Record and post expense vouchers

An expense voucher records company spend that does not need an employee claim or a supplier bill. Each voucher line names the expense account to charge, and posting writes the journal: the expense accounts are debited and the cash, bank or payable account is credited. Use it for petty cash, bank charges, small cash purchases and pay-later expenses owed to a supplier. Employee reimbursement goes through expense claims, and purchases against an order go through bills.

Overview

A voucher has two levels:

• The voucher header — the company (Partner Account), Business Unit, Branch, GL Posting Type, Payment GL Account, Party Account, Document Date, Employee and Narration. When you save, the voucher is numbered automatically from the series EXP.
• Voucher lines — one per expense head. Each line has an Expense GL Account, an Amount and, optionally, a Tax Amount and a Description.

Expense vouchers are the first list in the Expenses app, where the list is labelled Expenses. They are also available in the Finance app. The list offers two views: All Expense Vouchers (the default) and Posted Expense Vouchers, which shows only vouchers with Is GL Posted ticked. Both views show Document Number, Document Date, Partner Account, Business Unit, Branch, Payment GL Account, Is GL Posted, Total Amount and the audit columns.

The record page shows Document Date, Partner Account, Business Unit, Branch and Payment GL Account in the header band. The header's only buttons are Post General Ledger, Edit and Delete. The page has three tabs:

• Lines — the expense lines, with Quick Add.
• Related — the journal that posting created.
• Details — the panels Key Information, Amount Details, Journal Status and System Information.

When to use it

Use an expense voucher when the company itself paid, or owes, for something and you only need the expense in the books:

• Cash — paid from petty cash on the day.
• Bank — paid straight from a bank account, for example bank charges or a utility paid by transfer.
• Credit — the supplier will be paid later. The voucher raises a payable that a later payment settles.

Do not use a voucher in these cases:

• An employee spent their own money. Use an expense claim, which carries approval, policy checks and reimbursement.
• The spend was on a company card. Post it from the card transactions (see Company cards).
• The purchase has an order, a goods receipt or stock items. Use a bill.

How xMatix handles it

• No approval step. Vouchers have no seeded approval process, and posting does not check Is GL Posting Approved. Anyone allowed to run Post General Ledger posts the voucher straight away. Review the voucher before you post it.
• Status starts as Draft, and posting sets it to Posted. Nothing in xMatix sets a voucher to Reversed, even when its journal is reversed (see Business rules).
• The journal. Posting creates and immediately posts one journal, named after the voucher (for example ExpenseVoucher-EXP-…), dated on the voucher's Document Date:
  • one debit per line to its Expense GL Account;
  • debits to input tax accounts for lines that carry a tax group;
  • one credit to the Payment GL Account for the total.
• Cash and Bank vouchers count as paid at posting, so Open Amount stays 0.
• Credit vouchers also open a payable item against the Party Account for the total, so the supplier balance and payables ageing include the voucher until it is paid.

Prerequisites

• An expense GL account for each kind of spend, and the cash, bank or payable account the money comes from. See GL accounts.
• An open fiscal period for the voucher's date. See Fiscal years and periods.
• For a Credit voucher, the supplier as an account. The seeded Party Account picker lists only active accounts marked as customer accounts (see Common problems).
• For split GST on a line, input tax accounts set up as described under Configuration.

Procedure

Step 1 — Create the voucher

Open the Expenses app, select Expenses and select New. On the form:

1. Select the Partner Account (your company), the Business Unit and the Branch. Branch lists only the selected company's branches.
2. Choose the GL Posting Type: Cash, Bank or Credit. It defaults to Cash.
3. Select the Payment GL Account, the account the money comes from: petty cash, the bank account, or the payable account for a Credit voucher.
4. In the Account Details panel, select the Party Account (required for Credit), the Document Date, the Employee who incurred or handled the spend (optional) and a Narration.
5. Select Save.

The voucher is saved as Draft and gets its number. If you left Business Unit or Branch empty, xMatix fills them from the Payment GL Account's default branch and business unit when it has them.

Step 2 — Add the expense lines

On the Lines tab, select Quick Add and fill Expense GL Account and Amount for each expense head. Add one line per account you want to charge.

Quick Add and the line Edit form show only those two fields. To record a Tax Amount or a Description, open the line itself and fill the fields there. Total Amount on the voucher adds up the lines: Amount plus Tax Amount for each line.

A line cannot be saved with an empty or zero Amount.

Step 3 — Check the voucher

Before you post, open the Details tab and check Total Amount, Payment GL Account and GL Posting Type against the receipt or bank entry. Posting is immediate and there is no approval step, so this check is the review.

Step 4 — Post it

Select Post General Ledger in the header. xMatix validates the voucher and posts the journal. Afterwards:

• Status is Posted.
• Is GL Posted is ticked, and the voucher appears in Posted Expense Vouchers.
• Total Amount is restamped from the posted lines.
• The journal is listed on the Related tab.
• For a Credit voucher, Open Amount equals the total and Amount Paid is 0.

The Journal field in the Key Information panel is not filled by posting. Use the Related tab to reach the journal.

Step 5 — Pay a Credit voucher

A Credit voucher is paid like a supplier bill:

1. Create a payment for the supplier in the payments screen. The direction must be money paid.
2. In the open documents, the voucher appears under the supplier with its open amount. Allocate the payment to it.
3. Save. The payment posts, settles the voucher's payable item and adds to the voucher's Amount Paid.

The voucher's own Open Amount field does not go down when a payment settles it. Read the supplier balance or payables ageing for the true outstanding amount. A row that has nothing left in the ledger is refused with "… cannot be settled from this screen — no open ledger entry exists for …".

Cash and Bank vouchers are already paid at posting. Do not record a payment against them: with no open item to settle, the payment becomes an on-account advance to the supplier.

Step 6 — Correct a posted voucher

You cannot post a voucher twice. To correct one:

1. Open the journal from the voucher's Related tab and reverse it (see Journals). The voucher itself keeps Posted.
2. Correct the voucher header or lines.
3. Select Post General Ledger again. Because the old journal is reversed, xMatix posts a fresh journal with a -R1 suffix (then -R2, and so on) and retires the old payable item.

A Credit voucher that has already been paid against cannot be re-posted this way. You get "Expense voucher's earlier posting was reversed, but its payable was already paid against. Un-apply those payments before posting it again." Un-apply the payment allocations first.

The voucher entity also has a Repost to Ledger action that reverses the live journal and posts again in one step, but it is not on the seeded record header. An administrator can add it (see Configuration).

Step 7 — Find, copy or delete vouchers

• Find. Use the list's search, filters and the Posted Expense Vouchers view.
• Copy. Clone copies the header only, never the lines, and it keeps Status. A clone of a posted voucher therefore starts as Posted with no lines. Clone is not on the seeded record header, so it is only available where an administrator adds it.
• Delete. Delete is on the record header and on the list. Nothing stops you deleting a posted voucher, and deleting it does not reverse its journal. Reverse the journal first.

On mobile

The field app has an expense voucher form with the header fields Partner Account, Business Unit, Branch, Payment GL Account, Party Account, Document Date, Employee and Narration. It has no GL Posting Type, so vouchers created there are Cash. The mobile record shows the voucher status, the lines (editable) and the Key Information and Journal Status sections. In the mobile payment screen, an expense voucher can be chosen as the document a payment is made against.

Fields

Voucher header

Voucher line

Business rules

• Validation at save.
  • "Voucher Date can not be future date !" — the Document Date is after today.
  • "Amount can not be zero or less than zero!" — a line Amount is empty or zero. Despite the wording, a negative amount is not refused.
• Posting validation, in order:
  • "Expense voucher needs a payment (credit) GL account."
  • "A credit (pay-later) expense voucher needs a party (supplier) account to raise the payable against."
  • "Expense voucher has no expense lines." — no line has both an Expense GL Account and a non-zero amount.
• Posting twice. A voucher whose journal is still live is refused with "Expense voucher '…' has already been posted to the general ledger. A posted voucher cannot be posted again." Once that journal is reversed, the voucher can be posted again (Step 6).
• What posting writes.
  • Each postable line debits its Expense GL Account with its gross amount (Amount plus Tax Amount, or Amount alone when tax-inclusive), minus any tax split out to input tax accounts.
  • The Payment GL Account is credited with the sum of the gross amounts, tagged with the Party Account.
  • Lines without an Expense GL Account, or with a zero gross amount, are left out silently.
• Period checks. The journal takes the Document Date. If that falls in a closed period or financial year, posting is refused with "Fiscal period '…' is … — posting is not allowed." or "Financial year for period '…' is … — posting is not allowed."
• Control accounts. A Payment GL Account that is a control account must have a Party Account, or posting fails with "Party Account is required on lines posting to a control account."
• Credit vouchers. These raise a payable open item for the total against the Party Account. A payment allocated to the voucher settles that item, fully or partly.
• Reversal. Reversing the voucher's journal does not change the voucher: it keeps Posted and Is GL Posted. Posting it again retires the old payable item and posts a new journal.
• Edits after posting. Nothing locks a posted voucher, and editing it does not change its journal. Correct it through reversal and re-posting (Step 6).
• Tax on lines.
  • A line with a tax group gets its Tax Amount calculated on save, unless a tax amount was entered.
  • Changing the amount or the tax group recalculates it, and clearing the group sets it to 0.
  • Lines of a posted voucher are never recalculated.
• Numbering. Vouchers are numbered EXP, the date (DDMMYYYY) and a six-digit counter, separated by -. Lines are numbered too.

Example

On 3 March the office manager of a branch pays for printer paper and a courier from petty cash, and the cleaning contractor sends a monthly invoice to be paid at the end of the month.

1. They create a voucher with GL Posting Type Cash, Payment GL Account "Petty Cash", Document Date 3 March and Narration "Stationery and courier, week 9".
2. They add two lines: "Office Supplies" 1,500 and "Postage and Courier" 300. Total Amount shows 1,800.
3. They select Post General Ledger. The voucher becomes Posted, and the Related tab shows a journal that debits Office Supplies 1,500 and Postage and Courier 300 and credits Petty Cash 1,800.
4. For the cleaning invoice they create a second voucher with GL Posting Type Credit, Payment GL Account "Accounts Payable", Party Account the cleaning contractor and one line "Cleaning and Maintenance" 6,000. After posting, Open Amount shows 6,000 and the contractor's payables include the voucher.
5. On 31 March finance records a 6,000 payment to the contractor and allocates it to the voucher. The payable item is settled and Amount Paid shows 6,000.

Training

Practice exercise

In a sandbox company:

1. Create a Cash voucher dated today with two lines (any two expense accounts, 250 and 750) and post it.
2. Create a Credit voucher for 1,000 against a supplier and post it.
3. Record a payment of 400 to that supplier allocated to the credit voucher.

Expected result.

• The cash voucher is Posted with Total Amount 1,000, and its Related tab shows one journal with two debits and one credit.
• The credit voucher shows Amount Paid 400.
• The supplier's payable for the voucher shows 600 still open in the ledger, while the voucher's Open Amount field still reads 1,000.

Quick reference

• Expense vouchers are company spend: no claimant, no approval, no reimbursement.
• GL Posting Type: Cash and Bank are paid at posting; Credit opens a payable.
• A Credit voucher needs a Party Account.
• Quick Add takes Expense GL Account and Amount; open the line for Tax Amount and Description.
• The Document Date cannot be in the future and must fall in an open period.
• Post General Ledger posts immediately; there is no approval step.
• The journal is on the Related tab, not in the Journal field.
• To correct a posted voucher: reverse its journal, fix the voucher, post again.
• Pay a Credit voucher from a payment to the supplier; check the ledger, not Open Amount, for what is still owed.

Permissions

• Viewing and editing. Seeing, creating, editing and deleting vouchers follows the entity access on the user's security profile. The seeded Standard User, System Admin, Sales Executive and Sales Manager profiles have full access.
• Server actions. These also need a grant on the profile's Actions tab:
  • Standard User and System Admin are granted every voucher action, including Post General Ledger, Post, Repost to Ledger, Payment and Clone.
  • Sales Executive is granted Clone, Edit and Delete, but not posting.
• Without the grant. A user without the posting grant can prepare vouchers but cannot post them.

See Security profiles.

Configuration

• Numbering. Setup → Feature Hub → Platform → Document Settings:
  • Expense Voucher Settings (series EXP, separator -, date DDMMYYYY, six digits) numbers vouchers.
  • Lines have two active settings, EVL and VL. Deactivate one so line numbers follow a single series.
  • See Email templates and document numbering.
• Accounts.
  • Create the expense, petty cash, bank and payable accounts in the chart of accounts (see Chart of accounts).
  • A GL account's default branch and default business unit fill an empty Branch and Business Unit on a voucher that uses it as Payment GL Account.
• Header buttons. The seeded record header shows only Post General Ledger, Edit and Delete. To offer Repost to Ledger, Clone or Payment, add them to the header actions of the Expense Voucher view layout under Setup → Design Studio → Entities (Experience → layouts). See Design a form layout.
  • Post is a second action with the same effect as Post General Ledger. Show only one of them.
  • Post Adjustments has no server handler for vouchers, so running it fails with an error. Do not add it.
• Party Account picker. The seeded lookup filter Customer Account Filter limits Party Account to active customer accounts. If your suppliers are not marked as customers, change the filter so it offers supplier accounts, under the entity's Schema → Lookup Filters.
• GST on lines. The line fields Tax Group and ITC Eligibility and the voucher field Amounts Include Tax are not on any seeded form. To use them, add them to the line and voucher layouts.
  • With a tax group, posting debits the expense account with the net amount and each GST component to an input tax account. It also records the input tax for the ITC ledger and the GST returns (see Tax center).
  • The input tax account comes from an Expense Voucher Line tax posting definition. If there is none, xMatix uses the Bill Line one, and failing that the Tax Credit GL account whose subtype names the component. If none resolves, posting fails with "No GL account resolved for input tax '…' on line '…'. Configure a Tax Credit account (or a BillLine / ExpenseVoucherLine Tax posting definition)."
  • ITC Eligibility Blocked (Sec 17(5)) or Ineligible sends the line's GST to the ineligible-tax posting definition, or leaves it on the expense account. Blank means Eligible.
  • Amounts Include Tax treats each line Amount as tax-inclusive and splits the tax out of it. Changing it on an unposted voucher recalculates the tax.
  • Rounding. Line tax is rounded by the Finance setting for tax rounding mode.
• Automatic posting of synced vouchers. Setup → Feature Hub → Modules → Finance → Settings, group Auto-post synced documents:
  • Post synced Expense Vouchers automatically (off by default) and the required Only documents created on or after (yyyy-MM-dd, UTC) post vouchers that an accounting integration creates.
  • Only vouchers with a company, lines and posting enabled on the company are posted. Vouchers keyed in by hand are never auto-posted.
• Approval. No approval process is seeded for expense vouchers, and posting does not check approval. To control who posts, grant Post General Ledger only to the profiles that should post (see Permissions).

Common problems

"Voucher Date can not be future date !"

The Document Date is after today. Vouchers record spend that has already happened; change the date to the day of the spend.

"Amount can not be zero or less than zero!"

A line has no amount or an amount of 0. Enter the line amount, or delete the line.

"Expense voucher has no expense lines."

No line has both an Expense GL Account and a non-zero amount. Add the lines on the Lines tab before you post.

"A credit (pay-later) expense voucher needs a party (supplier) account to raise the payable against."

The voucher is Credit but has no Party Account. Select the supplier, or change GL Posting Type to Cash or Bank if the expense was paid on the spot.

My supplier is not in the Party Account list

The seeded picker shows only active accounts marked as customer accounts. Ask an administrator to change the lookup filter (see Configuration), or to mark the account accordingly.

"Expense voucher '…' has already been posted to the general ledger."

The voucher already has a live journal. To change it, reverse the journal first (Step 6), then post again.

"Fiscal period '…' is Closed — posting is not allowed."

The Document Date falls in a closed period. Either date the voucher in an open period, or ask finance to reopen the period (see Period close).

"No GL account resolved for input tax …"

A line has a tax group but no input tax account could be found for one of its components. Set up the tax posting definition or the Tax Credit account described under Configuration, then post again.

The voucher still shows an Open Amount after I paid it

The voucher's Open Amount field is set at posting and is not reduced by payments. The payment settled the payable item in the ledger and increased Amount Paid. Check the supplier balance or payables ageing for the true position.

"Adjustment needs two documents only!"

An adjustment that links a payment to an expense voucher is refused. Allocate the payment to the voucher when you record the payment instead (Step 5).

I reversed the journal but the voucher still says Posted

That is expected. The voucher keeps Posted until you post it again, which creates a fresh journal.

Common questions

What is the difference between an expense voucher and an expense claim?

A claim is an employee's request to be paid back. It has a claimant, policy checks, approval and reimbursement, and it posts a payable to the employee. A voucher is the company recording its own spend. It has no claimant workflow and no approval, and it credits cash, bank or a supplier payable directly. Choose the claim whenever an employee's own money is involved; choose the voucher for petty cash, bank charges and pay-later expenses owed to a supplier.

Is there any difference between Cash and Bank?

Not in posting. Both credit the Payment GL Account you selected and count as paid at posting, with no payable. The value records how the expense was paid, for your own reporting. What actually decides the account is the Payment GL Account, so pick petty cash or the right bank account there. Only Credit changes the behaviour, by requiring a Party Account and raising a payable.

Can I edit a voucher after posting it?

The form lets you, but editing does not touch the journal that was already posted, so the books and the voucher would disagree. Reverse the journal from the Related tab, make the correction, and select Post General Ledger again. xMatix then posts a new journal from the corrected voucher. For a Credit voucher that has already been paid against, un-apply the payment first.

Does the employee field post to the employee's account?

No. Employee records who incurred or handled the spend, for your reference and reporting. It is not copied onto the journal, and the voucher never creates an employee payable. If the employee paid with their own money and needs reimbursing, use an expense claim instead.

Related topics

• Submit and approve expense claims
• Expense accounting and recharge
• Recording and applying payments
• Journals
• Chart of accounts
• Business units
• Expense Voucher — entity reference
• Expense Voucher Line — entity reference