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Managing expenses user guide, overview

Get started with managing expenses using TravelBank

Anna Allen avatar
Written by Anna Allen
Updated today

This article is part of the Commercial Rewards Card free plan guide or Commercial Rewards Card paid plan guide, or both. You can navigate back to each guide with the previous links and take the next onboarding steps.

Managing expenses user guide, overview

Purpose

This article explains how to get started with managing expenses using TravelBank. It also directs users to other relevant resources.

Audience

This article is directed toward employees with a free TravelBank expense management account who need to submit expense reports.   

Overview

The following videos show how to manage expenses and card transactions in the TravelBank web app:

Definitions of expense and transaction

Throughout this article, and much of our expense documentation at TravelBank, we use the terms expense and transaction to describe different parts of the expense management process.

  • Transaction: When you make a purchase using a card associated with your TravelBank account, that purchase is considered a transaction.

  • Expense: When that transaction is processed and appears on the card feed, it populates as an expense on the Expenses & Transactions page. At that point you can add additional expense details to the transaction-turned-expense. TravelBank converts every transaction into an expense and populates as much information as it can gather about the expense so you don’t have to manually add as much information.

Expenses & Transactions page overview

There are a few tasks that you can complete directly on the Expenses & Transactions page (refer to Figure 1 and Figure 2) without opening an expense:

  • Selecting an expense

  • Adding a receipt to an expense

  • Choosing an expense category

  • Merging a synced transaction with an expense (with the exception of travel bookings)

Figure 1. Expenses & Transactions page (web app)

Figure 2. Expenses & Transactions page (mobile app)

Expense and transaction icons

The list of expenses and transactions is organized by date with icons to help you differentiate between receipts, card transactions, bookings, and more. Each icon is defined in the following list and is shown with its definition in the subsequent Figure 3.

  • Receipt icon: Receipt or manual expense

  • Card icon: Card transaction

  • Receipt icon with card in front of it: Merged expense and transaction

  • Suitcase icon: Travel booking

  • Odometer icon: Mileage

  • Right and left arrows icon: Refund to company

Figure 3. A table showing message icons and their definitions. From the top-left: receipt or manual expense, card transaction, merged expense and transaction, refund to company, mileage, and travel booking. The image also shows icons for autocompleted expense and missing transaction.

Figure 3. Expense and transaction icons and definitions

The color of each icon indicates the status of the receipt, card transaction, booking, or other item—the icon is red if the action is missing required information and blue when the item is completed and ready to be submitted. Also, when the item is missing required information, an error message icon (Figure 4) appears by the item.

Figure 4. Error message icon that appears when a receipt, card transaction, booking, or other item is missing required information

Figure 4. Error message icon

Search for a specific expense

You can look for a specific expense by using the search bar or filtering by status, type, date, or the card used to make the transaction.

Filter expenses

In addition to searching for specific expenses, you can also filter the expenses on the Expenses & Transactions page.

Once you’ve applied filters, they will be retained when you select an expense, view the expense details, and come back to the Expenses & Transactions page.

Filter expenses (web app)

  1. Select Filter at the top-right corner of the page. This opens a side menu where you can filter by status, type, and date range.

  2. Select the filters you want to apply, and then select Apply.

    When you apply filters, a number badge appears on the Filter button showing the number of filters applied. The applied filters are also shown above the list of expenses (Figure 5).

    Figure 5. Expenses & Transactions page filter badge number

    Figure 5. Expenses & Transactions page showing the filter badge number (web app)

  3. To remove individual filters: select the X to the right of the filter name (Figure 6) or select Filter and then the X to the right of the filter name (Figure 7). Selecting the Reset button removes all filters, restoring the default view.

    Figure 6. Expenses & Transactions page showing two applied filters with the X outlined on each

    Figure 6. Expenses & Transactions page, remove individual filters (web app)

    Figure 7. Filter menu from the Expenses & Transactions page, remove individual filters (web app)

Note: TravelBank retains deleted expenses for 30 days. Deleted expenses are hidden from view, but you can make them visible by selecting Filter > Status > Deleted > Apply.

Filter expenses (mobile app)

  1. Select the filter icon at the top of the page (Figure 8).

    Figure 8. Two side-by-side images. On the left: Expenses and transactions page, mobile app, filter icon. On the right: Expenses and transactions page, mobile app, expanded filter screen

    Figure 8. Filter icon and expanded filter screen (mobile app)

  2. This opens a menu where you can filter by status, type, date range, and card (Figure 8 and Figure 9). You can also show deleted expenses and transactions only by turning on the Deleted filter.

    Figure 9. Expenses and transactions page, mobile app, expanded filter screen showing all filter options, including status, type, date range, and cards

    Figure 9. All filter options (mobile app)

  3. Select the filters you want to apply, and then select View ## Results. When you apply filters, a round icon appears on the Filter button (Figure 10).

    Figure 10. Expenses & Transactions page, mobile app, filters applied icon

    Figure 10. Expenses & Transactions page (mobile app), filters applied icon

  4. To remove or adjust the filters, select the filter icon, select or unselect filters as needed, and select View ## Results. Selecting the Reset button removes all filters, restoring the default view.

Difference between iOS and Android versions of mobile app

The iOS and Android versions of the TravelBank mobile app are the same, with the following exception: the Android version currently supports bulk editing actions (that is, assigning multiple expenses to a report at once) while the iOS does not have that functionality yet.

Learn more about managing expenses

To learn more about managing expenses, we invite you to explore our other related articles:


Need help?

If you need help, contact the TravelBank support team:

  • From the web app: Select the Help & Support icon at the top-right (that is, the question mark icon) and select "Chat With Us."

  • From the mobile app: Open the navigation menu and select "Chat With Us."


Publish date: NA

Last update: August 04, 2025

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