Employee Expenses & Reimbursement

1. Goal: "Zero-Friction" Expense Reporting

Problem: Employees hate expense reports (hoarding receipts for 30 days, manual Excel entry). Finance hates them (lost receipts, policy violations, delayed booking). Solution: A "Chat-First" capture system that processes expenses in real-time, leveraging the existing AP/Approval engine.

2. Core Value Proposition

• Convenience: "Snap & Send" via tools employees already use (Slack/Teams). No new app to install.
• Compliance: Real-time policy checks ("That dinner was too expensive") before the expense is filed.
• Speed: Instant reimbursement potential (next payroll or instant payout).

3. The "Chat-First" Workflow

1. Capture: Employee takes a photo of a receipt.
2. Send: Shares it to the "Orcha Expenses" bot in Slack/Teams (or forwards email).
3. Bot Extraction:
   • Extracts: Date, Merchant, Amount, Currency, Tax.
4. Interactive Enrichment (Chatbot Loop):
   • Scenario: Missing attendees for a Meal (Compliance requirement in DE).
   • Bot: "I see this is a restaurant receipt (€120). Who attended?"
   • User: "@Hans @Franz and Client X."
   • Bot: "Thanks. Updated 'Reason' to 'Client Dinner'. Added attendees."
5. Auto-Categorization: Maps Starbucks -> Meals & Entertainment.
6. Policy Check: "This is within the $50 lunch limit. Marked as draft."
7. Submission: At month-end (or weekly), user types "Submit Report". Bot bundles all drafts into one ExpenseReport.

4. Data Model

ExpenseReceipt

• receipt_id
• employee_id
• source_file (Image/PDF)
• merchant_name
• amount_gross, amount_tax, currency
• category_id (GL Account)
• attendees[] (for entertainment tax rules)
• project_code / cost_center_id
• status: DRAFT | SUBMITTED | APPROVED | REJECTED

ExpenseReport

• report_id
• employee_id
• period
• total_reimbursable
• approval_chain_id

5. Integration with AP

• Unified Ledger: Treat an ExpenseReport just like a Vendor Invoice.
  • Vendor = "Maximilian Brandstaetter"
  • Line Items = The individual receipts.
• Unified Approval: Use the same Approval Flow engine (Manager -> Finance).

6. UX: The "Invisible" App

• Slack/Teams App:
  • Cmd: /expense -> Upload.
  • Notification: "Your report for October is approved ($142.50)."
• Web Dashboard:
  • For Finance: Review grid (identical to AP Inbox).
  • For User: Historic view.