Expense Management lets you capture, review, and sync receipts tied to your team's business card transactions, all on the Melio platform. This guide covers where to find receipts, how to manage them, how to sync reviewed transactions to QuickBooks Online (QBO), and more!
You’ll find the following sections below:
- Where to find receipts
- How to manage receipts
- What the statuses mean
- Actions users can take for receipts
- How to sync receipts to accounting software
Where to find receipts
All transactions and their receipts can be found under the Transactions tab of your Melio Expense Management dashboard, organized into status tabs.
1- Go to the Transactions tab.
2- Select Pending details to view transactions still waiting on a receipt, or Needs review to view transactions with a receipt attached.
3- Select a transaction to open its details and view the attached receipt, if one has been uploaded.
How to manage receipts
Cardholders upload receipts through a secure text message link sent when a transaction is made. As the owner or admin, you have full control over receipts and can act at any time, without waiting on the cardholder.
1- Open a transaction from the Pending details or Needs review tab.
2- Select Review to view or upload a receipt.
3- Upload a receipt directly yourself, if needed, or wait for the cardholder to submit one.
4- Delete and re-upload a receipt if the wrong one was attached.
5- Waive the receipt requirement entirely and code the transaction without one, if preferred.
6- Send the cardholder a reminder text if a receipt is still needed.
Important!
Reminders can be sent no more than once every 24 hours and will be sent to the cardholder either by text, email, or both. These reminders can be sent directly through the Pending details tab or the Transaction details drawer.
Owners and admins can waive a receipt or code a transaction at any time. They do not have to wait for the cardholder to act first.
What the statuses mean
Each transaction moves through a status as it's processed:
- Needs review
- Ready to sync
- Synced
- Pending details
For a full breakdown of what each status means and what actions are available at each stage, see this guide.
Actions users can take for receipts
| Action | Cardholder | Owner/Admin |
| Upload a receipt via text message or email link | Yes | No |
| Add a memo to a receipt | Yes | Yes |
| Upload a receipt directly from the dashboard | No | Yes |
| Delete or replace a receipt | No | Yes |
| Waive the receipt requirement | No | Yes |
| Categorize or code a transaction | No | Yes |
| Send a reminder text to a cardholder | No | Yes |
| Sync a transaction to QBO | No | Yes |
| View transaction history or dashboard | No | Yes |
| Edit receipt amount | No | Yes |
How to sync receipts to accounting software
Once a transaction has a receipt attached (or the receipt requirement has been waived) and it's been categorized, it's ready to sync to QBO.
A reconciliation account must be selected for the card, and QBO must be connected, before syncing is possible.
1- Go to the Transactions tab.
2- Select Ready to sync.
3- (Optional) Transactions can be synced directly from the review drawer (available on the Needs review screen) once it's been categorized and a receipt has been added.
4- Choose one or more transactions to sync, if syncing in bulk.
5- Select Sync.
6- Wait for the sync to complete; the result will display inline.
Once a transaction syncs successfully, it is permanently locked in Melio. No further edits, deletions, or re-syncs are possible. Any corrections must be made directly in QuickBooks Online.
If an owner downgrades to the Go plan, the Expenses tab will show an upgrade prompt, and card connections will pause. Users will no longer be able to sync their expenses, but can still export them to CSV.
That's it! You now know where to find receipts, how to manage them, what each status means, who can take action on them, and how to sync them to QuickBooks Online.