EM502 – Streamlining Employee Business Travel with Expense Management in Dynamics 365 Project Operation

Introduction

In today’s fast-paced business environment, managing employee travel expenses efficiently is essential for maintaining financial accuracy and operational effectiveness. With the complexities of capturing receipts, submitting expense reports, and ensuring timely approvals, organizations need a streamlined solution. Dynamics 365 Project Operation provides powerful Expense Management capabilities that simplify the entire travel expense lifecycle. In this article, we will delve into the key configurations required for capturing receipts through the mobile app, submitting expense reports from mobile app for workflow approval, and ensuring accurate financial postings to the correct main accounts.

The Importance of Managing Business Travel Expenses

1. Cost Control: Effective tracking of travel expenses helps organizations monitor budgets and avoid overspending.
2. Compliance: A structured system ensures that all expenses comply with company policies and regulations.
3. Efficiency: Automating the approval process and receipt management saves time for both employees and finance teams.
4. Employee Satisfaction: A user-friendly interface encourages employees to submit expenses promptly and accurately.

Step-by-Step Configuration for Employee Business Travel

Step 1: Create Main Accounts

• Go to General Ledger > Chart of Accounts > Main Accounts.
• Click on New to create accounts specifically for travel expenses:

Step 2: Configure Expense Categories

• Go to Travel and Expense Management > Setup > General > Expense categories.
• Create Flight Expense Category

• Create Hotel Expense Category

• Create Meal Expense Category

Step 3: Configure Expense Report Policies

• Go to Travel and Expense Management > Setup > Policies > Expense Report.

• Configure ‘Business Trip – Flights must be <=300 & Economy class only policy

• Configure ‘Business Trip – Business Trip – Hotel number of night must required policy

• Configure ‘Business Trip –Business Trip – Meals must have Justification policy

• Configure ‘Business Trip Business Trip – Receipt for each expense policy

Step 4: Configure Tax

• Go to Expense Management > Setup > General > Tax Configuration

Step 5: Capturing Expense Receipt with Expense Management mobile app and or Expense management (Re-imagined) workspace

5.1 Capture or Attach existing receipt with Mobile app

• Flight Receipt: £408.07

• Hotel Receipt

• Meal Receipts:

• All 3 expenses are attached

Step 6: Submission of Expense report from Mobile app

• Navigate to Report Tab

• Create Expense Report and attach expenses

Step 7: Submit for Approval & Post

• Once all expenses are logged and receipts are attached, submit the expense report for approval

Note – I have Standard D365 for Project Operation workflow configured for Managerial hierarchy approval.

• Submitted expense reports moves to In Review tab

• Approver sees approval requests under Approval tab of the Expense mobile app

• Approver can approve, delegate or reject report

• Approved expense reports move to Approved tab

• Employee can also track expense report submission directly from UI (Expense Management workspace)

• Expense administrator can see all approved expense report from (Expense Management > Process expense reports > Approved expense reports) and Post

• Approval status changes to Processed for Payment

Step 8: Verify Financial Posting

• Vendor Transactions

• Transaction Voucher for correct main accounts along with VAT amount

Step 9: Process Supplier Payments

• Create payment journal and run payment proposal
• Select open expenses invoices
• Post payment journal
• Update expense payment information: Expense management > Periodic tasks > Update expense payment information
• Payment voucher get printed on expense report screen

Conclusion

By following these steps, you can effectively streamline the management of employee business travel expenses using Dynamics 365 Project Operation’s Expense Management module. This setup ensures that expenses are accurately recorded, receipts are captured efficiently, and all necessary fields and justifications are collected for compliance and reporting. The result is a smoother travel expense process that benefits both employees and the finance team, leading to improved operational efficiency and employee satisfaction.

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