How Reimbursable Expenses Work

Ochre is designed to address the need for reimbursable expenses. This is how it works.

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OVERVIEW
Reimbursable Expenses are more complicated than normal expenses because there are two things to track rather than just one. There is the expense and also the income, i.e. the reimbursement. Ochre provides a complete Reimbursable Expenses solution and makes it very simple to use. Reimbursable Expenses are treated separately from regular Payables and Receivables.

The process for the expense tracking involves completing a form that creates the transaction record. There is a separate table that shows all of these expenses. Later when you pay your staff or a vendor for the expense, you mark it Paid? = Yes. It will no longer appear in the table. That is all there is to reimbursable expense tracking.

The process for the income tracking is nearly as simple. The same form that you completed to create the expense record also creates an income record automatically. There is a separate table that shows all of these income records. Later when you are preparing invoices, you reference the table and mark the records Invoiced? = Yes to keep track. When you receive payment, the last step is to mark the invoice record Paid? = Yes. It will no longer appear in the table. That is all there is to tracking the income side of Reimbursable Expenses.

PREPARATION
​You have the option of your staff submitting Mileage and Reimbursable Expenses directly to the Expenses table. If you want to implement this system, first go to the Admin page and check the YES box in the "Submit Exp" column for each staff member that you want to have do this. If you do not check the YES box, then the forms will be hidden on their My Records > More… page.

Before any reimbursement records are created, you should set mileage reimbursement rates for each project, both the internal reimbursement rate and the client  reimbursement rate.

Also set the Markup multiplier for each project. Use zero (0) if you will not be reimbursed. Use one (1.0) if there is no markup on the reimbursement. Use a percentage shown as a decimal for markups, e.g. a 20% markup would be entered as one point two (1.2).

The easiest way to add this information is on the Projects table found at Reports > New Project Page > Project table.

Reimbursable Expenses make use of several Categories that are built-in and required in order for the bookkeeping to work properly. They are “$Income", “$Income: Mileage”, "$Income: Reimbursable Exp.", “Mileage", and "Reimbursable Expense”. These should not be modified. 

STAFF EXPENSES
Staff submit Mileage and Reimbursable Expenses by using the forms on their My Records > More… page. These reimbursable expenses might include things like supplies, reprographics, and other incidentals for projects or for your organization.

Each form that is submitted automatically creates transaction records. An expense record is created showing an unpaid expense due the staff member. This is shown both in the main "Expense and Income" table on the Expense page and in the Staff Reimbursements tables on the Reimbursements subpage.

If the expense is reimbursable from your client, an income record is also created showing an un-invoiced and unpaid amount due from your client. This is shown in both the main "Expense and Income" table on the Expense page and in the Client Reimbursements table on the Reimbursements page. 

When paying these reimbursable expenses to a staff member, you would visit the Staff Reimbursements tables. As payments are made, change the record to PAID.

When preparing invoices, visit the Client Reimbursements table, and change the record to Invoiced? equals YES as you add these records to the invoice. The records will remain in the Receivables table until you change the record to PAID when you receive payment.

OTHER REIMBURSABLE EXPENSES
The other type of reimbursable expenses is for things like reproduction costs, plan review fees, consultants, etc.

Other Reimbursable Expenses incurred by your organization are entered through the form button on the Expenses page next to the buttons for Expenses and Income. The form is very similar to the expense form, and there are the same differences behind the scenes as described above for staff reimbursable expenses. Like the staff form, both expense and income records are created; and they can be tracked in the Reimbursement tables.