What it is
The Expenses module is a native reimbursement and expense workflow that lives in TATER Ops. A single request can hold many line items — one per receipt — and each line is marked either reimbursable (out-of-pocket money the company owes you back) or company-card (already paid on a corporate card, captured only so finance can reconcile it). It replaces the fragile "Microsoft Form → Power Automate → spreadsheet row" intake that can silently break and drop submissions: in TATER, a failed submission is a visible error you can retry, never a silent gap.
How a request flows
- Submitted — you create the request with one or more line items. If any line is reimbursable and you supplied an approver email, it appears in that approver's My Approvals inbox.
- Approved / Rejected — an approver (or AP from the queue) decides. Approving means the reimbursable amount is cleared to pay.
- Paid — AP marks an approved request paid once the money is disbursed, optionally recording a payment reference (check #, ACH id).
- Logged — a request whose lines are all company-card has no payout, so it skips approval entirely and is recorded as Logged for reconciliation.
Submitting an expense
You can submit from two places — both use the same form:
- TATER Ops → Workspace → Expenses → + New expense
- My TATER → Personal → My Expenses → + New expense (the natural home for most employees)
For each line, enter the amount, a short description, the transaction date, and pick the payment type. Optionally add a category (travel, meals, supplies…) and attach a receipt image or PDF. Add as many lines as you have receipts, then submit. If you give an approver email, reimbursable lines route straight to that person; if not, AP picks it up from the queue.
Receipts
Each line can carry one receipt (image or PDF, up to 12 MB). Receipts are stored in the same secure attachment store as Ops ticket attachments and are retained for audit. Anyone who can view the request — the submitter or an admin — can open a receipt via a short-lived secure download link.
The AP queue (admins)
Org admins see an AP queue in Ops → Expenses (switch the scope selector to "AP queue (all)"). From there you can:
- See KPI tiles — how many requests await a decision, the total approved-but-unpaid amount (pending payout), total paid, and total company-card spend logged.
- Open any request, review its line items and receipts, and Approve or Reject it.
- Mark paid on an approved request once the money goes out, with an optional payment reference.
Approvals also surface in My Approvals across the suite, so an approver can act there without opening the AP queue.
Reporting
- TATER Insights → Reimbursements & Expenses gives a per-employee breakdown — reimbursable submitted, paid, pending payout, and company-card spend — plus a status mix and the top spenders. Use it for period totals and company-card reconciliation.
- Every action (submit, approve, reject, pay, cancel) is written to the activity log, so the whole lifecycle is auditable.
For AI agents (MCP)
Five MCP tools let an AI assistant work expenses end-to-end:
list_expense_requests(read) — your own requests, or the AP queue withscope=queue(Admin).get_expense_request(read) — full detail of one request including line items and receipts.create_expense_request(write) — submit a multi-line request on your behalf.decide_expense_request(write, Admin) — approve or reject a submitted request.mark_expense_paid(write, Admin) — mark an approved request paid.
Notes & limits
- You can only see and act on your own requests unless you are an org admin (who sees the whole AP queue).
- A request can mix reimbursable and company-card lines; the status tracks the reimbursable workflow while the company-card lines ride along as logged records.
- You can cancel any request that has not been paid; admins can cancel on a submitter's behalf.
- Receipts are uploaded after the request is created (the submit form does this automatically), so the create step stays fast even with several large receipts.