Smart Audit

Smart Audit: every claim checked, only the exceptions reach a person

Name: Capture Expense Smart Audit
Brand: Capture Expense

Manual approvals are slow, inconsistent and awkward. Smart Audit makes fast, impartial decisions on every expense line, so managers focus on the exceptions and finance stops chasing.

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app.captureexpense.com/setup/auditors

Auditor

An auditor automatically reviews submitted expense claims using business policies, alerts and historical data to determine if manual approval is required.

Active

Name

Marketing

Description

Approval auditing for the marketing team

Insights Only (Records the audit result but takes no action, useful for trialling the auditor)

Tags determine which expenses the Auditor will review. Leave empty to apply to all expenses and people.

Location

All locations

Department

Marketing

Define audit rules to control expense approval. These rules override existing policies. Write each rule on a new line.

1Alcohol expenses require manual approval.

2Any expense over £500 must be flagged for review.

3Software subscriptions without a receipt must be auto-rejected.

4Receipts are required for any category over £100.

CancelSave

Instant, consistent decisions

Approve, reject or escalate at the point of submission. No waiting, no interpretation, no awkward conversations.

Context-aware review

Receipt data, expense details, approval history, VAT rules and your policy are all considered together.

Rules in plain English

Finance writes the rules, such as alcohol requiring manual approval, without IT or a rules engine to maintain.

What it checks

The checks finance would make, on every line, every time

Smart Audit looks for duplicate receipts, missing information, policy breaches, VAT risks, incorrect classifications and unusual or potentially fraudulent activity, including receipts that appear to be altered or AI-generated. It combines those signals with the claimant's history and the business context before deciding.

Duplicate receipts across users and entities
Out-of-policy amounts, categories and timing
VAT receipt present and VAT treatment plausible
Altered, fake or AI-generated receipts
Unusual patterns and repeat behaviour

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

Auto-approval

Controlled auto-approval for low-risk spend

Decide what a person should see. Low-value, in-policy, receipt-matched claims can be approved automatically at the first stage or the final pre-approval stage, while anything sensitive still goes to a named approver. Insights-only mode records what the auditor would have done, so you can trial it safely before switching it on.

Run at submission, before a manager, or as the final check
Scope by tag: location, department, role or category
Insights-only mode for a risk-free trial
Every decision logged for a searchable audit trail

app.captureexpense.com/approval

Approval Insights

Jonny Dowell - Mon, 09 May - IT and Software - £300.00

VAT Missing: The claim has a warning alert indicating that VAT is missing, but the receipt shows a VAT amount of £50.00.
Over 3 Months: The claim date is over 3 months old, which may violate company policy.
Duplicate Expense: There is a related expense with the same amount and description submitted on 24-02-2025, which is flagged as a duplicate.

Related Expenses

Jonny Dowell has a history of IT and Software expenses, with amounts ranging from small (£6.60) to significant (£10,000.00). The current claim of £300.00 is consistent with previous expenses for software licences and services. However, the duplicate expense and VAT discrepancies are notable concerns.

Reference	Submit Date	Category	Description	Date	Total £
333	11-12-2024	IT and Software		11-12-2024	10,000.00
226	28-04-2023	IT and Software	B Bagel Fulham	03-03-2023	6.60
167	09-01-2023	IT and Software	Microsoft	09-12-2022	16.06

Alerts

Colour-coded alerts guide people before they submit

Centralised business rules run in real time across every entry method. Employees see warnings or mandatory stops as they build a claim, and approvers see the same alerts prioritised by colour, so issues are fixed at source rather than argued about later.

Fixed and custom alert labels per expense line
Warnings or hard stops, by role, team, location and category
Additional VAT rules that flag potential reclaim issues

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

Book a demo

See smart audit on your own process in 30 minutes

Bring a couple of real claims and your finance system. We will show you how each one flows from receipt to ledger.

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Rated 4.9 out of 5 on Capterra No credit card for the trial Reply within one working day

In detail

Everything in Smart Audit

AI decision engine

Approve, reject or escalate with reasons on every line.
Natural language rules

Department and role-specific rules written by finance.
Duplicate detection

Across users, entities and time.
Fraud signals

Altered and AI-generated receipt detection, unusual patterns.
VAT validation

Receipt presence, VAT treatment and reclaim risk.
Audit trail

Every decision, reason and override recorded and exportable.

Trusted by finance teams across the UK and Ireland

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Can't find what you're looking for? Talk to us and we'll answer within a working day.

Does Smart Audit replace our approvers?

It replaces the routine checking, not the judgement. You decide which claims can be approved automatically and which always go to a person. Escalated claims arrive with the reasons attached so approvers decide faster and more consistently.

How do we define the rules?

In plain English, in the auditor settings. For example: alcohol expenses require manual approval; any expense over £500 must be flagged for review; software subscriptions without a receipt are rejected. Rules can be scoped by location, department or category tags.

How does this compare with third-party audit services?

Enterprise platforms often sell audit as a premium add-on delivered by an external team. Smart Audit is built in, runs in real time and costs a fraction of that, which is one reason customers moving from SAP Concur choose Capture Expense.

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