Reading the expense cost breakdown

What each line of the Cost Summary means: receipt cost, reimbursement, social fee, what is deducted from the allowance, and what is not reimbursed.

When you open an expense to review it, the Cost Summary card breaks the cost into separate lines. The numbers can look like they should all match, but they usually do not: what the employee paid the shop, what their benefit allowance covered, and what they actually get reimbursed are three different things. This article explains each line so you can read any expense correctly.

Open the breakdown

From the expense queue, select an expense to open its details. Under Report Details you see the date, category, and organization ID. Below that, the Cost Summary card holds the breakdown. The exact lines depend on whether the category is taxed as a benefit in kind (BIK) or is tax-free, so the card changes shape from one expense to the next.

The lines you always see

Every expense report shows the receipt figures at the top of Cost Summary:

• Receipt cost (incl. VAT): what the employee paid the merchant. This is the only number the outside world cares about, and it does not change.
• Cost excl. VAT: the receipt amount with VAT stripped out (shown indented).
• VAT: the VAT portion of the receipt, with the rate in the label (also indented).

Below those, Deducted from allowance is the bold total that actually came out of the employee's benefit allowance this period.

Tax-free categories

For a tax-free category (for example wellness under its yearly threshold, transportation, or education), the breakdown is short:

• Deducted from allowance is what the allowance covered.
• Not reimbursed appears only if the receipt was larger than the allowance could cover. On an uploaded receipt this remainder is the employee's own loss: it is not paid back, and it is not taken from their salary.

So for tax-free receipts, reimbursement equals Deducted from allowance, and anything above it simply is not paid.

Benefit-in-kind (BIK) categories

When the category is taxed as a benefit in kind, a warning at the top notes that the employee will be benefit-taxed on the next payroll after approval, and the breakdown gains extra lines:

• Reimbursement: what the employee actually receives back. For BIK this is the VAT-inclusive amount the allowance can cover after reserving the social fee.
• Social fee (shown with the rate, for example 31.42%): the employer social fee reserved inside the allowance. This is registered as the benefit value (förmånsvärde) the employee is taxed on. It is not paid to the employee, and it is not a separate payroll line of its own.
• Deducted from allowance: the bold total, which here is reimbursement plus social fee. This is what leaves the allowance.
• Not reimbursed: shown only when the allowance ran out. Again, on a receipt this is the employee's loss, not a salary deduction.

The key thing to read here: the Reimbursement line, not the receipt total, is what the employee gets. The social fee eats part of the allowance but never reaches the employee.

When salary is involved

Uploaded receipts never deduct from salary: anything the allowance does not cover is the employee's own loss. Salary deductions only happen for Benefit Store purchases, where CLVR or the provider already paid the provider and the uncovered remainder has to be recovered. You can spot those at a glance: the expense queue shows a yellow Payroll Deduct badge on any expense where part of the cost is recovered from the employee's salary.

A wellness-only line

For wellness expenses where the receipt was larger than the allowance covered, a Deductible VAT line can also appear. It shows the VAT portion that is deductible under the wellness rules. It is informational for payroll and does not change what the employee is reimbursed.

Troubleshooting

• The receipt total and the deducted amount do not match. That is expected. Read Reimbursement (for BIK) or Deducted from allowance (for tax-free) as what the employee gets, and Not reimbursed as their loss.
• There is a Not reimbursed line. The receipt was larger than the remaining allowance could absorb. On a receipt this is never a salary deduction, just an amount that is not paid back.
• I see a Payroll Deduct badge. That expense recovers part of its cost from salary, which only happens on Benefit Store purchases, not uploaded receipts. See understanding the Payroll Deduct badge.
• I need the exact Sweden tax figures. For the social fee rate, wellness threshold, and deductible VAT rules behind these numbers, ask your HR contact who manages the tax and payroll setup.