With the implementation of the new Dashboard interface, we are currently in the process of updating our documentation and some pages may be out of date. Thank you for your patience. Please contact our support team if you need any assistance.
Go to the Collective you're submitting the expense to and click "Submit Expense".
On the Submit expense page, you can submit two types of expenses, reimbursements and invoices. On this page, you can also check the Collective balance, review expense policies and get the answers to a few of the most frequently asked questions.
In the first step, you can specify who will be paid for this expense (an individual or an organization) and which payment method you wish to use.
If you are invoicing through a company, create an organization profile for your company and select it here instead of using your personal profile, so the correct entity is recorded as being paid for tax purposes.
Additionally, the invoice form will ask for your country, physical address, and give you the option to add more info.
The availability of certain options depends on which plan the organization adopts, and may include bank transfers, PayPal, or a custom method.
You can either select a saved bank account or add a new one. To add a new bank account:
Select the currency in which you would like to receive your payment.
Transaction Method: Select 'local bank account'
Account Information
Select Personal or Business
Fill all fields with the requested info, making sure to not use any acronyms. All fields are mandatory and may vary depending on the selected currency.
Our bank transfer feature uses Wise and is only available in countries Wise serves. For an up-to-date list of countries, please refer to their website.
If your country does not allow Wise payment, and no other alternatives exist, we will suggest looking into Payoneer as a possible option.
To use PayPal, you can either select one of the saved PayPal accounts or add a new one by adding the email address registered in said account.
Add any relevant info necessary to complete the transaction.
In order to be paid, submitted expenses must be approved by a Collective admin, who ensures valid use of the Collective's funds. Then it proceeds to the fiscal host admin for processing. Expenses cannot be paid if there are insufficient funds in the Collective balance. They must be either less than or equal to the amount of funds you already have.
A reimbursement allows you to be reimbursed for a purchase you already made. To open the submission form, click on Reimbursement and add a title to your expense.
Reimbursements must have receipts. Upload one or multiple receipts by dragging and dropping files or opening the file selector. Describe each item and add the date of purchase and amount spent.
A valid receipt contains:
Name of the vendor (person or company you paid)
Transaction date (when you paid)
A detailed description of goods or services purchased (what you bought)
Amount paid
Form of payment (cash, check, or last four digits of the credit card)
Private information provided on invoices is not viewable publicly. The expense amount and title will be listed on the Collective's public page, but the attached files and payment details are only visible to admins.
An invoice allows you to be paid for your work, or to get funds in advance of a purchase. If you don't have a receipt for a reimbursement, you can submit an invoice instead.
To open the submission form, click on Invoice and add a title to your expense.
If you have an invoice ready, you can upload it as an attachment to the expense. However, you are still required to set invoice details such as description, date and amount.
If you don't upload an invoice, the expense itself functions as an invoice for accounting purposes, as it contains all required information.
The Expense summary provides you with an overview of the expense to be submitted, including attached files, items being paid for, payout preferences, etc. The summary allows you to review all info and quickly edit it if needed by clicking on Edit expense.
For invoices, the expense summary serves as the official invoice document. You can download it for your accounting records if you wish.
You can also add a private note to the admins. Once your expense is ready, click on Submit expense.
You can set an expense to automatically recur on a periodic basis in the Expense Summary:
Selected the desired Frequency and (optionally) an End Date.
After the period of time selected has passed a new, draft expense will be created and the author is notified to review, complete and submit the expense.
Draft expenses are based on the previous Expense submitted in the same group. Each edit made to the previous expenses will persist to the next.
It is also possible to set an End Date for this recurring expense, which can be useful for setting up reminders for pre-defined contracts.
While editing a new draft, you'll also see a banner displaying information about the recurring nature of the expense:
You can also cancel any recurring expense, just click on Edit details in the recurring expense information banner and later, click on the Cancel Recurring Expense button. Done, this draft is now deleted and you'll no longer receive recurring drafts about this expense.
When submitting an invoice or reimbursement you can now choose to submit in the currency of the Collective, or the currency of your payment method.
Supported Currencies
Wise: Collective currency or payout method currency, with the limitation of the currencies that are supported by Wise
PayPal: any currency supported by PayPal
Other: Any currency accepted by the host. Please contact the host admin if you're unsure about whether it will be accepted.
When making a payment you will receive the full amount in the currency you selected, regardless of fluctuations in currency rates.
We rely on the payout provider (Wise, PayPal) whenever possible
Otherwise, we fall back on internal caching and third-party APIs, mostly https://fixer.io
This feature is not available when the host currency differs from the collective currency.
Please note if an invitation isn't accepted within a month, it will expire. You will need to submit a new expense and invite the third party again.
It is also possible to draft an expense and send it to a third party to edit and submit an expense. You can send a drafted expense to an existing user of the platform or to someone else that is not on the platform yet.
Inviting a third-party user or organization to submit an expense automatically creates a draft of the expense and emails the user so they can finalise any final details and submit it to the collective.
Notice, although the invited user will pick who's going to be paid for the expense, the created expense will display you as the user who requested it:
To invite an existing user, search for an existing user in the payee selection dropdown. After selecting the user, you'll be able to add a title to the expense, optional items, and a note to the recipient that will be sent in the email.
The invited user will receive a notification by email containing a link with a key that will allow them to finish editing and submit the expense.
It is also possible to invite a user that does not have an account on the platform to submit an expense. To do that, simply select the option Invite someone to submit an expense.
Select either Personal Account or Organization Account (this will result in an Organisation profile in which that individual is the admin). Fill in their name and email address and Organisational information.
Click next to get to the invoice details screen. You are now able to add additional information about the expense. Pre-fill whatever info you already have, then invite the payee to fill in the rest and confirm. This can make the whole process a lot easier!
Click Send Invite.
The payee will get an email saying "'Collective' wants to pay you" and they will be guided to put in their bank details and confirm the expense
When the payee finishes editing the expense, the summary of the expense is displayed and they will be able to create their account and submit the expense in a single action.
After joining and submitting the edited expense, the expense now is saved in the platform and marked as unverified until the payee validates their email. After the payee validates their email, the expense is marked as pending and is displayed on the expenses page for the Collective's admins to approve (and you will get an email notification).
Once the expense is there on the list, click "approve" on it
