expense_improvement.md

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What's New in Expenses — Feb 18, 2026

Understand request (rewrite with more visuals and user focus)
Produce updated summary and test plan

Here's a friendly walkthrough of everything that landed in the Expenses module this week, written for testers who want to explore the new features hands-on.

🆕 What's New at a Glance

	Feature	What it means for you
✅	Two-step approval	Expenses now need a "Reviewed" checkpoint before they can be approved
👁️	Off-Books visibility control	Admins can decide who sees sensitive "off-books" expenses
📥	Smarter Inbox → Expense	Creating an expense from an uploaded document now behaves differently based on your role
📋	Activity timeline	Every expense now shows a full history of who did what and when

🔁 How the Approval Flow Works Now

Expenses move through a clear journey. Here's what it looks like:

You create it        Someone reviews it      A manager approves it     💰 Done!
────────────         ──────────────────      ─────────────────────     ────────
  DRAFT        →       SUBMITTED       →         REVIEWED         →   APPROVED
                                                                          ↓
                                                              REIMBURSED (your own card)
                                                              DONE       (company card)

💡 What's new here: There's now a "Reviewed" step in the middle. An expense can't be approved unless someone has reviewed it first. This prevents accidental approvals.

If an expense is rejected, it goes back to you so you can fix and resubmit:

SUBMITTED → REJECTED → (you fix it) → SUBMITTED again ✅

👤 What You Can Do (Based on Your Role)

If you're a regular team member:

➕ Create your own expenses
📤 Submit them for review
🔄 Resubmit if rejected
👀 See only your own expenses

If you're an Owner or Admin:

✅ Everything above, plus...
🔍 Review expenses ("Geprüft")
✅ Approve expenses
❌ Reject expenses
💳 Mark as Reimbursed or Done
👁️ See everyone's expenses (depending on visibility settings)

👁️ New: Off-Books Visibility Setting

Some expenses are sensitive and marked as "Off-Books." Admins can now control who sees them:

Settings → Expenses → Off-Books Visibility

Setting	Who can see Off-Books expenses
🔒 Creator Only (default)	Only the person who created it — nobody else
👑 Owners Only	Owners see all; everyone else sees only their own
🌍 All Members	Everyone in the workspace can see them

📥 New: Creating Expenses from Uploaded Documents

When you open a document in Files → Inbox and turn it into an expense, the system now automatically sets the right status:

Who are you?	Payment type	What happens
👤 Member	Any	Creates a Draft — needs to go through approval
👑 Owner	Company card	Auto-approved immediately — skips the queue
👑 Owner	Your own card	Creates a Draft — still needs approval

💡 Members only see "Create Draft Expense." Owners get an extra "Approve & Create" button for company-paid expenses.

📋 New: Activity Timeline on Every Expense

Open any expense and scroll down — you'll see a new Activity Log that shows the full story:

✅ Created by Maria Chen          Feb 15 at 9:02 AM
📤 Submitted by Maria Chen        Feb 15 at 9:05 AM
🔍 Reviewed by James Park         Feb 16 at 2:30 PM
✅ Approved by James Park         Feb 16 at 2:31 PM
💰 Reimbursed by James Park       Feb 17 at 10:00 AM

🧪 Test Plan — Try It Yourself

Before you start:

You'll need two accounts: one regular Member and one Owner/Admin

Make sure Expenses is enabled under Settings → Modules

Test 1 — Create & Submit an Expense (Member)

Log in as a Member
Go to Expenses → click New Expense
Fill in: date, amount, description (e.g. "Team lunch"), category
Hit Save

You should see the expense appear with a DRAFT badge
Open the expense → click Submit

Badge changes to SUBMITTED ✅

Test 2 — Review & Approve (Owner)

Log in as an Owner
Find the submitted expense from Test 1
Click Mark as Reviewed

Badge changes to REVIEWED ✅
Now click Approve

Badge changes to APPROVED ✅
Click Reimburse

Badge changes to REIMBURSED ✅ — expense is complete!

Test 3 — Try to Skip the Review Step (should fail)

As a Member, create and submit a new expense
As an Owner, open it — try to click Approve without clicking Reviewed first

⛔ The Approve button should be greyed out or unavailable until you click Reviewed

Test 4 — Reject & Resubmit

As a Member, create and submit an expense
As an Owner, click Reject

Badge becomes REJECTED
Log back in as the Member — open the rejected expense
Make a small edit, then click Submit again

Badge goes back to SUBMITTED ✅ — it's back in the queue

Test 5 — Company Card Auto-Approve (Owner)

As an Owner, create a new expense
Set payment type to Company Card
Save the expense

✅ It should immediately show as APPROVED — no review needed!

Test 6 — Off-Books Visibility

As an Owner, go to Settings → Expenses → Off-Books Visibility
Note it's set to Creator Only
Create an expense and set its type to Off-Books
Log in as a Member

🔒 The off-books expense should NOT appear in their list
Back as Owner, change setting to All Members
Refresh as the Member

🌍 The expense should now be visible

Test 7 — Inbox to Expense

Go to Files → Inbox
Open a document (upload a PDF receipt if needed)
As a Member: look for the "Create Draft Expense" button — use it

Created expense should be a DRAFT
As an Owner (different document): select Company Card, use "Approve & Create"

Created expense should be APPROVED immediately

Test 8 — Activity Log

Take any expense that has gone through multiple steps (from the tests above)
Open the expense detail
Scroll down and expand Activity Log

✅ You should see each step listed with the name of the person who did it and the time

🚫 Not in This Release (Don't Test Yet)

These are coming in future updates:

Recurring expenses
Multi-level approval chains (e.g. manager → finance)
Receipt scanning / AI extraction

geastwood/expense_improvement.md

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