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Finance agent

Expense report review

Receipts read, matched to the card charge and held to your expense policy, line by line. Reports inside the rules move on to reimbursement, and anything outside them waits for a person.

  • $12,500 fixed
  • Live in 3 to 6 weeks
  • Yours to keep
Let’s build your agent How it works
The review screen for Expense report review: four items, three done, and one (Over limit) waiting for the finance manager, who is asked: A $640 client dinner for four, $160 a head against a $100 limit. Approve it?
How it works

Your expense policy, on every line of every report.

Here’s a typical run, step by step: what automation handles, what the agent does, and the calls that stay with your team.

The workflow for Expense report review, in 5 steps. It starts with “A report is submitted” and ends with “Ready to reimburse”. Each step lists what automation, the agent and your team do there.
Expense report reviewA typical run
Starts withA report is submittedAn employee submits nine lines from a client visit in the expense tool, receipts attached.
The agent: Takes the merchant, date, amount and purpose off each of the nine receipts, even a crumpled taxi slip photographed on a phone.
~12h/mo

Step 1 of 5Read the receipts

  • The agent

    Takes the merchant, date, amount and purpose off each of the nine receipts, even a crumpled taxi slip photographed on a phone.

    Receipts come as photos, PDFs and forwarded emails, and no two put the total in the same place.

Reads
  • Expense tool
Writes
  • Review log

~12 hours a month back

Automation: Matches each line to the company card feed and checks past reports, so nothing is claimed twice.
~8h/mo

Step 2 of 5Match the card

  • Automation

    Matches each line to the company card feed and checks past reports, so nothing is claimed twice.

    Amount, date and merchant either line up with a card charge or they don’t.

Reads
  • Card feed
  • Expense tool
Writes
  • Review log

~8 hours a month back

The agent: Sees the dinner receipt covers four people and names a client, so it’s a client meal at $160 a head, not a team dinner.
Automation: Holds each line to your limits, say hotels up to $220 a night, client meals up to $100 a head, a receipt for anything over $75.
~14h/mo

Step 3 of 5Hold it to your policy

  • The agent

    Sees the dinner receipt covers four people and names a client, so it’s a client meal at $160 a head, not a team dinner.

    Who was at dinner, and how many, is written on the receipt or in the note, never in a field.

  • Automation

    Holds each line to your limits, say hotels up to $220 a night, client meals up to $100 a head, a receipt for anything over $75.

    A limit per night or per head is a number, once the line has its category and how many were there.

Reads
  • Expense policy
Writes
  • Review log

~14 hours a month back

Where teams differMeal limits are per head for some teams and per day for others, and client meals often get a limit of their own.

Automation: Sends the finance manager the $640 dinner with its receipt and note, and moves the other eight lines on.
IfYour team: Approves the $640 dinner as a client meal, or sends it back and asks the employee to cover the $240 over the limit.
~4h/mo

Step 4 of 5Decide the exception

  • Automation

    Sends the finance manager the $640 dinner with its receipt and note, and moves the other eight lines on.

    The line broke a set limit, so the only open question is whether to allow it.

  • Your teamIf a line is outside policy

    Approves the $640 dinner as a client meal, or sends it back and asks the employee to cover the $240 over the limit.

    Allowing spend over policy is a judgment about the client and the person, and it needs authority behind it.

Reads
  • Review log
Writes
  • Expense tool

~4 hours a month back

Where teams differMany teams have managers approve reports before finance looks. Others send only exceptions to a manager.

Automation: Marks the report reviewed in the expense tool, receipts attached, for the next reimbursement run.
~6h/mo

Step 5 of 5Clear it to reimburse

  • Automation

    Marks the report reviewed in the expense tool, receipts attached, for the next reimbursement run.

    With every line passed or decided, nothing is left to judge. Marking it ready is a status change.

Reads
  • Review log
Writes
  • Expense tool

~6 hours a month back

Ends withReady to reimburseEvery line checked against policy, the one exception decided, and the report cleared for the next run.
Total~44h/mo

What changes

Lines inside your policy move on to reimbursement. Lines outside it reach the finance manager with the receipt and the employee’s note beside them.

  • 4steps automated
  • 2steps for the agent
  • 1call kept with your team

Pick any step to see what happens there and why it sits in that lane.

What it could be worth

~44 hours a month back

$29,000 a year in time

For a finance team checking about 400 expense reports a month, at $55 an hour. We work out yours from your own volumes before you sign.

Let’s build your agent
What we customize with you

One proven agent, plugged into how you work.

Every team does this job a little differently, so we set these five with the people who do it today. We’ve done this in dozens of businesses, so we know where teams usually differ and ask about those first.

The agent

Same for every client
  • Follows the same proven steps
  • A person on every exception
  • Every decision logged
  • Tested on your past work first
  • Never approves anything outside your policy

  1. Your systems

    Where the work comes in, and where the result goes.

    For this agentReports from your expense tool, charges from your company card feed.

  2. Your rules

    The limits and exceptions it works to.

    For this agentYour limits by category, like meals per head and hotels per night, and when a receipt is required.

  3. Your team

    Who signs off, and who covers when they’re away.

    For this agentThe finance manager for anything over a limit, the CFO for the leadership team’s own reports.

  4. Your channels

    Where your team hears from it.

    For this agentSlack or Teams for exceptions, a note to the employee in the expense tool.

  5. Your output

    What it hands back, in the format you already use.

    For this agentA report marked reviewed and ready to reimburse, or held with the reason beside the line.

Matching supplier invoices and approving new software are other agents in the catalog. Reimbursements still go out in your usual pay run.

What you get

The agent, and everything that keeps it working.

  • The agentRunning on your systems, under your rules.
  • The review screenWhere the exceptions land for your finance manager and team.
  • Your rulebookYour limits, exceptions and who signs off, in one place, often for the first time.
  • A test reportYour past expense reports, run through it and checked against the number.
  • The runbookHow it works, what to check, and what to do if it stops.
  • 30 days of tuningAfter it goes live, through a full month of your real expense reports.
The number we agree

Hours a month your finance team spends checking expense reports. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.

How we get there

Live in 3 to 6 weeks. About seven hours of your time.

We do the building. Your side: access, three months of approved expense reports and your expense policy, and a short weekly check-in.

  1. Before kickoff

    We send the access checklist.

    You, 2 hours. Access, an owner, and three months of approved expense reports and your expense policy.

  2. Weeks 1 to 2

    We connect your systems and set it up.

    You, 1 hour. Walk us through your rules.

  3. Weeks 2 to 4

    We test it on your past expense reports.

    You, 1 hour. Review what it flagged.

  4. Weeks 3 to 6

    It runs beside your team, then goes live.

    You, 1¼ hours. Work from the review screen.

Then 30 days of tuning, with a short check-in each week, about two hours of yours. At day 30 we show you the number and hand everything over.

After it’s live

It keeps running whether or not we stay.

  • It runs in your accounts

    Your cloud, your systems, and an AI account in your name, billed by the provider at their rates.

  • Changes in the first 30 days are included

    A new rule, a changed limit, someone new signing off. That’s what tuning is for.

  • After that, your call

    Your team edits the rulebook, the care plan covers it, or a bigger change is quoted first.

Questions

About this agent.

Does it replace our managers’ approval?
No. If managers approve their team’s reports first, that stays as it is. The agent does the policy check finance does after them.
What about a missing receipt?
It asks the employee for it in the expense tool. Below the amount your policy lets through without a receipt, often $75, it notes the line and moves on.
Can it spot the same receipt claimed twice?
Yes. It checks each line against the card feed and against past reports, so a dinner on the company card and again as cash is held.
Our process isn’t quite like this. Will it still work?
That’s the usual case. The job looks the same in most businesses, but the details never do. We map how your team does it today, then set the rules, systems and approvals to match. That’s what most of the 3 to 6 weeks are for.
How do we agree the number?
Together, before any work starts. For this agent it’s the hours a month your finance team spends checking expense reports. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.
What does it cost to run once it’s live?
Hosting and AI, paid straight to the providers, not through us. It usually runs 5x to 25x cheaper than doing the same work by hand, and we work out your figure from your real volumes before you sign.

Which part of your expense policy is hardest to check?

Tell us how your team handles expense reports today. We’ll show you this agent on examples like yours, and whether it fits the fixed price.

Let’s build your agentBack to Finance
New to Switchboard Agents? How it works, what’s included, and what it costs.
  • 3 to 6 weeksto live, then 30 days of tuning
  • $12,500fixed, per agent
  • Yours to keepno license fees
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