How a sheet moves
Each person has one sheet for each month. It holds their mileage, subsistence and expense claims, and moves through a fixed set of statuses. Knowing where a sheet is tells you who needs to act next and what can still be changed.
The path
Section titled “The path”Draft ──Submit──▶ Submitted ──Approve──▶ Approved ──Process──▶ Processed ▲ │ │ │ ├── Withdraw (employee) │ └──── Return ──────┘ │ └──────────── Reopen (administrator, with reason) ┘Draft ──deadline passes (if the company expires drafts)──▶ Expired ──Reopen──▶ Draft| Step | Who | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Add claims | The employee | The sheet stays a Draft and can be edited |
| Submit | The employee (or an Administrator on their behalf) | Submitted: frozen, and sent to the approvers |
| Approve | One assigned approver | Approved: ready to be processed |
| Return | An assigned approver, with a reason | Back to Draft |
| Withdraw | The employee, before approval | Back to Draft |
| Process | A manager | Processed: locked for good |
| Reopen | An administrator, with a reason | An Approved or Expired sheet goes back to Draft |
Rules that shape the path
Section titled “Rules that shape the path”- One at a time, in order. A sheet can be submitted only when every earlier sheet in the same company year is Processed. This keeps the running distance for the year correct. See How mileage is calculated.
- Submitting freezes a copy. Each submission is a Revision. The approver sees exactly what you submitted, and what changed since any earlier submission.
- Warnings must be explained first. You cannot submit while a warning has no explanation. See Explain a warning.
- Processed is final. A processed sheet cannot be edited, returned or reopened, and no later change can undo its distance or money.
- Processing is not payment. It records that the company carried out its reimbursement process. It does not say the employee has been paid.
- Nothing is lost. Every submission, return, approval and processing is kept in the sheet’s history with who did it and when.
Deadlines
Section titled “Deadlines”Your company can set a submission deadline (days after month end) and choose to expire drafts. A background job (every 15 minutes) turns an overdue draft into Expired; submitting never does. An expired sheet is frozen: it cannot be edited or submitted, it will not be processed or paid, and its mileage is left out of the running totals that set rate bands, so later months open from the last counted month. An Administrator can reopen it with a reason, but only until a later month is submitted, and a reopened sheet has no deadline.
A month can be submitted once every earlier month is Approved, Processed or Expired. You do not have to wait for processing. An Approved month cannot be reopened after a later month has been submitted, so return or withdraw the later month first. See Company settings.