Claimants
Overview — Your Expense Claims
Welcome! This guide shows you how to submit an expense claim in COMS and follow it all the way to payment. If you have ever paid for something on behalf of Conexus — a hotel, mileage, a per‑diem meal, a piece of hardware — this is where you get reimbursed.
The life of a claim
Every claim moves through the same stages. You only ever do something at the first stage (creating and submitting); after that you can sit back and track its progress.
- Draft — you build the claim and add line items. Nothing is sent yet.
- Department Approval — your manager (and, where required, their manager) reviews it.
- Finance Review — the finance team checks receipts and assigns accounting codes.
- Finance Approval — a senior finance approver gives the final sign‑off.
- Processing Payment — payroll batches it for the next ADP run.
- Paid — the money is on its way. Done!
ℹ️ Good to know: Every claim gets its own expense code the moment you start it — format EXP‑YYYY/YY‑NNNN (e.g. EXP‑2026/27‑0014). The year is the fiscal year (April 1 – March 31) and NNNN is a running number that restarts each fiscal year. Quote this code in any email to finance and it saves everyone time.
Which emails you’ll get
COMS keeps you posted by email at the moments that matter — you don’t need to watch the system:
- Returned — an approver sent your claim back for a change (the email includes their note).
- Processing for payment — it cleared all approvals and is with payroll.
- Completed — it has been paid.
ℹ️ Good to know: There is deliberately no email at every approval step — those go to the approvers. You’ll hear from COMS when your claim is returned, starts processing, or is paid. To check progress in between, open the claim (see Tracking Your Claim).
Where to find your claims
Open Expenses → All Claims from the left sidebar. Your claims are split across tabs:
- Mine — everything you have created.
- Awaiting Me — claims waiting for your approval (only appears if you approve for others).
- I’ve Acted On — claims you have already approved or returned.
The coloured Status badge on each row tells you exactly where a claim is.
The Expenses list, filtered to the ‘Mine’ tab.
💡 Pro Tip: Use the filter bar above the list to narrow by title, status, or date when your list gets long.
Step 1: Expense Info
Start a new claim from Expenses → All Claims and click the blue + button (top‑right), or open New Expense directly. Creating a claim is a simple three‑step wizard: Expense Info → Line Items → Review & Submit.
Step 1 — Expense Info
This first step describes the claim as a whole. Fill in:
- Title — a short, plain description (e.g. “Client site visit — Toronto”).
- Date — the date of the trip or purchase. It can’t be in the future.
- Location — where it happened.
- Project — the project the cost belongs to. Start typing to search.
The Expense Code field is filled in for you and cannot be edited.
Step 1 of the wizard — the claim’s headline details.
About the Project list
- You’ll normally see just your own projects; people with broader access get a My Projects / All Projects grouped list.
- Only active‑ish projects appear (PIF, Active, Under Development, Potential) — closed projects are hidden.
ℹ️ Good to know: The Project locks once you add your first line item — so pick the right one now. To change it later, delete the line items first and the field unlocks (COMS shows the hint “In order to change project, delete all expense details that have been added.”).
💡 Pro Tip: Your work is kept per step. If you try to leave a step with unsaved edits, COMS asks before discarding them — so you won’t lose a half‑filled form by mis‑clicking.
When the details are right, click Continue to Line Items.
Step 2: Adding Line Items
Line items are the individual things you are claiming. A single claim can hold as many as you like — add one tab per item using + Add Expense. Every line item starts by choosing an Expense Category, and the form adapts to the category you pick. The three categories:
| Category | Use it for | How the amount is set |
|---|---|---|
| Receipt | Anything with a receipt or invoice — hotels, hardware, software, meals. | You enter the amounts (or let the receipt scan fill them). |
| Vehicle | Mileage in your own car. | Auto‑calculated from the distance. |
| Per Diem | Daily meal / incidental allowances with no receipt. | Auto‑set from the chosen per‑diem rate. |
Every line also needs a Work Package, a Transaction Date (it defaults to the claim date), and a Description. There’s an optional Notes box for anything the reviewer should know.
Receipt
Choose the Expense Type, pick the Work Package, enter the amounts, and upload the receipt (required). Enter the Sub Total, GST/HST and Total — they must add up (COMS checks that Sub Total + GST/HST equals the Total).
A Receipt line item, with the receipt uploaded and amounts filled.
Foreign‑currency receipts
Paid in something other than Canadian dollars? Pick the Currency and an Exchange Rate field appears (pre‑filled from the current rate, but you can edit it):
- Enter the amounts in the original currency — the block is labelled “Amounts in {CUR}”.
- COMS shows the CAD equivalent underneath (“Amounts in CAD (converted)”), calculated for you and read‑only.
- GST/HST is only entered on Canadian‑dollar receipts — for a foreign currency the tax field is hidden and left at zero.
💡 Pro Tip: AI receipt reading: when you upload a receipt, COMS reads it and pre‑fills the amount, tax, currency, date, description and receipt number. A yellow “Review the auto‑filled details” notice reminds you the scan can make mistakes — always glance over the figures and fix anything it misread before submitting.
⚠️ Heads up: A receipt file is required on every Receipt line, and each receipt must be 10 MB or smaller (PDF or image). For bigger supporting files, use the envelope‑level Supporting Documents on the Review step instead.
Vehicle
Enter the Distance (km) and COMS does the rest — it multiplies by the mileage rate in effect on the transaction date and splits out the HST. The money fields are locked because they are calculated, and the currency is fixed to CAD.
A Vehicle line item — enter the distance and the total is calculated.
ℹ️ Good to know: A supporting document is optional but recommended for Vehicle claims (a map or parking receipt, say). If you leave it off, COMS just double‑checks with you before you continue.
COMS reminds you when a vehicle line has no supporting document.
Per Diem
Pick one or more per‑diem types (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Incidental) — it’s a multi‑select, so you can claim several at once. COMS adds up the set rates for you; the amount is filled in automatically and per‑diems carry no tax.
A Per Diem line item — choose the meals and the rate is applied.
Step 3: Review & Submit
The final step shows everything on one screen so you can check it before sending.
Step 3 — Review & Submit
- The Expense Items table lists every line with its sub‑total, GST/HST and total, plus a Totals row at the bottom.
- Supporting Documents lets you attach optional files that apply to the whole claim — a credit‑card statement or a pre‑approval, for example. These are separate from the per‑line receipts you added under Line Items.
The Review & Submit step, with the line‑item summary and totals.
ℹ️ Good to know: Envelope Supporting Documents accept multiple files up to 25 MB each (PDF, Word, Excel, or images), and you can label each batch with a short description. They upload as soon as you pick them — there’s no separate save.
Your three buttons
- Download Expense Details — save a PDF copy for your records.
- Save for later — keep the claim as a Draft to finish another time.
- Submit Expense — send it into the approval chain.
💡 Pro Tip: Not finished? Click Save for later. Drafts stay editable and never expire, so you can build a claim across several sittings.
⚠️ Heads up: A claim can only be submitted once its total is greater than zero, and any Receipt line must have its receipt attached. If a vehicle line has no document, COMS asks you to confirm before it lets you submit.
Once you click Submit Expense and confirm, the claim moves to Department Approval and the first approver is notified by email.
Tracking Your Claim
After you submit, open the claim from your list to watch its journey. The detail page is your single source of truth for where a claim stands.
Reading the detail page
- The status workflow bar shows every stage and highlights the current one.
- Next approver (top of the page) tells you exactly who the claim is waiting on.
- The Timeline on the right lists every action — who did what, and when, with any notes they left.
- Expense Items shows each line; click Show more to expand the detail.
A submitted claim — workflow bar, line items and the approval timeline.
The statuses you’ll see
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | Being prepared by you. Fully editable. |
| Department Approval | With your manager (and, if needed, their manager). |
| Finance Review | Finance is checking receipts and assigning accounting codes. |
| Finance Approval | A senior finance approver is giving the final sign‑off. |
| Processing Payment | Cleared all approvals; payroll is preparing the payment. |
| Paid | Done — the money is on its way. (Final.) |
| Returned | Sent back to you for a correction — editable again. |
| Cancelled | Stopped without payment. (Final.) |
ℹ️ Good to know: You do not need to chase anyone. Every stage emails the next approver automatically, and you’re emailed when your claim is returned, starts processing, or is paid.
⚠️ Heads up: If the detail page shows “Awaiting reassignment — contact admin”, the claim has run out of approvers in your reporting line and is waiting for an administrator to assign one. That’s your cue to give finance or an admin a nudge.
When a Claim Is Returned
Sometimes an approver sends a claim back for a change instead of approving it. That is a normal part of the process — it is easy to fix and resend.
Spotting a returned claim
A returned claim shows a Returned status badge, and the workflow bar highlights the Returned step. The reason is recorded in the Timeline, so you always know exactly what to change.
A returned claim — the reviewer’s reason appears in the timeline.
Fixing and resubmitting
Open the claim’s actions menu (the … button, top‑right):
- Choose Edit to change the line items as requested.
- Or, if no change is needed, choose Submit to send it straight back.
- Confirm, and the claim re‑enters Department Approval.
ℹ️ Good to know: Resubmitting starts the approval chain over from the beginning as a fresh cycle — it does not resume from the stage it was returned at. Your earlier approvals stay visible in the timeline (under the previous cycle), and the claim goes back to your manager first.
💡 Pro Tip: Read the returned note carefully before editing — it tells you precisely what the reviewer wants, which usually means a one‑minute fix rather than rebuilding the claim.