An expense document is a virtual container for individual expenses. Projector supports four different types that fulfill various roles. The list below gives you a short description of each type and when you might use it.

Expense Reports MP - each report is for a single resource in your organization. That report may cover several projects. For example, travel expenses to a client may be comprised of receipts for hotel, meal, and taxi.
Vendor Invoice - use this to track monies paid to a vendor. For example, you purchase a server for a client. The vendor sends you an invoice for $2000.
Subcontractor Invoices MP - use this to track subcontractors that enter their time into Projector. Based on that time, generate payment vouchers for the subcontractor and optionally pass that expense onto a client.
Soft Costs MP - use this to track non-labor charges like licensing fees or overhead. For example, you charge your client a monthly retainer, but there is no labor associated with that retainer. Soft costs are also used to model some non-standard costs in Projector, so visit the help page to learn more about these.

Permissions and Settings

Please see the help pages for each expense document type to learn about special permissions that may apply to that type.

Each document is associated with exactly one cost center. The cost center is assigned at the time of document creation. This is for two reasons. First we need to determine the routing for accounting transactions based on cost center. By binding it early, we prevent any inaccurate routing down the road. Second, the permissions around who can approve expenses for payment vouchers and invoicing is determined by cost center. Early binding of cost center keeps this person consistent throughout the document's life cycle.

Even though cost cards are grouped onto an expense document, the approval process allows for any individual cost card to be pushed through the approval process separate from other cards on the document. So we don't cover approvals in this section. Rather, see the Configure Expense Approval help page.

The ability to create expense documents is driven by a few different settings.

Create Expense Report document - can be created through Expense Entry by any resource. Can be created in management portal by anyone with the cost center permission Maintain Expenses.
Create Vendor Invoice document - requires the cost center permission Maintain Vendor Invoices
Create Subcontractor Invoice document - requires the cost center permission Maintain Subcontractor Invoices
Create Soft Cost document - requires the cost center permission Maintain Soft Costs

Receipts may be attached to each document type as a whole, encompassing all cost cards on the document, or to individual cost cards. Receipts can also be locked down so they cannot be modified after approval. These settings are set on the System Settings Editor Cost Tab.

Expense documents may no longer have expenses added once all the expenses are marked Approved to Pay. You can optionally tighten this restriction to expense reports where all cards are marked Approved with the system setting Lock expense documents when fully approved.

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