Coaster

Everyday work

Claims and receipts

On this page

A claim is a set of expenses an employee paid for and wants back, with a receipt for each purchase.

Start a claim

Open Claims, choose New claim, give it a title such as "Sydney client workshop" and choose Start claim.

Add expenses

Choose Add expense and pick the Type:

  • Purchase with receipt: the date, merchant and amount, and a Receipt photo or PDF (JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC or PDF, up to 1.5 MB).
  • Mileage: the route and the distance in km. Coaster prices it at the business's rate per km.
  • Per diem: the location and the number of days, priced at the business's daily rate (only when the business pays one).

Choose a Category, and a Cost centre if you use them. One receipt can be split: choose Split across categories and give each part its category, cost centre and amount. The parts must add up exactly to the expense.

Explain exceptions

Coaster flags anything outside the policy before you submit:

  • a purchase with no receipt above the business's threshold,
  • an expense over its category's limit,
  • the same receipt as another expense,
  • the same date, merchant and amount as another claim or an imported Expensify report.

Write an Explanation for your approver on each flagged expense, for example "Client dinner for four, agreed with Priya". The explanation stays with the claim, the batch and the accounting file.

A claim cannot hold the same expense twice. If two expenses have the same date, merchant and amount and no receipt, or the same receipt, attach each one's own receipt, or correct or remove one, before you submit.

Submit

Choose Submit for approval. The claim goes to your approving manager as revision 1 and you can no longer change it.

When a claim comes back

If your manager returns it, the claim shows Returned and their reason. Change or remove the expenses, attach the right receipt, and choose Resubmit for approval. It goes back as the next revision. The earlier revision, its receipts and the decision stay under Earlier revisions and receipts and in the history.

Next: Approving claims.