How to manage an unauthorised expense

.A manager's guide to unauthorised spending on the Expensemate platform.
By Luke McMullen
Marketing Manager

Your team’s cards have limits and category restrictions to help proactively control spending. These restrictions are a good front line measure to tackle expense fraud but uploaded expenses still require checks to ensure the individual items contained within are allowable.

In this article, we show you how to identify and manage unauthorised spending within your review group.

Identifying an unauthorised expense

Best practice is to scrutinise the receipt and ensure you are happy with the individual items listed.

If you are using the app, you can get a better view of the receipt by clicking the Enlarge icon on the top left of the receipt image.

Familiarise yourself with your organisation’s expense policy so you can easily spot suspicious purchases.

Declining a transaction

If you are not happy with a transaction, decline it. You can do this from the app or the portal.

This will change the transaction’s status to Personal Expense in the portal so your accountant is aware when administering.

Alternatively, you can request more information and send it back to the cardholder. Do this from the portal review screen.

Learn how to review transactions in the portal

Managing personal expenses

If an expense is marked as unauthorised, the user will receive a push notification informing them of the status change.

How your business handles the expense following that point will be unique to your organisation. Refer to your expense policy or speak with your account administrator for guidance.

Regardless of your internal processes, we always recommend keeping an open line of communication with the employee to help coach them so that future instances can be avoided.

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