> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://every.help/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

> ## Agent Instructions
> These docs describe Every as customers have it today. Answer from them, and say so when they don't cover a question.
> Pages under /admins/ are for the people who run Every for the company, and pages under /employees/ are for employees. Answer from the pages that match the person asking.
> Each page's Agent reference section lists its exact roles, conditions and limits. Prefer it for those details.
> When a page says a feature is in closed beta, or that Every turns it on company by company, don't promise that the person's company has it.
> Use roles and on-screen labels exactly as the pages write them.
> When someone asks what a term means, answer with the Glossary page's definition (/glossary), which other pages show in parentheses after the term.
> When the docs don't answer a question, tell the person to email [support@every.io](mailto:support@every.io).

# Reimbursements

> Approve employee reimbursements, choose who approves them and submit one for an employee

![Reimbursement of \$86.42 for an employee, with their receipt behind it.](https://mintcdn.com/every-a2724ddc/k5maP8xPODHl5ToY/images/illustrations/admins-bill-pay-reimbursements-light.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=k5maP8xPODHl5ToY\&q=85\&s=8e8a53e5e4f0af178051b3d5759f5281)

**Payments** → **All payments** lists reimbursements next to bills. A reimbursement waits for its approvers, who approve it from a to-do on **Home** or from **All payments**. You can also submit one for an employee yourself.

Company Admins and Bookkeepers see reimbursements on **All payments** after your company finishes onboarding. So do Accounts Payable users, once Every has turned that role on for your company. Each employee asks to be reimbursed from **My transactions** (see [My transactions](https://every.help/employees/my-transactions.md)).

> [!NOTE]
>
> Every turns on **All payments** and the **Reimbursement approvals** setting company by company. If you don't see them, email [support@every.io](mailto:support@every.io) to ask about them.

## Find a reimbursement

On **All payments**, a reimbursement's **Type** is **Reimbursement** and its **Recipient** is the employee. Search by the employee's name to find one, and select a row to open its items and receipt. [All payments](https://every.help/admins/bill-pay/overview.md) covers the tabs and columns.

A reimbursement waiting for approval shows **Needs approval** in **Stage**. One an approver declined shows **Declined**.

On a person's page in **People**, the **Expenses** tab lists their reimbursements under **Reimbursements**, each with its status.

## Choose who approves

A reimbursement a Company Admin submits needs no approval and is sent for payment right away. One paid from an employee's benefit budget needs no approval either. When anyone else submits any other reimbursement, they choose the approvers: the employee's manager, a Company Admin or both.

Company Admins and Bookkeepers can open **Settings** → **Accounting** after your company finishes onboarding.

1. In **Settings** → **Accounting** → **Policies** → **Reimbursement approvals**, choose how approvers are used:

   | Option | Where a reimbursement goes |
   | - | - |
   | **Require manager approval** | To the employee's manager first, then to a Company Admin |
   | **Skip manager approval** | Straight to a single Company Admin |

2. Select **Save**.

Until you choose, Every requires manager approval. A reimbursement for an employee with no manager always goes to a single Company Admin, whichever option you choose. Reimbursements already waiting keep the approvers they were submitted with.

![Reimbursement approvals with Require manager approval and Skip manager approval options.](https://mintcdn.com/every-a2724ddc/19nP2pdcB7HMtcYU/images/screens/admins-bill-pay-reimbursements-approvals-light.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=19nP2pdcB7HMtcYU\&q=85\&s=fadd9e343be17aa3da4e72e75656113e)

## Approve or decline a reimbursement

A reimbursement waiting on you is a to-do on **Home**. When a reimbursement has two approvers, the second one gets the to-do after the first approves.

**1. Open the to-do**

On **Home**, select the to-do for the reimbursement, such as "Approve \$86.42 reimbursement for Jordan Lee". When several are waiting, they're grouped under one to-do, such as "Approve 3 reimbursements".

**2. Review the reimbursement**

**Reimbursement details** shows the employee, each item and a preview of its receipt.

**3. Approve it**

Select **Approve**, then confirm. When more reimbursements are waiting, the button reads **Approve & next**.

To decline it instead, select **Reject**, enter a **Reason** and select **Reject** again. The reason is required.

On **All payments**, Company Admins, Bookkeepers and Accounts Payable users can also select **Approve** or **Decline** on a pending reimbursement's row. These actions don't show on a reimbursement paid to you or, unless you're a Company Admin, one you submitted. See [Approvals](https://every.help/admins/bill-pay/approvals.md) for how they work with a payment's other approvers.

Once a reimbursement is approved, Every sends the payment from your company's checking account to the employee. A declined reimbursement isn't paid.

## Submit a reimbursement for an employee

Company Admins, Bookkeepers and HR Admins can submit a reimbursement for other employees. An Employee who manages people can submit one for the people who report to them. Accounts Payable users can submit only their own.

The form works once your company has connected its accounting software. It also needs your reimbursement and bank account defaults set (see [Accounting settings](https://every.help/admins/settings/accounting.md)). Until then, the form isn't available.

Open the form from any of these:

* On **Home**, under **Quick access**, select **Reimbursement**. The form opens with you chosen as the employee.
* On a person's page in **People**, select **Actions** → **Create reimbursement**, or select **Create new** under **Reimbursements** on the **Expenses** tab.
* In the command palette, which Cmd+K or Ctrl+K opens, select **Create reimbursement**. Company Admins and Bookkeepers see it.

**1. Choose the employee**

On **Submit a Reimbursement**, choose the person in **Select employee**. If the step asks "What type of reimbursement would you like to submit?", keep **Corporate**. If it shows **Select bank account**, choose the account to pay into. Select **Next**.

**2. Enter the items**

On **Reimbursement Details**, choose how many items to reimburse in **Number of items**, from 1 to 5. For each item, enter the **Vendor** and **Amount**, say what it was for in **I paid for** and choose the purchase's category and department. Add a receipt under **Upload receipt** if you have one: Every fills **Vendor** and **Amount** from it when they're empty.

**3. Choose the approvers**

Unless you're a Company Admin, choose the approvers on **Reimbursement Details** as well (see [Choose who approves](#choose-who-approves)). Select **Next**.

**4. Review and submit**

**Review Reimbursements** shows the total and each item. Select **Submit**. Every confirms with "Reimbursement has been submitted!"

If your checking account holds less than the total, Every doesn't submit it. It shows "Reimbursement could not be processed." and tells you to contact your administrator.

![The first step of Submit a Reimbursement, choosing the employee, with the details step to come.](https://mintcdn.com/every-a2724ddc/qvvudeZxc26V6Klz/images/screens/admins-bill-pay-reimbursements-light.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=qvvudeZxc26V6Klz\&q=85\&s=fe8f08d423a742775e1c51e35670605c)

## Agent reference

**Where:** Reimbursements show on **Payments** → **All payments**, as a to-do on **Home**, and on the **Expenses** tab of a person's page in **People**. The page that **Payments** → **All payments** opens is titled **All payments** or **Bills & Reimbursements**. The form is **Submit a Reimbursement**. The approval setting is **Settings** → **Accounting** → **Policies** → **Reimbursement approvals**. An employee asks to be reimbursed from **My transactions** (see [My transactions](https://every.help/employees/my-transactions.md)).

**Who:** Company Admins and Bookkeepers, and Accounts Payable users once Every has turned that role on for the company, open **Payments** → **All payments**, which appears in the sidebar after the company finishes onboarding. Company Admins and Bookkeepers open **Settings** → **Accounting**. Company Admins, Bookkeepers, HR Admins, Employees and Accounts Payable users can open the **Submit a Reimbursement** form once the company's accounting software is connected and its reimbursement and bank account defaults are set. Every turns on the **Reimbursement approvals** setting company by company. If **All payments** is missing, email [support@every.io](mailto:support@every.io) to ask about it.

### Facts

* **All payments** sits under **Payments** in the sidebar's **Finance** group, and the sidebar reads **All payments** for everyone. The page it opens is titled **All payments** or **Bills & Reimbursements**.
* On **Payments** → **All payments**, a reimbursement's **Type** column reads **Reimbursement**, and its **Recipient** column shows the employee's name.
* Searching **Payments** → **All payments** by an employee's first or last name finds that employee's reimbursements.
* A reimbursement waiting for approval shows **Needs approval** in the **Stage** column of **Payments** → **All payments**. A reimbursement an approver declined shows **Declined**.
* Hover actions on **Payments** → **All payments** rows appear on the **All** and **Needs approval** tabs only. A row's hover actions are **Open**, **Decline** and **Approve**; **Open** drops out when both **Decline** and **Approve** show.
* Company Admins can act on any payment on **Payments** → **All payments**. Bookkeepers and Accounts Payable users can too on the **All payments** page; on the **Bills & Reimbursements** page they act only on payments in their **Home** to-dos.
* On **Payments** → **All payments**, a row shows **Approve** and **Decline** to someone who can act on payments, unless the reimbursement is paid to that person or, for anyone but a Company Admin, they submitted it. Someone with an active approval to-do for a reimbursement also sees them.
* Opening a reimbursement on **Payments** → **All payments** shows the employee's name, its items and its receipt: either in the reimbursement's drawer, under **Items** and **Attachment**, or in a sheet that shows the employee, the items and a receipt preview, as on **Home**.
* **Home** shows a to-do for each reimbursement waiting on the signed-in person, such as "Approve \$86.42 reimbursement for Jordan Lee". Several are grouped under one to-do, such as "Approve 3 reimbursements".
* Selecting a reimbursement to-do on **Home** opens a sheet titled **Reimbursement details**. It shows the employee's details, each item and a preview of the receipt.
* The **Reimbursement details** sheet has **Approve** and **Reject**. **Approve** reads **Approve & next** when more reimbursements are waiting. Selecting **Approve** asks "Are you sure you want to approve this reimbursement?"
* Selecting **Reject** in the **Reimbursement details** sheet opens a **Reject Reimbursement** dialog with a **Reason** field. The reason is required: the dialog says "Reason for rejection is required". Its confirming button is **Reject**.
* The **Reimbursement details** sheet on **Home** opens for Employees, Company Admins, Bookkeepers and Accounts Payable users.
* When a reimbursement is approved or declined, Every removes its pending to-dos from **Home**.
* A reimbursement with two approvers is approved in order. Only the first approver gets a to-do at first, and the next approver gets theirs after the first approves. A decline ends the chain.
* A reimbursement a Company Admin submits needs no approval and is paid right away. The approver card on **Reimbursement Details** isn't shown to a Company Admin.
* A **Corporate** reimbursement submitted by anyone other than a Company Admin is paid once it's approved. A reimbursement paid from a benefit budget has no approval step.
* The approvers a reimbursement can name are Company Admins and, while manager approval is required, the employee's active managers. The managers are the reimbursed employee's, not the submitter's. A manager whose employment has ended can't be an approver.
* With manager approval required, the approver card on **Reimbursement Details** says the employee's manager approves first, then a Company Admin. It has **1st Approver** (the manager) and **2nd Approver** (a Company Admin).
* When the manager chosen is also on the approver list, the approver card on **Reimbursement Details** reads "This manager can approve it on their own." and has one **Approver** field.
* When the employee has no active manager, or no Company Admin other than the manager exists, the approver card on **Reimbursement Details** has one **Select approver** field listing Company Admins.
* **Settings** → **Accounting** → **Policies** → **Reimbursement approvals** has two options. **Require manager approval** sends reimbursements to the employee's manager first, then to a Company Admin. **Skip manager approval** sends them straight to a single Company Admin.
* A reimbursement for an employee with no manager always goes to a single Company Admin, whichever **Reimbursement approvals** option is chosen. Reimbursements already waiting for approval keep the chain they were submitted with.
* A company with no **Reimbursement approvals** choice requires manager approval. The approver card on **Reimbursement Details** asks "Who should approve this reimbursement?" when manager approval is skipped.
* The **Reimbursement approvals** sheet saves with **Save** and shows "Reimbursement approvals policy updated".
* **Settings** → **Accounting** is in the **Features** group of the settings menu, which shows after the company finishes onboarding. Company Admins and Bookkeepers can open it.
* When a reimbursement is approved, Every pays it from the company's checking account.
* A reimbursement is paid by ACH, or as an international payment when it goes to an employee's international bank account.
* Only Company Admins, Bookkeepers, Employees, HR Admins and Accounts Payable users can open **Submit a Reimbursement**, and only once the company's accounting software is connected and its reimbursement and bank account defaults are set.
* Company Admins, Bookkeepers and HR Admins can choose any employee in **Select employee**. An Employee who manages people can choose the people who report to them. Accounts Payable users can submit only for themselves.
* The **Submit a Reimbursement** form has two steps before the review, **Employee** and **Details**. The first has **Select employee** (search box "Search employee...") and **Next**. After an employee is chosen it can also show a **Select bank account** card for the employee's accounts.
* When the employee has a benefit budget, the **Employee** step also asks "What type of reimbursement would you like to submit?" The default is **Corporate**.
* **Reimbursement Details** asks "How many items need to be reimbursed?" for the **Corporate** type, in **Number of items**, from 1 to 5. Each item has a numbered card, such as "Enter item 1 details".
* Each item on **Reimbursement Details** has **Upload receipt**, **Vendor**, **Amount** and **I paid for**. For the **Corporate** type it also has a category field ("The category of this purchase is"), a department field ("The department of this purchase is") and, when the person has spending budgets they can tag, a budget field ("The spending budget for this purchase is").
* **Upload receipt** takes a PDF, JPEG or PNG up to 8 MB. Its description says to upload an image of a credit card statement if there's no receipt. A receipt is optional. Every fills **Vendor** and **Amount** from the receipt when they're empty.
* **Vendor** and **Amount** are required, and **Amount** is at least 1. **I paid for** is optional and takes up to 500 characters. For the **Corporate** type the category and department are required, and the budget is optional.
* **Reimbursement Details** shows an **Items summary** with **Total amount to be reimbursed**, and **Back** and **Next** buttons.
* **Review Reimbursements** shows the amount and each item, with **Submit**. The last screen reads "Reimbursement has been submitted!" and has **Done**. A failure reads **Submission failed**.
* Every doesn't submit a **Corporate** reimbursement when the company's checking account holds less than its total. It shows "Reimbursement could not be processed." and tells the person to contact their administrator. One paid from a benefit budget isn't submitted when the budget's balance is less than its total.
* On **Home**, the **Quick access** widget has **Reimbursement** for Company Admins, Bookkeepers and HR Admins. It shows once reimbursements are set up, and it opens the form with the signed-in person chosen as the employee.
* On a person's page in **People**, **Actions** has **Create reimbursement**, hidden until the company's accounting software is connected and its reimbursement and bank account defaults are set. It opens the form for that person.
* On a person's page in **People**, the **Expenses** tab has a **Reimbursements** card with **Create new**, which opens the form for that person. **Create new** shows to Company Admins, Bookkeepers, Employees and HR Admins. The card lists each reimbursement with a status of **Needs approval**, **Approved** or **Rejected**.
* Each reimbursement in the **Reimbursements** card on a person's **Expenses** tab in **People** has a **Delete reimbursement** action. Only a reimbursement that is pending approval can be deleted. Every asks for confirmation before it deletes.
* The command palette opens with Cmd+K or Ctrl+K and has a search box that reads "Search commands, people, or navigation...". Company Admins and Bookkeepers can open **Create reimbursement** from the palette once the company has finished onboarding.

### Questions people ask

* **Where do I approve a reimbursement?** Select its to-do on **Home**, or approve it from its row on **Payments** → **All payments** if you can act on payments.
* **Who approves a reimbursement?** The approvers the submitter chose: the employee's manager, a Company Admin or both. Company Admins can also approve it on **Payments** → **All payments**, and so can Bookkeepers and Accounts Payable users on the **All payments** page. A reimbursement a Company Admin submits, or one paid from a benefit budget, needs no approval.
* **Can an HR Admin approve a reimbursement?** Not as an HR Admin. HR Admin isn't an approver choice on the form, and HR Admins can't act on payments on **Payments** → **All payments**. An HR Admin approves one when they are the employee's manager or a Company Admin.
* **Can I skip manager approval?** Yes, where Every has turned the **Reimbursement approvals** setting on for the company. Choose **Skip manager approval** in **Settings** → **Accounting** → **Policies** → **Reimbursement approvals**.
* **Why can't I approve my own reimbursement?** The role-based **Approve** and **Decline** on **Payments** → **All payments** don't show on a reimbursement paid to you.
* **Is a reason required to reject a reimbursement?** Yes. The **Reject Reimbursement** dialog, opened from **Reject** in the **Reimbursement details** sheet, requires a **Reason**.
* **What happens when I reject a reimbursement?** It isn't paid, and its **Stage** on **Payments** → **All payments** reads **Declined**.
* **What happens when I approve a reimbursement?** Every sends the payment from the company's checking account to the employee.
* **How do I submit a reimbursement for an employee?** Open **Submit a Reimbursement** from **Home** → **Quick access** → **Reimbursement**, from **Actions** → **Create reimbursement** on a person's page in **People**, or from **Create reimbursement** in the command palette. Choose the employee, enter the items, choose the approvers unless you're a Company Admin, then select **Submit**.
* **Who can submit a reimbursement for someone else?** Company Admins, Bookkeepers and HR Admins can choose any employee. An Employee who manages people can choose the people who report to them. Accounts Payable users can submit only their own.
* **Is a receipt required?** No. **Upload receipt** is optional.
* **How many items can one reimbursement have?** From 1 to 5 for the **Corporate** type, chosen in **Number of items**. A reimbursement paid from a benefit budget has one item.
* **Why can't I open the reimbursement form?** Your company's accounting software isn't connected, or its reimbursement and bank account defaults aren't set. The form also needs the Company Admin, Bookkeeper, Employee, HR Admin or Accounts Payable role.
* **Why do I see "Reimbursement could not be processed"?** The company's checking account holds less than the reimbursement's total.
* **Can I delete a reimbursement?** Yes, while it is pending approval. Use **Delete reimbursement** on the person's **Expenses** tab in **People**.
* **Why don't I see Reimbursement approvals in Settings?** Every turns the setting on company by company, and Company Admins and Bookkeepers can open **Settings** → **Accounting**.

### Not covered here

* Whether Every emails the employee or the approvers when a reimbursement is approved or declined. To ask, email [support@every.io](mailto:support@every.io).
* How long a reimbursement takes to arrive after it's approved. To ask, email [support@every.io](mailto:support@every.io).
* How a reimbursement to an international bank account works, including for an international contractor. To ask, email [support@every.io](mailto:support@every.io).
* When **Select bank account** shows, and which accounts and options it offers for a given employee. To ask, email [support@every.io](mailto:support@every.io).


## Related topics

- [Accounting settings](https://every.help/admins/settings/accounting.md)
- [FAQ](https://every.help/admins/getting-started/faq.md)
- [My transactions](https://every.help/employees/my-transactions.md)
- [All payments](https://every.help/admins/bill-pay/overview.md)
- [Approvals](https://every.help/admins/bill-pay/approvals.md)


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