Consultants' expense claims repaid through payroll
How consultants submit expense claims through payroll self-service, who decides them, and how approved claims are repaid on the next pay run.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Consulting businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Consultants spend the firm's money all the time: a taxi to a client's office, a night in a hotel before an out-of-town workshop, printing for a board pack, data bundles on a long assignment. Repaying them is a small job that turns into a large one when claims arrive as photographs on a messaging app, slips in an envelope, and a spreadsheet nobody quite owns.
Achekam routes expense claims through payroll. The consultant submits a claim from self-service, payroll decides it, and an approved claim is repaid with the next salary. Here is how each step works and what to put around it.
Submitting a claim through self-service
A staff member whose login is linked to their payroll record can use self-service. From there they can download their own payslips, apply for leave, and submit expense claims. The same screen takes requests to change their details or bank account, which payroll also decides; an approved bank change still needs a second person to verify it before it is used.
The link between login and payroll record is the first thing to set up. A consultant whose login is not linked cannot use self-service, and will go back to sending slips by e-mail.
For claims themselves, completeness on the way in is what saves time. A good claim says what was spent, when, and for which client or project, and comes with the slip or invoice. Agree as a firm that a claim without support goes back to the consultant rather than being paid "just this once". The exception quickly becomes the rule.
In words, a typical claim runs like this. A consultant takes a taxi to a client's offices and back, buys lunch for a workshop, and pays for a train ticket to a second site. That evening she photographs the slips and submits one claim for the three items through self-service, noting the client and the project. Payroll reviews it later that week and approves it. On the next pay run it appears as a reimbursement, and the amount reaches her with her salary. Nobody has typed anything twice, and the client project is noted so the costs can be recharged.
Who decides
A claim goes to payroll to decide. Whoever decides should check three things:
- the expense falls within the firm's policy;
- the support matches what is being claimed;
- the expense has not already been paid another way, for example on a company card, or recharged to the client and repaid twice.
Kenyan firms have an extra reason to insist on proper support. Since 1 January 2024, business expenses in Kenya that are not supported by an eTIMS invoice are disallowed for income tax, so a claim backed only by a till slip may cost the firm its deduction. Ask consultants to request an eTIMS invoice wherever they can, and make that part of the written policy. KRA's notice on onboarding non-VAT taxpayers on eTIMS sets out both rules: every business must issue eTIMS invoices, and expenses without an eTIMS invoice are not deductible.
Repaid on the next run as a reimbursement
An approved claim is repaid on the next pay run. On the run, it is entered as a reimbursement, one of the period's variable inputs alongside overtime, commission, allowances and unpaid leave. Pay runs can be monthly, fortnightly or weekly, so how soon "the next run" comes depends on how the consultant is paid.
How a reimbursement is treated for tax depends on the country's rules and the nature of the expense. Settle that with your payroll adviser, and set the reimbursement input up to match, before the first claim is paid.
Approvals on the pay run
A pay run in Achekam is approved by someone other than the person who prepared it. Nobody can approve a run that pays themselves, and once approved, a run is never recalculated. In practice, a business needs at least two people in payroll roles.
For expense claims, that gives a natural second look. The claims on the run are seen by the person who prepares it and again by the person who approves it. A partner's own claim goes through the same separation, because the partner cannot approve the run that repays them.
Because an approved run is not recalculated, catch problems before approval. A claim that turns out to be wrong after the run is approved has to be corrected on a later run, not by reopening this one.
The wages journal shows it
An approved run is posted to the business's own ledger as a wages journal, with amounts owed to the tax authority and to funds shown as liabilities. Reimbursements are part of that run, so they reach the books without anyone posting them separately.
Each approved run also has a payment schedule that downloads as CSV. Marking the schedule paid only records the fact: Achekam moves no money, so the payment still goes out from your bank in the usual way.
An expense policy on one page
| Rule | Why |
|---|---|
| Claims come only through self-service, with support | One route, one record |
| Claims for client work name the client or project | So they can be recharged |
| In Kenya, consultants ask for eTIMS invoices | Unsupported expenses lose their deduction |
| Payroll decides; partners' claims follow the same route | No exceptions to track |
| Approved claims are repaid on the next pay run | A predictable date for staff |
| Claims older than the firm's cut-off need a partner's approval | Old claims are hard to check |
Expense claims feed straight into the costs the partners see each month; see a monthly management pack for partners.
Link each consultant's login to their payroll record before the next run, then announce that from that date claims come through self-service only.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
