Recording & Managing Expenses
Expenses live under Finance → Expenses. Each expense is a single spend event on the vessel — a fuel bill, a chandlery purchase, a repair — with an optional receipt and its own approve / pay lifecycle. Unlike Invoices, expenses are not scanned by AI; you enter the details on the form.
Creating an Expense
- •Go to Finance → Expenses
- •Click New Expense
- •Fill in the form. Required fields are marked and validated on submit:
- •Expense Date — cannot be in the future
- •Amount — must be greater than 0
- •Currency — EUR, USD, or GBP (seeded from the vessel default)
- •Description — at least 5 characters
- •Category — Crew Costs, Fuel & Lubricants, Maintenance & Repairs, Provisions, Insurance & Compliance, Harbor Fees & Port Costs, Communication & Navigation, Refit & Capital Expenditure, or Other Operating
- •Expense Type — Fixed, Variable, or Capital
- •Optional fields:
- •Subcategory — free text
- •Vendor Name — who was paid
- •Payment Method — Cash, Check, Bank Transfer, or Credit Card
- •Receipt — see below
- •Linked Records (collapsible) — attach the expense to a Task, Equipment, Purchase Order, Charter, or Maintenance Period
- •Click Create Expense
Linking a Purchase Order auto-fills the vendor name from that PO's supplier if the vendor field is empty.
Receipts
Upload a receipt directly on the form or from the expense detail view. Accepted file types are PDF, JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC/HEIF, XLS, and XLSX, up to 50 MB. Files upload straight from the browser to secure storage; the receipt is shown behind a short-lived signed link, so it is never publicly exposed. Re-uploading replaces the old file, and you can remove a receipt from an editable expense.
Receipts may be mandatory. Each vessel has a receipt-required threshold in its accounting settings:
- •If the threshold is set to a value, any expense over that amount must have a receipt before it will save.
- •If the threshold is 0 (the strict default), every expense requires a receipt.
The form warns you inline when a receipt is required for the amount you have entered.
Auto-approval
Whether a new expense needs a human approver depends on the vessel's configured thresholds:
- •At or below the auto-approval threshold, the expense is created already Approved (with an auto-approval trail).
- •Above the auto-approval threshold, it is created Pending and waits for an approver.
- •Above the high-value threshold, auto-approval is never applied — an approver must always sign off, even if the auto-approval threshold is misconfigured higher.
The form shows which of these applies as you type the amount, so there are no surprises after submitting.
Statuses
An expense's payment status moves through:
- •Pending — submitted, waiting for approval
- •Approved — authorised, ready to be paid
- •Paid — settled, with a payment date and optional reference recorded
- •Rejected — declined by an approver with a reason
- •Disputed — flagged as under query (tracked separately, see below)
The Approve / Settle Workflow
Approve or reject
A user with the Can approve expenses permission can approve or reject a Pending expense. Self-approval is blocked — the person who created the expense cannot approve or reject it themselves, and there is no admin exemption. Rejecting requires a reason, which is stored and shown on the expense.
Mark as paid
Once an expense is Approved, a user with the Can settle expenses permission can Mark Paid, optionally entering a payment date (defaults to today) and a payment reference. Only Approved expenses can be settled. Self-settle is allowed here — the two-person check already happened at approval. You can also select several approved expenses and mark them paid in bulk; each row succeeds or fails independently.
Editing & Deleting
Only Pending expenses can be edited or deleted. Once an expense is Approved, Paid, or Rejected it is locked — use Reject, Mark Paid, or Raise Dispute instead. Deleting a Pending expense also removes its receipt file. Expenses dated inside a locked accounting period cannot be created, edited, or deleted until an admin reopens the period.
Disputes
Disputes are tracked on a separate axis from payment status — an expense can be Approved or Paid and Disputed at the same time. From an Approved or Paid expense, click Raise Dispute to flag a query. Dispute states are None, Disputed, Under Review, and Resolved.
Permissions
- •View / Create / Edit / Delete — standard accounting access to the Expenses module
- •Can approve expenses — approve or reject Pending expenses (self-approval always blocked)
- •Can settle expenses — mark Approved expenses as Paid
Tips
- •Attach a receipt to every expense — many vessels require one, and it is essential for audit and tax
- •Link expenses to a Purchase Order, Charter, or Maintenance Period so spending is easy to reconcile later
- •Keep amounts under the auto-approval threshold moving quickly; high-value spend always routes to an approver
- •If an expense was rejected, read the reason, create a corrected one — rejected expenses cannot be edited
- •Use the status filters on the Expenses list to focus on what needs action, such as Pending approvals or Approved-not-yet-paid