This article describes the reimbursement journey from an end-user's standpoint, from submitting an expense for reimbursement to receiving a reimbursement.

This article is directed toward expense management end users using reimbursements.

Refer to our reimbursements time frames article for information on the timing of reimbursements.

Once reimbursements are turned on for your organization, customers fund reimbursements through a “For benefit of” account before the reimbursement process begins.

After an expense report is submitted, there are four main stages in the reimbursement workflow, which are described in subsequent sections of this article.

Step 5 occurs if the reimbursement is not successful.

In the app, statuses show to describe when the reimbursement is scheduled, when the reimbursement is in process, and when the reimbursement is paid, as shown in the following Figure 1.

An expense report gets approved per the cutoff time based on the set reimbursement frequency of the policy. At this point the report enters the preprocessing window and appears in the app as shown in Figure 2.

The ACH debit gets triggered on the ACH process date, per the schedule.* At this point the reimbursement is in the processing window, and an employee can expect payment within two to five business days (Figure 3).

At this stage, the expense report transitions from Payment Pending to Approved, which triggers the ACH credit process. When the payment is completed, the report status and activity history are updated with the final payment status.

The reimbursement will be paid 2 to 5 business days after the ACH process date. At this point it appears in the app as shown in Figure 4.

Review Figure 5 for a visual workflow of the return of funds process. It shows the progression of activity history/status updates.

Admins and finance users can track the failed reimbursement and return-of-funds progress in the Activity History of the affected expense report.

They can also use the Bank Reconciliation Report and Expense Export, which are being enhanced to reflect accurate statuses/progress states, to review reimbursement-related transactions on the company bank account.

Reimbursements can fail, or be put on hold, for any number of reasons. This failure guidance section focuses on ACH failures and reimbursement processing failures.

Expense exports will now display more accurate reimbursement information for reimbursable expenses. The Paid Date, Reimbursement Date, and Report Status columns will reflect actual bank-confirmed transaction activity and align with the values displayed in the platform.

This enhancement improves reporting accuracy, reconciliation, and consistency between exported data and the user interface.

The Bank Reconciliation Report is being enhanced to provide greater visibility into employee reimbursement payments and returned funds. Four new columns will be added to help admins, finance teams, and business users track the complete lifecycle of ACH transactions associated with an expense report.

This enhancement enables more accurate reconciliation of funds leaving and returning to company bank accounts, while providing greater transparency into payment and recovery outcomes.

The following table provides a consolidated overview of the reimbursement workflow.

We are updating the reimbursement failure workflow to provide a more streamlined and transparent process when an employee reimbursement payment cannot be completed.

When a reimbursement payment fails, the platform will no longer attempt to reprocess failed payments to an employee’s bank account; instead, the corresponding expense report will be marked as Closed-Reimbursement Failed, and the return of funds to the company bank account will be initiated within 48 hours of the failure.

Admins will need to work with the employee to resolve the reimbursement, either by having the employee update their bank account information and resubmit under a new expense report or issue the payment outside of the platform.

The new failed reimbursement process provides admin and finance teams with clearer visibility into reimbursement failures and a more consistent process for managing unresolved employee payments. By returning funds to the company bank account—initiated within 48 hours of a failed payment—admins regain control of the funds, while maintaining visibility into the failed reimbursement record.

If a reimbursement payment fails, admins, finance, and employees will be sent an email notification with details of the affected reimbursement. Admins will then need to coordinate payment to the employee outside of the platform, using your internal payment process.

Alternatively, you can ask your employee to resolve the bank account issue and request that they submit a new expense report to process in the next reimbursement cycle. The Bank Reconciliation Report can also be used to track the return.

Admins and finance users can track the failed reimbursement and return-of-funds progress in the Activity History of the affected expense report.

They can also use the Bank Reconciliation Report and Expense Export to review reimbursement-related transactions on the company bank account.

We are also enhancing expense exports to provide more accurate reimbursement tracking and improve financial reporting. These enhancements include:

Affected employees will receive an email notification if their reimbursement payment fails. The notification directs employees to follow up with their company’s admin or finance team for payment resolution.

The Activity History of the expense report will accurately reflect the processing states of the reimbursements. Additionally, the expense report will be marked as Closed-Reimbursement Failed, for further visibility.

A failure can occur due to:

We recommend the employee review their bank account information to resolve the issue and contact their bank if needed.

For assistance, use the online chat feature. On the web, select the question mark at the top-right corner of the page and then Chat with Us. On the mobile app, open the menu and then select Chat with Us. You may also call support at 855-716-2030, which is available 24/7.