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People & HR · Expense claims
Staff claim it back with the receipts. You repay it in payroll or directly.
An employee who paid for a taxi, a night’s lodging or a ream of paper fills in one claim with a line per expense and the receipts attached. Someone else approves it, the spend lands in the ledger that moment, and the money goes back either as an untaxed line on a payslip in the month you pick or straight from a bank, cash, mobile-money or petty cash account.
Web No-login portal Mobile app, offline too
Expense claim EC-0142 Field visit, Nakuru · Wanjiru Kamau
Submitted - Taxi to the pump site and back2,400.00Travel and transport Borehole rehab receipt.jpg
- One night, guest house4,950.00Accommodation invoice.pdf
- Airtime for site calls500.00Airtime and data mpesa.png
Total · KES7,850.00
Repay in payrollNovember 2026, untaxed line
Repay directlyBank, cash, M-Pesa or petty cash
Wanjiru cannot approve her own claim while anyone else in the organization can.
One claim, start to finish
Draft, submitted, approved, repaid — and a way back when it needs fixing.
Every claim follows the same four states. The fork is at approval: the approver decides how the money goes back, and can change that decision until it has been paid.
1
Draft
The employee adds lines and receipts and saves as often as they like. Nothing reaches an approver yet.
Employee 2
Submitted
The claim is fixed from here: what the approver opens is exactly what was sent. Everyone who can approve claims is notified, except the claimant.
Employee → approvers 3
Approved
The approver checks the lines, opens the receipts and approves with an optional comment. The spend is booked to the ledger at this moment.
Approver4a · Repaid in payroll
A one-off earning on the payslip for the month chosen, not taxable and not pensionable. Marked repaid by itself when that payroll run posts.
4b · Repaid directly
Once the money has gone, enter the payment reference and the account it left, and mark it repaid. A petty cash box gets a voucher on its float.
Returned, with a reason. An approver can send a submitted claim back to its owner; the reason is required and is what the claimant sees. They correct it and submit again. An approval given in error can be withdrawn too, with a reason: the ledger booking is reversed, any queued payslip line is removed, and the claim goes back to its owner as returned.
Two approve options
Pick the payroll month, or pay it today.
An approved claim that has not been repaid can still be moved to another payroll month, or switched between payroll and direct repayment.
Through payroll
The claim rides on net pay as a reimbursement, not as pay. It is checked before it is accepted, so it cannot quietly fall out of a run:
- The month must still be open. If that month’s run is already approved or paid, you are asked to choose a later one.
- The employee needs an active contract, because a payroll run only pays employees who have one.
- The employee must be paid in your organization’s currency. Payroll does no currency conversion, so someone paid in another currency is repaid directly.
- Marked repaid when the run posts, so nobody ticks it off by hand.
Directly
For a claim that cannot wait for month end, or an employee off the payroll. Pay it however you pay, then record it:
- A payment reference, such as the bank or M-Pesa transaction code.
- The account it was paid from — a bank, cash, mobile-money or petty cash account, with Bank used when you leave it.
- A petty cash box keeps its own record. Paying from a float writes a voucher on that box, and the float cannot pay out more than it holds.
- The claimant is told it was repaid, as they were told it was approved.
What posts
Booked when it is owed, cleared when it is paid.
The organization owes the employee from the moment the claim is approved, so that is when the expense is recognised. Each category maps to an expense account in HR settings; a category left unmapped books to Operating Expenses. Claims and the ledger are both in your base currency, so a claim posts as it is.
At approval
| Dr | The expense account mapped to each line’s category, tagged with the line’s project or, without one, the employee’s department |
| Cr | Staff Reimbursements Payable |
Repaid directly
| Dr | Staff Reimbursements Payable |
| Cr | The bank, cash, mobile-money or petty cash account the money left |
Repaid in payroll
| Dr | Staff Reimbursements Payable, inside the payroll posting |
The claim is carried in net pay but kept out of payroll cost, so the same spend is never counted twice.
Approval withdrawn
| ↺ | A reversal of exactly what the approval booked |
Nothing else in the ledger moves, and the claim returns to its owner.
Three ways in
A claim from a desk, from a link, or from the road.
Each door uses the same rules and the same service, so HR decides a claim the same way wherever it came from.
My Claims on the web
The self-service tab beside My Leave and My Payslips, for staff with a login linked to their employee record. They follow each claim until it is repaid and get a notification at every decision.
Login linked to an employeeThe no-login portal
For employees who never sign in: their personal link at /claims/…, unlocked with their PIN, the same link family as their leave, time and payslip pages. They raise, save and submit claims and open their own receipts there, and are emailed when a claim is approved, returned or repaid.
The mobile app
My Expense Claims in the Android and iOS app. With no signal, a new claim is queued with its receipts copied into the app’s own storage, and sent when the phone is back online. The claim list is kept for reading offline.
Android and iOS · offline for new claims Approvers work from one queue. The Expense Claims queue opens on Awaiting approval, with tabs for approved-not-yet-repaid, repaid and returned. Submitted claims also sit in the approvals hub on the web and in the app, with both approve options and a return. From a push notification an approver can return a claim with a comment; approving means choosing how it is repaid, so the push opens the hub for that.
The form, exactly
One set of rules behind all three doors.
The loosest door would decide what reaches payroll if each had its own copy, so they share one.
50lines on one claim, each with a date, category, description, amount and an optional project.
Todayis the latest an expense date can be. A future date is refused.
10 MBper receipt, up to ten per save: PDF, JPG, PNG, WEBP or HEIC, stored in the Document Vault against the claim.
1currency: your organization’s base currency, shown beside the amount. The claimant does not choose it.
0–2decimal places, as the currency has them: whole numbers for UGX, two for KES.
8categories, each mapped to an expense account of your choosing.
3permissions: submit own claims, view claims, approve claims.
0self-approvals while anyone else can approve. Where nobody else can, the owner may, and the audit log says it was self-decided.
Travel and transportAccommodationMeals and subsistenceFuel and mileageAirtime and dataSupplies and materialsFees and permitsOther
Three kinds of spend
Whose money was it?
This page
The employee’s own money
Someone paid for work out of their pocket and wants it back. They raise the claim; HR or finance approves and repays it.
Expense management
The organization’s spend
Rent, utilities, subscriptions and bank fees that finance records directly, paid now or held as a payable.
Expense management Petty cash and advances
Money handed out first
A float in a box, or an advance paid before a trip and retired against receipts afterwards.
Petty cash and staff advancesWhat AWRA OpsHub does today
- Claims with up to 50 lines, each with a date no later than today, one of eight categories, a description, an amount and an optional project.
- Receipts attached as PDF or photos, up to 10 MB each and ten per save, kept in the Document Vault against the claim.
- One currency per organization: every claim is in your base currency, with decimal places checked against that currency.
- Draft, submit, approve, return and repay, with a claim fixed once submitted and a required reason on every return.
- The claimant kept out of their own approval while anyone else can approve, and a self-decided claim recorded as such in the audit log.
- Two approve options: repay through a payroll month you pick, as an untaxed, non-pensionable payslip line, or repay directly from a bank, cash, mobile-money or petty cash account.
- Checks before payroll accepts a claim: an open month, an active contract and pay in the same currency.
- Repayment changes after approval, moving a claim to another month or between payroll and direct until it is paid.
- Withdrawing an approval, which reverses the booking and removes any queued payslip line.
- Ledger postings at approval against Staff Reimbursements Payable, by category account, tagged by project or department, and cleared by the repayment.
- Three doors on one rule set: My Claims on the web, the no-login portal with its PIN, and the mobile app, which queues new claims and their receipts offline.
- Approvals hub entries on the web and in the app, a return from the push notification, notifications to approvers and claimants, and email to portal-only employees.
More we can add to your workspace
- Spending limits per category or per grade, checked as each line is entered and flagged to the approver.
- Approval chains for claims by amount and department, using the same bands that procurement documents follow.
- One-tap Approve on the claim notification, repaying by a method your organization sets as its default.
- Mileage claims worked out from a distance and a per-kilometre rate.
- Per diem allowances at a fixed daily rate by destination.
- Claims in a foreign currency, converted into your base currency at the day’s rate.
- Receipt reading, filling a line’s date and amount from a photographed receipt.
- Offline edits to an existing claim in the app, queued like a new claim already is.
Where we point you to a specialist
- We will not let a submitted claim change under its approver. If it needs correcting, it goes back to its owner and comes back as a fresh submission.
- We will not tax a repayment. A claim repaid in payroll repays the employee’s own money, so it stays out of taxable and pensionable pay; an allowance your tax authority counts as income belongs in payroll as an earning.
- We will not convert a claim into another currency inside payroll. An employee paid in a different currency is repaid directly.
Spending limits and approval chains by amount are the two items most organizations ask for first. Tell us your claims policy and we will come back with a written spec, a timeline and a price.
Around the claim
Where expense claims meet the rest of HR and finance.
People & HRThe whole employee lifecycle, from hiring to final pay. PayrollThe run that repays a claim as an untaxed payslip line. Employee self-service portalsLeave, payslips and claims for staff with or without a login. Approve from a notificationThe approvals hub and push decisions, claims included. Expense managementThe organization’s own operating spend, recorded by finance. Petty cash and staff advancesFloats, vouchers and advances retired against receipts.
Frequently asked questions
How does an employee claim back an expense?
They open My Claims on the web, their no-login portal link or the mobile app, add one line per expense with a date, category, description and amount, attach the receipts and submit. Everyone who can approve claims is notified, except the claimant.
How is an approved claim repaid?
The approver chooses. Through payroll, the claim becomes an untaxed, non-pensionable line on the payslip for the month chosen and is marked repaid when that run posts. Directly, someone pays it and records the reference and the bank, cash, mobile-money or petty cash account it left.
Is an expense claim taxed when it is repaid through payroll?
No. It repays the employee’s own money rather than paying them, so it is kept out of taxable and pensionable pay and out of payroll cost.
Can someone approve their own expense claim?
Not while anyone else in the organization can approve claims. In a workspace where nobody else can, the owner may decide it, and the audit log records that it was self-decided.
What happens in the ledger?
At approval each line is debited to the expense account mapped to its category, tagged with its project or the employee’s department, against Staff Reimbursements Payable. The repayment clears that payable, and withdrawing an approval reverses exactly what it booked.
Can employees without a login submit claims?
Yes. Each employee has a personal portal link, unlocked with a PIN, where they raise and submit claims with receipts. They are emailed when a claim is approved, returned or repaid.
Can a claim be submitted offline from the mobile app?
Yes, a new one. The app queues it with its receipts copied into its own storage and sends it when the phone is back online. Changes to an existing claim need a connection.
Which currency is a claim in?
Your organization’s base currency, always. The form shows it beside the amount and checks the decimal places against it. An employee paid in another currency is repaid directly rather than through payroll.
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