ExpenseLog Pro - Quick Start Guide

Quick Start Guide

To quickly get started using ExpenseLog Pro, this guide will show you the basic features of ExpenseLog using an example.

This example assumes you are making a business trip to Paris, then to New York. You record your business expenses using ExpenseLog Pro then submit your expense report for reimbursement while you are traveling.

Note: If you have not set up ExpenseLog on your mobile then please refer to the "Installation Guide".

Note: The first time you use ExpenseLog Pro, and complete the set-up wizard, you will see the following screen

1. Since you are first traveling to Paris, then to New York, you decide that you will organize your expenses by trip category so you create a new trip category in ExpenseLog called “Paris”. In order to do this, you move the cursor using the arrow keys on the phone to the expense category field located at the top right of the screen (which is usually set to “All”).

You select the expense category field by pressing the fire key and a drop down menu appears. To create a trip category called “Paris”, you choose “New expense category” from the drop down menu and are then prompted to enter a category name. You enter the word “Paris” and a new trip category called “Paris” becomes available from the drop down menu.

2. You ensure that the “Paris” category is displayed in the top right hand corner so that the expenses you enter get filed under the “Paris” category.

3. While in Paris you have a business luncheon with a client. After the meeting you want to record that expense, so you open ExpenseLog and choose “Add” from the ExpenseLog menu and enter the details of the expense you just incurred.

You first enter the type of expense you incurred and you choose “Meals”, then you are prompted to enter the rest of the information such as expense category (Paris), payment type, and currency, who attended the meeting, the restaurant name, any additional notes for your accounting department, and then the cost of the meal.

4. After entering the expense, you see the main expense screen and notice that you made a mistake when you entered the amount. So you move the cursor to the amount of that expense and press the fire key to edit that cell.

5. After using ExpenseLog to record the rest of your expenses in Paris, you leave for New York for your next set of meetings. You set up a new trip category called ‘New York’ and then make sure you are able to record expenses in USD currency. To add a currency go to the menu item called ‘Preferences’ and choose ‘Edit currencies’. You will be presented with some of the default currency symbols such as the “Euro” symbol, the “$” symbol or the “Pound” symbol. Since the US currency symbol is already in the list you do not need to create a new currency name, so you simply need to make sure the conversion rate is correct relative to Euros which is your home currency in this example.

To do this, choose the menu item, “Preferences” from the main ExpenseLog menu, then “Edit currencies”. Then you highlight the “$” symbol, and choose from the menu, “Edit” (Note that you also have the option to Add a new currency if its not in the list or Delete a currency).

You are presented with a screen to edit the currency name, and you decide to leave the name as “$”. On the next screen you are prompted to enter the relative conversion rate as it relates to your home currency (in this case Euros). So you decide to enter a general conversion rate of 0.70 to show that 1 EURO is equal to .70 USD. You can return to the main expense screen by choosing ‘Back’. Also note that you can adjust the conversion rate at any time even after expenses are entered.

6. In New York, you take a taxi from the airport to the hotel and enter that expense into ExpenseLog. When adding this expense you now choose the $ as the currency and choose New York as the expense category.

7. While you are in New York, you decide you want to submit all your expenses from your Paris trip to your accounting department so can get repaid by your company faster. So you change the Expense Category back to “Paris” and you notice that all your Paris expenses are now displayed in the main expense window. Then you select “Email Report ” from the main ExpenseLog menu and follow the wizard. You are asked for the email address of the person you wish to send your expenses to (usually a contact at your accounting department) and you are asked to enter your own email address (where a copy of the expenses you are mailing is sent). You also write a personal note to your accounting department from this screen in the notes field (this is inserted into the expense report email that is sent to your accounting department). The note you decide to write is : “Philippe, please process these expenses from my Paris trip, I will deliver the receipts for these when I get back from New York”. After you confirm you want to email the Paris expenses, the Paris expenses are then automatically grouped as a report and sent in PDF format to your accounting department. You are also emailed a copy of the PDF submission for your records. Notice that when you return to the main ExpenseLog screen, Paris expenses are no longer displayed since these expenses have now been grouped and filed as a submitted expense report in our server.

8. When you return from New York, there is a cheque waiting for you from your Paris trip expense report submission. You drop off the receipts from Paris to your accounting department and deposit the cheque into your bank account. To track that you have been paid for this expense report, you open ExpenseLog and choose the menu called “Expense Reports” then find the Paris expense report in the list that you were just reimbursed for.

This screen displays a list of your submitted expense reports and to find out more about a given report move your cursor onto the expense report and choose Details from the menu.

To flag a report as being “PAID”, move the cursor on the report and choose “Mark as Paid” from the main menu.

The “Mark as Paid” feature helps you keep track of paid and unpaid expense reports.

You continue to use ExpenseLog to record and submit expenses, and track your paid and unpaid reports.

9. You also discover the web site at www.expenselog.net where you can login with your same username and password and have more control over printing, and exporting your expenses as well as providing a way for your supervisor to monitor your expenses as they occur on your mobile.