Reimburse an Employee
Money the Org owes someone for a cost they paid personally. Marking an Expense reimbursable creates the debt; paying it clears it.
Before you start
An Employee here is a person who incurs costs, not a person who signs in. Somebody can be both, and the two lists are separate — a Member is an account, an Employee is a payee.
A reimbursement happens in two acts, and they are usually days apart:
- The Expense is recorded as reimbursable, naming who paid. The cost lands in the books immediately, and instead of coming out of a bank account it becomes a debt the Org owes that person.
- The reimbursement is paid, from a bank account, and the debt clears.
Recording the Expense is what creates the obligation. The payment is a separate act, which is why somebody can be owed for three receipts and paid once.
Steps
- Record the Expense as usual, and mark it reimbursable. Pippin asks who paid out of pocket — this is required, because a debt with no creditor is not a debt.
- Open Expenses › Employees. Each person’s row shows what they are currently owed.
- Choose Reimburse. The amount is filled in with the full balance; change it to pay part.
- Choose the account it is paid from, the date, and a reference.
- Record. What they are owed drops by what you paid.
Good to know
A reimbursable Expense has no paid-from account, and that is correct. Nothing left your bank — someone else’s money paid it. The account it would have named is replaced by the liability, and choosing one anyway would double-count the cost.
A reimbursable Expense’s lines can still be charged on to a Client. Who paid and who gets billed are unrelated questions.
The balance is derived from what has been recorded and what has been paid, so it cannot drift out of step with the underlying Expenses.