Expenses
What this section is for
Expenses is where you ask to be paid back when you've spent your own money on something for the org. You build a report with one or more items — purchases with a receipt attached — and submit it. Once it's approved, you're emailed automatically.
Finance handles the approval and pays you by bank transfer, and the org's accounting system is updated behind the scenes.
Key pages at a glance
- My expenses (
/Expenses) — your reports and where each one's up to, plus what the org currently owes you once payments start flowing - New report (
/Expenses/New) — start a new draft - Report detail (
/Expenses/{id}) — one report: its items, receipts, status, and history - Edit a draft (
/Expenses/{id}/Edit) — change a report while it's still a draft - Review queue (
/Expenses/Review) — reports waiting for your sign-off or approval; one page shared by coordinators, Finance Admin, and Admin, scoped to what each can act on
As a Volunteer
Start a report
Go to /Expenses/New to start a draft. Pick the account the spending books to — one of the budget categories or another account — and give the report a Subject (the project name, up to 500 characters); the subject is required before you can submit. A report is a container — you add items to it: purchases with a description, an amount, and a receipt. A report with no items can't be submitted.
File against a pre-approval
If the association pre-approved your spending (a creativity grant or a travel allowance), the open pre-approvals are listed on My expenses and on /Preapprovals. Use File expense next to one, or pick it on the New form: the account and the payout cap come from the pre-approval, and the report goes straight to Finance without a coordinator's sign-off. You have to submit before the pre-approval's claim-by date; a report sent back to you for fixes may still be resubmitted after it. Withdrawing a report before it's approved frees the pre-approval up again.
Add items and attach receipts
For each thing you spent money on, add an item to the report. You're asked to pick one of two kinds: an invoice — a business (ZZP/autónomo) bills the association directly, made out to the NCA — or a receipt, where you paid yourself and want reimbursing. Invoices are preferred (the association can reclaim the VAT); receipts are for when an invoice wasn't possible or the amount is small. Attach the invoice file when you add it, then attach the receipts behind it as proof for the approver. A receipt item needs its own attachment before you can submit.
Travel items (mileage and per diem)
Mileage and per diem can't be added to a report. Travel items on older reports still show and count towards the total, but can't be edited — remove one if it's wrong.
Add your bank details (IBAN)
Your IBAN has to be on your profile before you can submit, since that's how you get paid. It's copied onto the report when you submit, so changing your profile later won't disturb a report that's already on its way.
Submit and track
Once every purchase item has a receipt and your IBAN is set, submit. You can withdraw a report from its detail page once it's submitted, whether it's still waiting, coordinator-endorsed or already approved. A draft has no withdraw; just edit it or leave it. If a reviewer rejects a report it comes back to you as a draft: you can edit, replace or remove individual items and resubmit, there's no need to start over. A reviewer can also decline a single item with a reason — it stays on the report with the reason shown, but doesn't count toward your total; replace its file or remove the item to clear the decline. Withdrawn is final. A report moves through these stages:
- Draft — you're still building it
- Submitted — waiting for a coordinator's sign-off (if its category has one) or for Finance
- Coordinator endorsed — signed off by a coordinator; waiting for Finance
- Approved — Finance has approved it; booked into the org's accounting system. A coordinator or Finance Admin can cap what's actually paid out below your submitted total — the report detail page shows the payable amount if a cap applies. You'll get an email with the approved amount and your masked IBAN, if you have a notification address on file. Payment happens outside the app (bank transfer by Finance); you can see what you're owed on My expenses.
- Withdrawn — you pulled it back
![TODO: screenshot — expense report detail showing items, receipt links, and a status badge]
See what you're owed
Once one of your reports has reached the org's accounting system, My expenses shows a card with your current balance and a ledger of every line Holded has booked to your account — what's owed to you and what's been paid, shown exactly as Holded records it. It's the account's real statement, not a summary of your reports, so the rows won't map one-to-one to what you submitted. If your account is linked but nothing's posted yet, or it isn't linked at all, you'll see a note instead.