Expense Reimbursements
Track what your workspace owes a person for an expense and record repayments you make elsewhere. Reimbursement is separate from charging the expense to your client. Keito does not transfer money, store bank details or deduct expenses from consultant invoices.
This workflow is available on Pro and Business and is off by default in every workspace. Owners and administrators configure it. Leaving it off preserves ordinary expense behavior and any approval requirements you already use.
Enable the workflow
- Open Settings → Workspace preferences → Expense reimbursement and approval settings.
- Turn on Enable expense reimbursements.
- Choose your Expense approval policy (explained below).
- Decide whether to turn on New manual expenses are reimbursable by default. It starts off, so new manual expenses default to not reimbursable.
- Leave repayments restricted to owners and administrators, or enable Allow existing approvers to record and void repayments within their scope.
- Choose Save reimbursement settings.
After enabling, open Expenses → Reimbursements and history to review records and return to these settings.
Existing and imported expenses remain Not classified until someone with permission explicitly reviews them. Enabling the workflow or changing the new-expense default does not classify them automatically.
Choose the person and classification
When adding an expense through Expenses → Track expenses, use Add expense for if you already have permission to enter expenses for another person. Eligible active employees and contractors in the selected workspace are available. Attributing an expense to an existing managed contractor does not invite them or give them sign-in access.
The form has two independent choices:
| Billable to client | Reimbursable to person | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| On | On | Include in client billing when eligible, and track repayment to the person |
| On | Off | Charge the client without a personal reimbursement claim |
| Off | On | Repay the person without charging the client |
| Off | Off | Track an internal expense without client billing or personal repayment |
For an existing expense, open Reimbursements and history → Review / history and use Reimbursement classification when your permissions and the expense’s locks allow it. Not classified means it has not been reviewed; it is different from Not reimbursable.
The classification change saves immediately and returns the expense to Unsubmitted for review; submit it again if approval is required.
Classification does not remove invoice, import, archive or timesheet locks. Repayment history also protects the expense’s financial details from ordinary edits and deletion. Duplicating an expense does not copy approval or repayment records.
Submit and approve expenses
Reimbursable expenses always require approval before repayment, even when timesheet approvals are disabled.
- Open Expenses → Expense approvals.
- Choose Submit expense on an eligible expense.
- Review the preview, then choose Confirm submit expense.
- An authorized reviewer chooses Approve expense, reviews the preview and confirms it.
A reviewer can instead choose Reject expense and enter a reason. Rejection returns it for correction; correct the expense and submit it again. An available Withdraw expense action also uses a preview and confirmation.
These actions affect expenses only. They do not submit or approve time entries. Owners and administrators can review across the workspace. Managers retain their existing assigned-teammate and permitted managed-project scope; this workflow does not grant new self-approval authority. Accountant access follows its separately granted capabilities.
Expense approval policy
These choices apply while the reimbursement workflow is enabled:
| Policy | Expenses not marked reimbursable | Reimbursable expenses |
|---|---|---|
| Inherit timesheet setting | Follow the existing timesheet approval setting | Approval required |
| Require all expenses | Approval required | Approval required |
| Reimbursable expenses only | No expense approval required | Approval required |
The policy does not change time-entry approval or invoice eligibility rules. Expense notifications have separate submission, approval and rejection preferences under Profile → Notifications; recipient eligibility and delivery preferences still apply.
Record a partial or full repayment
Make the payment outside Keito first. By default, only owners and administrators record repayments. If the workspace explicitly allows existing approvers to do so, their current approval scope still limits which records they can change.
- Open Expenses → Reimbursements and history.
- Choose Review / history for an approved, explicitly reimbursable expense.
- Check the person, recorded currency, reviewed amount, repaid amount and remaining balance.
- Enter Repayment amount, Payment date and an optional Payment reference.
- Choose Record repayment.
Use the claim’s currency and its supported decimal precision. The amount must be positive and no greater than the remaining approved balance. Keito does not convert currencies or combine balances in different currencies; totals are shown by currency for the current page of records.
For a £10 approved claim, recording £4 leaves £6 and shows Partially reimbursed. Recording the remaining £6 shows Reimbursed. Each record retains its amount, date, reference and who recorded it.
Correct a repayment with a void
Open the history and choose Void repayment beside the incorrect record. Enter Reason for voiding repayment, then choose Confirm repayment void. Record the corrected repayment separately if needed.
The original record remains visible with its void reason and date. A void changes the active repaid total; it does not reverse a bank payment or recover money.
Understand the states
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not classified | No reimbursement classification has been recorded |
| Not reimbursable | Explicitly classified as not repayable to the person |
| Awaiting approval | Marked reimbursable but not yet approved |
| Unpaid | Approved with no active repayments recorded |
| Partially reimbursed | Active repayments cover part of the reviewed amount |
| Reimbursed | Active repayments cover the reviewed amount |
| Needs review | An administrator must review a source change, supplier refund or reconciliation exception |
Approval status and invoice status remain separate from these reimbursement states.
Supplier refunds and changes
A linked supplier refund or relevant source-data change marks the claim Needs review and blocks further repayments. An administrator opens Review / history → Administrator claim review, enters the reviewed amount and a review reason, and chooses Record claim review.
Past payments stay intact. If the reviewed amount is below what has already been repaid, Keito shows an Overpayment / reconciliation exception and blocks further repayment. Recover or reconcile money outside Keito; refunds are never automatically netted against earlier repayments.
Disable the workflow or archive a recipient
Turning off Enable expense reimbursements and saving blocks new reimbursement actions. Authorized classification and repayment history stays available as read-only information.
Archiving a recipient preserves their history. An owner or administrator can settle an existing approved claim without reactivating the person, while the workflow and plan allow repayments. A manager whose scope or membership has been revoked loses access.