How our PowerApps expense management build replaced a broken Excel process - with smart validation, automated calculations, and real-time status tracking that keeps employees informed from submission to payment.
This PowerApps expense management project eliminated the frustration of a broken Excel-based expense process. The previous system - an Excel template emailed to Finance - generated constant back-and-forth, lost claims, and employees who had no idea when they'd be reimbursed.
We delivered a custom PowerApps solution with bespoke PowerApps Component Framework (PCF) controls for receipt capture, mileage calculation, and expense categorisation. The app validates claims upfront, auto-calculates totals and VAT, routes approvals automatically, and keeps employees informed at every stage through to payment.
The Excel template was frequently filled in incorrectly - missing receipt dates, wrong project codes, broken formulas. Finance spent hours chasing corrections instead of processing claims.
Multiple versions circulated via email. Finance couldn’t tell which was the latest. Employees would resubmit, creating duplicates. There was no single source of truth.
Claims sat in inboxes for weeks, sometimes getting lost entirely. Employees had no way to track status and constantly chased Finance for updates - or gave up and absorbed the cost.
Employees submitted claims into a black hole. They had no idea if their claim was received, approved, or queued for payment. The only way to know was to email Finance directly.
Finance was spending 6+ hours per week just on expense administration - chasing corrections, finding lost claims, answering status queries. Employees were frustrated, some avoiding claiming legitimate expenses entirely. The Finance Manager described it as "the most complained-about process in the company."
Camera integration with automatic date and amount extraction using AI. Receipts are cropped, enhanced, and attached directly to the expense line.
Address-to-address mileage lookup with HMRC mileage rate application. No more manual distance calculations or disputes about claimed miles.
Expense type selection that automatically applies correct VAT treatment, GL codes, and policy rules. Wrong codes become impossible.
Required fields enforced, receipts required over £25, policy limits flagged in real time, automatic VAT calculation, running totals as lines are added.
Power Automate routes claims to line managers, escalates high-value claims to the Finance Director, sends 48-hour reminders and handles delegation for managers on leave. Mobile approval via Teams and Outlook.
Submitted → With Manager → Approved → Processing → Paid. Automated emails keep employees informed at each stage, with expected payment date.
All expense data is stored in SharePoint with proper structure and retention. Finance has dashboard views for pending approvals, payment queue, and reporting. A full audit trail captures every action for compliance purposes.
“The old Excel system was a constant headache - wrong codes, missing receipts, people chasing me for updates. Now claims come in clean, route automatically, and I’m not the bottleneck anymore. The team actually thanks me for making their lives easier. That’s never happened with an expenses process.”
Dedicated expense tools offer polished, ready-to-use solutions - but come with per-user licensing costs and limited customisation. A PowerApps solution costs nothing extra if you already have Microsoft 365 licences, and can be tailored exactly to your policies, approval workflows, and integration requirements.
PCF (PowerApps Component Framework) controls are custom-built components that extend PowerApps beyond its standard capabilities. They’re not always necessary - we recommended them here for receipt OCR and mileage lookup, which would have been clunky or impossible otherwise.
This project took 6 weeks including custom PCF controls. A simpler expense app using standard components might take 3-4 weeks, depending on expense types, approval routing rules and integrations.
Yes. Power Automate supports integration with most accounting platforms including Xero, QuickBooks and Sage - via native connectors or custom API integration. Approved expenses can automatically create journal entries, supplier invoices, or bank transactions.
Book a free 30-minute discovery call to discuss how a PowerApps expense management solution could eliminate your Excel headaches.