Creating Expenses using Email and Receipt Uploads in Odoo 18
July 24, 2025by
admin
Creating Expenses using Email and Receipt Uploads in Odoo 18
Introduction
Managing expenses efficiently is crucial for any business, and Odoo 18 makes it incredibly simple by allowing users to create expenses via email and by uploading receipts. This feature streamlines the expense settlement process and eliminates manual data entry, saving valuable time. Let’s explore how you can log expenses effortlessly using these methods.
Odoo 18 allows users to upload receipts directly into the system and automatically generates expense records. To do this, navigate to the Expenses module in your Odoo dashboard. From the My Expenses dashboard, click Upload, and a file explorer appears. Navigate to the desired receipt, select it, then click Open.
Once the receipt is scanned, a new expense record is automatically created. The Expense Date field is set to today’s date, along with other relevant fields, such as the Total, based on the scanned data.
Click on the newly created entry to open the individual expense form and make any necessary adjustments. The scanned receipt will be visible in the chatter.
Similarly, we can generate expenses via email. To do so, navigate to the Expenses module in your Odoo dashboard. In the Configuration menu, open Settings.
Enable the Incoming Emails options by selecting the checkbox near it to configure an email alias.
If the domain alias is not configured, the option "Set up your domain alias" will appear below the Incoming Emails checkbox. You can click on it and configure your alias domain.
Once the domain alias is configured, the email address field is visible beneath the Incoming Emails feature.
The default email alias is set as expense@(domain).com. To modify it, enter your preferred email address in the field next to Alias and click Save.
After entering the email address, users can send emails to that alias to create new expenses, even if they are not in the Odoo database.
To submit an expense via email, compose a new email and include the product’s internal reference code (if available) along with the expense amount in the subject line. Then, attach the receipt to the email. Odoo will generate the expense by extracting the details from the subject and combining them with the attached receipt.
To find the internal reference of an expense category, navigate to the Expenses module. In Configuration open Expense Categories. If an internal reference is assigned to the category, it will be displayed in the Reference column.
To assign an internal reference to an expense category, open the category by clicking on it. Then, enter the internal reference in the designated field.
To create an expense via email, we will compose an email, where recipient would be the email alias created by you and subject would be internal reference and amount. For example, here for submitting an expense via email for a $25.00 meal, the email subject should be FOOD $25.00. Where:
FOOD is the internal reference for the Meals expense category.
$25.00 represents the cost of the expense.
Once the email is sent you can see that an expense will be created. To see that navigate to the Expenses module and open My Expenses menu.
Once that is done, the expenses can be submitted and get approved.
Conclusion
Odoo 18’s expense management capabilities offer a seamless and efficient way to handle business expenses with minimal effort. By automating data entry, reducing processing time, and ensuring accuracy through OCR technology, organizations can eliminate manual workload and streamline approvals. Whether submitting expenses via email or uploading receipts directly, this system enhances productivity and financial transparency.
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