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Spend Permissions: Create Employee Spending

Kawan Jefferies
Updated

Overview

Spend Permissions allow your organization to control how employees spend company funds. You can assign spending limits, set recurring allowances, restrict merchants, and categorize expenses using your company's cost centers and allocation tags.

Whether you are creating a one-time allowance or recurring spending permission, Custodia provides flexible options to manage employee spending.

Who This Is For

Account administrators and authorized users responsible for creating and managing employee spending permissions.

Creating a New Spend Permission

Step 1: Navigate to Spend Permissions

  1. Log in to my.custodia.ai.
  2. From the left navigation menu, select Spend Permissions.
  3. Click the green + button in the upper-right corner.

Understanding Your Options

When creating a new spend permission, you may see two options:

  • New Spend Request: Request funds for yourself, subject to your organization's approval process.
  • New Spend Permission: Create and assign spending permissions to other employees on behalf of your organization.

Please Note: Most employees will only see the New Spend Request option. The ability to create Spend Permissions for others is restricted to users who have been specifically granted the appropriate permissions.

For this example, we will select New Spend Permission to demonstrate how to assign and configure spending for another employee.

Step 2: Choose an Activity Type

Select the activity type that best represents the intended spending.

Examples include:

  • Transportation
  • IT
  • Office Supplies
  • Marketing

You can also use the search bar to find a specific activity type.

Click Next to continue.

Step 3: Configure the Spend Permission

Under Activity Setup, enter the spending details:

  1. Amount: Enter the spending amount.
  2. Currency: Select the applicable currency.
  3. Recurrence: Choose whether the permission is one-time or recurring (for example, weekly or monthly).
  4. Valid From / Valid Until: Define when the permission becomes available and when it expires.
  5. Assign Activity To: Select the employee receiving the permission.
  6. Multiple Employees: Enable this option to assign the same spending permission to multiple employees.
  7. Select a Card: Associate the spend permission with a specific corporate card, where applicable.
  8. Description & Purpose: Provide a name and reason for the spending permission.

Please Note: Recurring permissions are useful for ongoing expenses, such as monthly office supplies or weekly employee allowances.

Click Next to continue.

Step 4: Add Spending Details (Optional)

Under Request Details, you can further customize how the permission is used and how expenses are categorized.

Cost Center: Assign one or more cost centers to categorize spending by department or business function.

GL Code: Select a General Ledger code to enforce the appropriate accounting classification.

Merchant Restrictions: Specify approved merchants to control where the funds can be spent.

 

 

 

 


Allocation Tags: Associate spending with company data such as Projects, Customers, or Vendors for more detailed reporting and expense tracking.

These settings help ensure expenses are properly classified and aligned with your company's spending policies.

Click Advanced Settings to continue.

Step 5: Configure Advanced Settings (Optional)

Under Advanced Settings, you can apply additional controls to the spend permission.

Available options include:

  • Editable by Employee: Allow the employee to modify permitted details.
  • Single Use Activity: Limit the permission to a single use.
  • Auto Extend: Enable automatic extension where applicable.
  • Out of Pocket: Allow out-of-pocket expenses.
  • Partial Approve: Enable partial approval of spending requests.
  • Locked by Default: Keep the permission locked initially.
  • Daily & Transaction Limits: Set additional spending limits.
  • Days & Time Restrictions: Control which days and hours spending is permitted.

These settings are optional and can be adjusted based on your organization's spending policies.

Click Next to continue.

Step 6: Review and Activate

The Budget Allocation screen provides a final summary of the spending permission.

Review the following:

  • Spending amount and recurrence
  • Total allocation across applicable periods
  • Associated budget, if applicable
  • Expected approval status

Once everything looks correct, click Activate to complete the process.

Your new spend permission will be created and made available according to its configured dates and approval requirements.

Managing Spend Permissions

The Spend Permissions page provides a centralized view of your organization's spending permissions.

You can review the assigned participants, individual spending amounts, total allocated funds, availability dates, recurrence, and current status.

Use the status tabs to navigate between:

  • Pending: Permissions awaiting approval or activation.
  • Active: Currently active spending permissions.
  • Inactive: Permissions that are no longer active.
  • Deleted: Previously deleted permissions.
  • All: View permissions across all statuses.

You can also use the Search and Filter options to locate specific permissions, switch between group and individual views, or Export the displayed data for reporting.

Need Help?

If you need assistance creating or managing Spend Permissions, please contact your company's Custodia administrator or reach out to support@custodia.ai.

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