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Expense Policy Enforcement Software

Spend policy compliance that enforces itself

Automate expense policy enforcement at the point of claim with customisable spending limits, multi-stage approval workflows, and out-of-policy alerts that stop your teams from overspending.

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Draft expenses

Alerts appear as the claim is built, so problems are fixed before anyone approves.

5 of 5 lines
DateCategoryAlertsVATAmount
Fri 28 Nov Motor Vehicle ExpensesProject: LONDON, Costcentre: SALES Duplicate ReceiptReceipt Mismatch 0.00 GBP 506.88 GBP
Thu 16 Oct TravelProject: LONDON, Costcentre: SALES Advance Exceeded by 25.00 GBP 0.00 GBP 50.00 GBP
Thu 16 Oct Postage, Freight and CourierProject: LONDON, Costcentre: SALES 0.00 GBP 25.00 GBP
Thu 16 Oct Meal Allowance, DirectorsProject: LONDON, Costcentre: SALES Project site A 6hrs 0.00 GBP 5.00 GBP
Sat 15 Jul SubsistenceBoots UK Limited Duplicate ReceiptDuplicate ExpenseOver 3 MonthsWeekend 0.00 GBP 9.65 GBP

Trusted by finance teams at

  • Leighton
  • 4.9/5

Reduce your spend by up to 44%

Catch non-compliant claims before they're paid

Claims are checked against policy at submission, not after approval.

Set limits that match your teams’ reality

Spend limits and rules are configurable by category, role, and department.

Spot patterns in claims with AI

Repeat near-threshold claims get flagged too, not just the ones that break the limit outright

Real-time policy warnings

Does Capture Expense warn employees before they submit a non-compliant expense?

Every claim is checked against your policy the moment it's entered, and any policy breach triggers an on-screen warning before submission.

  • Checks run at entry, not after approval.
  • The warning names the specific rule that's been breached.
  • The employee can correct, split, or justify the claim before it reaches an approver.
Spend limit

Spend limit amount

£15.00

Quantity per Claim

If you are not staying overnight then your spend limit is £10. If staying overnight, you will have an increased spend limit of £25.

What Smart Audit checks
  • Policy and spend limits for the category, person and trip
  • VAT receipt present and the VAT amount reclaimable
  • Duplicate, altered or AI-generated receipts
  • History and context: weekends, old claims, mismatched amounts

AI-powered audit

How is AI used in expense policy enforcement?

Smart Audit runs the same checks on every claim, every time, the moment it's submitted, so your policy is enforced the same way whoever's reviewing.

  • AI-assisted receipt checks that flag altered or AI-generated receipts before a claim gets approved.
  • Pattern detection that surfaces repeat near-threshold claims for review, alongside the hard limit breaches.
  • Context-aware decisions that weigh receipt data, VAT treatment, and the claimant's history together, not just the claim in isolation.
  • Reasons attached automatically, so every flagged claim reaches an approver with the issue already named.

Spend limits

Can we set per-category spend limits?

Limits are configurable by category, and can be varied further by role, department, individual, cost centre, or the organisation as a whole.

  • Limits can differ by role, department, or region and, for organisations working across borders, by country too, with rates and subsistence limits set to match.
  • Configure limits down to an individual, not only a category or role.
  • Alerts can be set as a warning or as a mandatory stop, and colour-coded by priority so approvers see what matters first.
Trip
Newcastle Head Office, London

Visit to Head Office for Training

Susi Sharples, 04 Aug 24 to 06 Aug 24

Pre-approved
  • Hotel Accommodation pre and post training course 300.00
  • Staff Training Training Course Fee 100.00
  • Meals & Drinks Subsistence 25.00
  • Trains & Tubes Train ticket to and from Head Office 50.00

Total475.00 GBP

Subsistence rates

Ireland, civil service rates Active

Up to hoursRate
5 to 10 hours€19.25
Over 10 hours€46.17
Overnight€205.53

Departed 07:30, returned 19:10: 11 hours 40 minutes, over 10 hours band applied

Automatic flagging

Is every error flagged, with the rule attached?

Every claim is checked at submission, and any error (a spend limit, a missing receipt, a disallowed category, or a stale date) is flagged in the approver's queue.

  • No manual monthly audit needed.
  • Approvers see the breached rule directly in their queue.
  • Review happens before payment, not after.
  • Policies are hosted in-app, so people can check the rule before they claim.

Catching what shouldn't slip through

Does the expense policy enforcement software catch duplicate claims before they're paid?

Incoming claims are checked against existing submissions for matching receipt data, amount, date, and merchant, and both employee and approver are alerted on a match.

  • Catches duplicated personal-card and company-card spend for the same purchase.
  • Catches resubmission after an initial rejection without a withdrawal.

Alerts happen before the claim reaches payment.

Approval queue
Stage 1 Stage 2 Finance

Jonny Dowell

Claim 145

£199.39

11 February 2025

  • Meeting

    Mileage

    Modified 6%450 miCO2 124 kg

    £112.50

    VAT £0.00

  • M&S

    Meals and drinks

    Duplicate expenseIncomplete

    £26.80

    VAT £0.00

  • 2 Knives Bar and Kitchen

    Meals and drinks

    Approval 1 of 2Event to London, 191 mi

    £48.10

    VAT £8.01

  • Tamworth Burger King

    Missing category

    IncompleteWeekend

    £11.99

    VAT £0.00

Smart Audit

Rejected Duplicate expense

2 Knives Bar and Kitchen

Event and client meet, 307 mi, 9 hrs

£20.00

VAT £8.01

  • Receipt read and matched to the card line
  • VAT receipt present, £8.01 reclaimable
  • Same merchant, date and amount as claim 145, line 3

A policy breach, from claim to correction

For example: an employee submits a claim in a category that already has a spend limit set. Capture Expense checks the claim against that limit, at the point of entry names the specific rule that's been breached, and lets the employee correct, split, or justify the line before it's ever submitted. If they submit anyway, the claim still goes through, but it reaches the approver flagged, with the breached rule attached, so nothing out-of-policy reaches payment without someone actively signing off on it.

“Capture Expense has truly transformed our expense management, making our workflow more efficient and freeing up valuable time. We’re thrilled with the results and grateful for the difference it’s made in our firm.”
Finance Director, Greenwoods

  • 35%

    increase in VAT recovery

  • £5,250 and 36 hours

    saved on processing

Expense policy enforcement software set up in 3 steps

  1. Step 1

    Define spend limits and rules

    By category, role, and department in the policy settings.

  2. Step 2

    Set approval thresholds

    Including any director-level escalation amount.

  3. Step 3

    Turn enforcement on

    Real-time warnings and automatic flagging apply to every claim from that point forward.

What can Capture Expense do?

Works with the systems you already reconcile against

Only claims approved against your policy data sync straight into your accounting platform.

  • Xero
  • QuickBooks
  • Sage

Integrates with 50+ systems. Don't see yours?

See all integrations

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Does Capture Expense warn employees before they submit a non-compliant expense?
Yes. Every claim is checked against your expense policy the moment it's entered, and a breach triggers an on-screen warning naming the rule, before the claim is submitted.

Can we set per-category spend limits?
Yes. Spend limits, category rules, and approval thresholds can each be configured independently by department, role, seniority, individual, or expense type.

Do employees see the policy, or just the warning?
Both. Your expense policies are hosted in-app so people can check the rule before they claim, and the same rule triggers the warning if they submit outside it.

Can we change limits without involving IT?
Yes. Policy configuration is managed by finance or HR administrators directly in the platform, no development or IT support needed.

Does this work for multi-entity or multi-country organisations?
Yes. Policies can be scoped by entity, region, or currency, so a UK subsistence limit and an international travel limit can run under the same account without conflicting.

What happens if an employee overrides a warning and submits anyway?
The claim still gets submitted, but it's flagged for the approver with the specific rule breached, so nothing out-of-policy reaches payment without an approver actively signing off on it.

How is a duplicate claim identified?
By matching receipt data, amount, date, and merchant against existing submissions; a match alerts both employee and approver before payment.

Does policy enforcement slow down approval?
No. Warnings and flags surface at submission, so corrections happen before a claim reaches an approver, which shortens the cycle rather than lengthening it.

How does this work with our approval process?
Expense policy enforcement software works alongside approval routing, not instead of it. A claim can be flagged for a policy breach and still move through your approval workflow for a decision. See our approval workflow feature page for how routing and escalation are configured.

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