Employee expenses, captured by AI and posted straight into Business Central
Business Central • Expense Management
Microsoft has built expense management right into Dynamics 365 Business Central (in production-ready preview) - with a brand-new AI Expense Agent that captures receipts from Outlook, Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, mobile or email, then reads, categorises and drafts expense reports for you.
erp365 sets it up for your New Zealand or Australian team, so there is no third-party add-on to buy or bolt on.
Expense management is now native to Business Central
Until recently, capturing receipts and reimbursing staff in Business Central usually meant adding a separate product.
Not any more. Microsoft’s built-in expense management - with its AI-powered Expense Agent - gives everyone a clear, auditable process from receipt to ledger entry, inside the platform you already run.
Submit from anywhere
Employees submit receipts from Outlook, Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, mobile, the web app or email - no Business Central licence needed just to submit..
AI reads every receipt
The Expense Agent extracts vendors, amounts, dates, line items and guests - and even flags duplicates - from JPEG, PNG or PDF receipts automatically.
Automatic categorisation
Each expense is classified into your configured categories and subcategories, with company rules and policy limits enforced as it goes.
Per diem & mileage
Per diem is calculated from itinerary details and mileage from an in-app travel map - with the chosen route captured against the expense.
Approvals & rules
Reports route through your approval workflow, with rules flagging missing justification, policy breaches or non-refundable items before anything posts.
Posts to the general ledger
Approved reports post to the GL - creating expense, employee and G/L entries - and staff are reimbursed through payment journals.
The new Expense Agent - set up by erp365
The Expense Agent is Microsoft’s AI agent for expenses. It runs in the background, turns receipts into draft expense lines, groups them into a monthly report per employee, and flags anything that needs a human decision. erp365 configures it to your categories, rules, approval chain and posting groups - and trains your team to use it.
Built into Business Central - no separate expense system to buy or maintain
Submit from Outlook, Teams, Copilot Chat, mobile, web or email - no Business Central licence needed to submit
Reads JPEG, PNG and PDF receipts, including itemised and multi-language ones
Extracts vendors, amounts, dates, line items and guests - and flags duplicates
Enforces your company policies, categories and approval rules
Posts to the general ledger and reimburses through payment journals
A note on what’s new: Microsoft’s native expense management and Expense Agent arrived in the 2026 release wave 1 and are currently in public preview, working across Outlook, Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Business Central. erp365 helps you adopt it safely and keep it running smoothly as it evolves — the same proactive, update-aware approach we bring to every Business Central release.
How it flows, end to end
Five steps, most of them automatic. Your people photograph a receipt; Business Central does the rest.
Receipt in
An employee submits a receipt from Outlook, Teams, Copilot Chat, mobile, the web app or by email. No Business Central licence is required to submit.
AI extracts the detail
The Expense Agent reads the receipt and pulls out the merchant, date, total, currency, payment method and line items.
Categorised & checked
Each expense is classified into your categories and subcategories, with itemisation, per diem and mileage handled and company rules applied.
Grouped into a report
Expenses are gathered into a monthly expense report per employee, with issues flagged for review before submission.
Approved & posted
Managers approve in the web app or in Business Central, then the report posts to the general ledger and the employee is reimbursed.
What it costs to run
Licensing depends on how each person interacts with expenses. People who only submit through the web app or email don’t need a Business Central licence at all — the AI processing is billed through Copilot credits instead.
How your people use it | Licence needed |
|---|---|
Submit receipts via the web app, email or Copilot chat only | No Business Central licence - billed via Copilot credits |
Manage and submit expense reports inside Business Central | Team Member licence (minimum) |
Approve expense reports inside Business Central | Team Member licence (minimum) |
Post reports and process payments in Business Central | Essentials or Premium licence |
Copilot credits: the Expense Agent uses Copilot credits for AI processing - around 50 credits per receipt, covering the whole journey from extraction through categorisation, itemisation, grouping and approval. erp365 helps you set up a billing model and forecast the cost before you switch it on.
What your team gets out of it
Hours back each month
Finance stops chasing paper receipts and re-keying claims - the AI does the data entry, so your people handle exceptions, not admin.
Fewer errors & leakage
Automatic extraction, policy rules and refundable-versus-reimbursable logic cut miscoding, duplicate claims and policy breaches.
Happier employees
Submitting a claim is a photo and a tap, reimbursements move faster, and nobody wrestles with a spreadsheet at month-end.
The erp365 approach
We were formed because too many Business Central partners had become inflexible and uninterested in real transformation. We do expenses differently.
Native first, no bolt-ons
We configure the expense management already inside Business Central, so you avoid the cost and complexity of a separate product.
People-friendly automation
AI removes the manual receipt entry and paperwork, so your people spend time on decisions and exceptions, not data entry.
Adopted safely
As a brand-new, evolving capability, we roll it out carefully and manage each update - the same proactive approach we bring to every BC release.
Expense management FAQs
Yes.
Microsoft has added native expense management to Business Central, including an AI-powered Expense Agent that captures receipts, categorises expenses and drafts expense reports.
It arrived in the 2026 release wave 1 and is currently in public preview, and erp365 helps you adopt it safely.
Ready to make expenses effortless in Business Central?
Book a discovery call and we’ll show you the new native Expense Agent working end to end - from a photographed receipt to a posted, reimbursed expense - set up for your team.
