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Onboarding guide to Expense Management
Onboarding guide to Expense Management

Set up Expense Management for your business

Updated over a month ago

This article covers how to enroll in Expense Management and set up the account on your own or delegate the process.

Ready to get started? Play this 3 minute video to learn how to streamline your business expenses or continue reading.

Getting started

At this time, only primary account owners can enroll their Capital One business account into Expense Management. After the account is enrolled, the primary account owner can set up the tool on their own or delegate the process to another employee, like an account manager.

Once you have access to Expense Management, you can begin setting up configurations according to your business' needs.

Access Expense Management

After you’ve signed in to your Capital One account on your desktop, you’ll be able to access Expense Management in 3 ways:

  • Go to Account details, select More Account Services, then select the Manage Expenses link under Expenses and Reporting.

  • Go to Account details, then select the Learn about managing expenses button above your transactions.

  • Go to Account details, select the tab Payments and Expenses, then select the Manage Expenses link.

Enroll in Expense Management

Next, you’ll view a page displaying an informational video, benefits, the enrollment process and frequently asked questions. To begin enrolling into Expense Management, select the Start enrolling button.

Terms and conditions will appear on the page. Select the Enroll in Expense Management button to enroll your account.

Give Expense Management access to employees

As the primary account owner, you can then select the employees you’d like to enroll into Expense Management. Employees must have Capital One online access and contact information—a phone number and an email address—saved to their account to use Expense Management. View the Guide to enable online access for support on how to enable online access for your employees.

Confirm your selections, then select the Give access button.

It may take a moment for the enrollment to complete. Once your account has successfully enrolled, there will be a confirmation screen with your name, phone number and the number of employees you gave Expense Management access.

To begin the account set up process, select the Set up your account button.

Set up the account yourself or delegate it to an employee

As the primary account owner, you can delegate this process to an employee you’ve given Expense Management access to during the previous step, or you can set up the account yourself.

Delegate the setup process to an admin

To delegate the set up process to an employee, select the first option, Delegate setting up the account.

Next, select the admin from the drop-down list of employees you’ve given Expense Management access and select Invite.

The employee you selected will become an admin in Expense Management and receive an email invitation to set up the account. You and any other admins on the account can change the account set up selections at any time within the Settings.

Set up on your own

To set up the account yourself, select the second option, Set up on my own, to begin the account setup process. You will be guided through a few essential settings during account set up. Other settings, like projects, categories or accounting integrations, can be modified after account set up within Settings.

Review employees and manage roles

First, start by reviewing all employees with access and assign them Expense Management-specific roles. Roles selected during this step only apply to Expense Management and don’t affect the employee’s role (e.g., account manager or authorized user) on your Capital One business account.

Select the Manage roles button to start. You can select the Skip button to set this up later on the Employee overview page in Settings.

Review the list of all employees and confirm their Expense Management-specific role.

Account managers are designated as admins by default. Admins can view expenses and reports for the entire business and edit Expense Management settings. Authorized users are designated spenders by default. Spenders can view their expenses and reports, but they can't view overall business spending. You can change these default designations for each employee by selecting the appropriate role in the drop-down near each employee’s name.

Once the roles are assigned, select Save and continue.

Assign default administrator

Next assign a default administrator, who is responsible for completing expenses on behalf of any employee without access to Expense Management.

Select the Assign button. You can select the Skip button to set this up later on the Assign default administrator page in Settings.

Select the default admin from the drop-down list and select the Save and continue button.

Add receipt settings

This step allows you to decide if and when to require your employees to submit receipts.

Select the Add receipt settings button to continue. You can select the Skip button to set this up later on the Customize receipt requirements page in settings.

Select a rule for receipt requirements. The selected rule applies to all expenses, for all employees.

The rules that can be set are:

  • Require receipts for all expenses: All expenses must have a receipt to save or submit for approval in an expense report.

  • Require receipts for expenses greater than: Expenses over a chosen dollar amount must have a receipt to save and submit the expenses for approval in an expense report.

  • No receipts required: Employees can save and submit expenses for approval without receipts.

Once you’ve set your rule, select the Save and continue button.

Automate expense reports

You can automate the process of creating and submitting expense reports. Automation submits all your employees’ complete expenses in an expense report for approval on a set day of each week or date every month.

Select the Set schedule button to proceed. You can select the Skip button to set this up later on the Automate report submission page in settings.

You can choose if expense reports will be auto-submitted monthly or weekly, then select the days or dates. To submit reports on the last day of the month, select Last day from the list.

Select the Save and continue button to proceed.

Manage approval workflow

Lastly, set up approvers for expense reports. Approvers can edit, send back and approve expense reports. An employee’s expense report will be directed to their approver once it has been submitted.

Select the Create workflow button to proceed. You can select the Skip button to set this up later on the Set employee approvals page in Settings.

Choose the approver for each employee. The approver will automatically be assigned the Approver role.

If you need to set up additional approvals for expenses beyond a set amount, select the Add 2nd approver button.

Enter the required amount and select Add 2nd approver.

An additional column will be added to the list of employees and you can assign a second approver from the drop-down list.

Select the Save and finish button.

Your account setup is complete. Select the Start managing expenses button to go to your Tasks page.

You can make changes to any of the configured rules from the Settings.

To access the settings, select the tab labeled Settings on the right near the top of the page.

After you complete account set up, the primary account owner and any account managers can go to the business expenses and business expense reports page from the Expense Management Home page. To give or remove employee access to Expense Management, select the Give Expense Management access button.

If you need further assistance setting up your account, contact our support team at support@capitalone-fylehq.com.

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