Understanding expense types (Expense Report, Purchase, System)

What the three expense types in your queue mean and how each one looks and behaves when you open it to review.

Every row in your expense queue has a Type, and the type tells you where the expense came from and what you can do with it. There are three: Expense Report, Purchase, and System. They share the same queue and the same approve or decline controls, but each one opens to a different view and gives you slightly different options. This article explains the differences so you know what you are looking at before you act.

The three types at a glance

The Type column in the queue labels each row:

• Expense Report: a receipt the employee uploaded and paid for out of pocket, claimed for reimbursement.
• Purchase: an order the employee placed in the Benefit Store, paid with their benefit allowance (and sometimes part from salary).
• System: a manual adjustment recorded against the employee, not something the employee uploaded.

Expense Report

This is the most common type. The employee uploaded a receipt and is asking to be reimbursed for something they already paid for, such as a gym membership or other wellness (friskvård) cost.

When you open it, the title reads Expense Upload and you see:

• The cost breakdown for the report, including what the benefit allowance covers and any tax rules that apply.
• The receipt files the employee attached, which you can open to check against the details.

This is the only type where you can ask the employee to fix something. The review options are Approve, Request changes, and Decline. Use Request changes when the receipt is unclear or a detail is wrong: the employee is notified and can update and resubmit without starting over.

Purchase

A Purchase comes from the Benefit Store, where the employee chose a benefit and ordered it directly. There is no receipt to check, because the order itself is the record.

When you open it, the title reads Purchase and you see:

• Purchase Information: the date, which benefit was ordered, and the payment method (Benefit Allowance or Salary).
• A Cost Summary with the total, and any campaign discount or base cost and BIK tax where they apply.
• A payment breakdown when part of the cost is paid from salary.

The review options are Approve and Decline only. There is no Request changes for a Purchase, because there is nothing for the employee to re-upload.

System

A System expense is a manual adjustment recorded against the employee rather than an upload. In the open view its title reads Adjusted by System.

It is the simplest of the three. When you open it you see a single Manual Expense Details card with the date, the Total cost, and an optional Note explaining the adjustment. Because there is nothing for an employee to track through review, the side panel is trimmed down: it shows the employee details but hides the review-status, approval-flow, and timeline cards that the other two types show.

You can still record a decision. The review options are Approve and Decline, with no Request changes.

Filtering the queue by type

If you want to work through one kind of expense at a time, use the queue filters. Add a filter on Type and pick Expense Report, Purchase, or System to narrow the list to just that type. You can clear it again at any time to see everything together.

Troubleshooting

• I cannot find Request changes on this expense. It only exists for Expense Reports. Purchases and System adjustments offer Approve and Decline only, because there is no receipt for the employee to redo.
• A Purchase has no receipt to open. That is expected. Purchases come from the Benefit Store, so the order details stand in for a receipt.
• A System expense is missing the review-status and approval-flow cards. That is by design for this type. You can still Approve or Decline it from the review form.