose.
Checks that run before money leaves an account
A payable that goes out wrong is hard to pull back, so the save is refused in these cases and the message says why.
A payment account is missing
The expense was not added
An expense saved as Paid or Issued must name a payment account that belongs to the project's company.
The account does not pay that way
Choose an account from the list, or add Check to this account
Each bank account carries its own payment methods in Settings, so a check cannot be booked on an account that does not pay by check.
Someone else is saving the same project
Another change to this project is still saving.
Two people adding money to one project at the same moment do not overwrite each other: the second is asked to try again in a moment.
The person may not pay
Allow Viewing Master Report and Unrealized Expenses
Without that right the pay run is refused, even if someone reaches the screen.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers about who we serve, what we automate, and how to get started.
Issued is for checks only: the check has been written but has not cleared on the payee's account. Paid means the money has cleared, and it needs the payment method, reference number and paid date.
Yes. Give that person the right to add expenses in status Pending only. They see the expenses they entered while those are pending, and someone else approves them.
Yes. On Unrealized Expenses pick the payees, leave To on the last day of last month, tick the approved rows and pay them with one payment form and one proof file.