Expenses

Capture the spend when it happens, not at month end

Photograph the receipt and Niimbu reads the vendor, date and amount, files it under the right category and sends it for approval. By the time you look at the month, the record is already complete.

  • Capture from a phone
  • Categorised by rule
  • Approved and posted

Included in every account · Unlimited claims · No per-user charge

Staff member recording a purchase away from the office

Expense approved

₦86,400

Diesel · posted to the books

Why it matters

Expenses are not hard. Remembering them is.

Nobody struggles to buy diesel. What fails is the part afterwards: the receipt that has to survive a week in a pocket, the category chosen by someone who was not there, and the approval that depends on a message being seen.

Captured at the moment it happens

A photograph of the receipt is the whole submission. Niimbu reads the vendor, date and amount, and files it under the right category, so the record exists before anyone has left the fuel station.

Approval without the chase

Claims route to the right approver by amount, category or department, and sit in one queue rather than in somebody's messages. Approved spend posts to the books immediately.

The month, while you can still change it

Spend by category, by department and by outlet as it accumulates. Fuel quietly doubling is visible in the second week, not in a report produced after the money is gone.

How it works

Four steps, and only the first one is yours

01

Capture it

Photograph the receipt, or let a card transaction create the record on its own. Both arrive in the same place.

02

It files itself

Vendor, date and amount are read from the receipt and matched. The category is applied by rule rather than chosen from a list every time.

03

It goes for approval

Routed by amount, category or department, and either approved or queried, with the reason recorded on the claim.

04

It reaches the books

Approved spend posts against the right category, project or outlet, so nothing has to be entered again for the accounts to be right.

Visibility

Where the month actually went, while it is still going

The report that arrives three weeks after the quarter is history. The value of categorising spend as it is captured is that the picture is current, so the conversation about fuel or transport can happen while the behaviour is still changeable.

  • Spend by category, department, outlet and project
  • Comparisons against the same period last month
  • Recurring spend separated from one-off cost

Expense

EXP-0912

Submitted by

Tolu Adeyemi

Diesel, Ikeja generator

₦86,400

receipt-0912.jpg

Read automatically: vendor, date and amount matched

Category

Utilities · Power

Approved by Ngozi A. and posted to the books

In the field

Most business spending does not happen at a desk

It happens at a fuel station, a market, a supplier's yard or in a taxi, by someone with a phone and no intention of keeping a paper receipt intact until Friday. Capture has to work there or it does not work at all.

  • Submit from a phone in a few seconds
  • Works for cash, transfer and card spending alike
  • Reimbursements tracked and paid from the same account
See expense cards

Spend by category

August

Power and fuel

₦412,000

Transport

₦268,500

Rent and utilities

₦240,000

Everything else

₦292,300

Categorised as it is captured, so the report needs no preparation

The difference

What changes when capture happens at the counter

The usual way

  • Receipts collected in a pocket and reconstructed on Friday
  • Categories guessed weeks later by whoever is typing them in
  • Approvals chased through messages and forgotten
  • Spending patterns visible only after quarter end
  • Staff out of pocket while a claim sits somewhere

With Niimbu

  • The claim exists before the person leaves the counter
  • Category applied by rule at the moment of capture
  • One approval queue, with reasons recorded
  • Spend by category visible as it accumulates
  • Reimbursements paid from the same account and marked settled
Everything included

What expense management covers

Receipt capture

Photograph it and the vendor, date and amount are read automatically.

Automatic categories

Applied by rule from the vendor and history, not chosen from a list each time.

Approval routing

By amount, category or department, with queries recorded on the claim.

Cash, card and transfer

All three captured the same way, so nothing sits outside the record.

Reimbursements

Approved staff claims paid out from the same account, and marked settled.

Recurring spend

Rent, subscriptions and retainers recognised and separated from one-off cost.

Per project and per outlet

Spend attached to the job or location it belongs to, for real costing.

Policy limits

Caps per category, so an out-of-policy claim is flagged rather than argued about.

Export and audit trail

Every claim, approval and edit timestamped and exportable for your accountant.

Cash being counted against receipts at a desk
The idea behind it

A receipt is only evidence while somebody still has it.

Every day between the purchase and the record is a chance for the paper to be lost and the detail to be guessed. Capturing at the moment of spend is not tidiness, it is the difference between a record and an estimate.

Pricing

No charge per claim, per receipt or per user

Every staff member gets their own login and submits as many claims as the work requires. Expenses sit in the same account as the payouts that reimburse them, so nothing has to be reconciled between two systems.

  • Unlimited claims and receipts
  • Unlimited staff accounts
  • Reimbursements paid from the same account
See pricing
Questions

Frequently asked questions

How do staff submit an expense?

They photograph the receipt from their phone. Niimbu reads the vendor, date and amount, applies a category and submits the claim. For spending on a Niimbu expense card, the record is created by the transaction itself and only the receipt needs to be attached.

Does it work for cash spending?

Yes, and that matters more here than in most markets. Cash spending is captured the same way as card and transfer, so it appears in the same categories and the same reports rather than sitting outside the record until someone reconstructs it.

Who approves an expense?

Whoever your rules say. Routing can be by amount, by category or by department, and a claim can require two approvals above a threshold. Queries and rejections carry a reason, which is recorded on the claim rather than lost in a conversation.

How are categories decided?

By rule, from the vendor and your history, rather than by asking the person to choose from a list every time. Choosing manually is where most miscoding comes from, and miscoded spend is what makes a report useless.

Can expenses be charged to a project or an outlet?

Yes. A claim can carry a project, an outlet or a department, which is what makes job costing and per-branch reporting real rather than estimated. Billable expenses can also be passed through onto a customer invoice.

How do reimbursements get paid?

From the same account. Once a claim is approved, the payout to the staff member is made in Niimbu and the claim is marked settled, so nobody has to check separately whether they were actually paid.

Do approved expenses appear in my accounts automatically?

Yes. Approved spend posts against the right category as it is approved, with the receipt attached to the entry. Month end becomes a review of what is already recorded, and your accountant gets the evidence without asking for it.

Does expense management cost extra?

No. It is included with the account, with no cap on claims and no charge per staff member submitting them. Charging per user would only encourage people to submit through somebody else's login, which defeats the point.

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