11.1 AI, Mobile and Automation in Expenses: Expense Assistant, Email Receipts and Touchless Expenses
Key Takeaways
Email receipts need Enable Electronic Receipts Processing for the business unit; the sender must be an active employee whose work email is in HCM, and the forwarded email is attached as a PDF by default.
The Expense Assistant is a skill of the Fusion Applications Digital Assistant, configured on Manage Auto Submission and Matching Options and fed by the Synchronize Financials Objects for Database Search process.
Auto-submission is off by default; only complete items with required receipts, justified violations and exact or no card matches are submitted automatically.
Default card matching tolerances allow meals and entertainment charges up to 20% above the assistant amount within 2 days; other categories default to 0% and 0 days, except accommodations at 2 days.
Touchless Mobile Expenses is an opt-in, controlled-availability feature enabled per business unit after a readiness check, and once enabled it can't be disabled.
The published objectives are Explain the role of AI in the Employee Expenses process and Use AI/ML/mobile and other automation features to streamline processes and drive operational efficiency. AI in Payables is covered in sections 5.1 and 7.5. This section covers the employee side.
Where AI and automation sit in Expenses
| Stage | Feature |
|---|---|
| Capture | Mobile receipt scanning, email receipts, the Expense Assistant, and Touchless forwarding of receipts to the Expenses Agent |
| Classification | Extraction of merchant, date, amount, currency and location. Expense type assignment from merchant data. |
| Matching | Automatic merging of receipts or mobile items with corporate card charges; duplicate detection (section 9.1) |
| Submission | Automatic submission of complete items; automatic trip reports (section 10.5) |
| Compliance | Policy checks at entry; the Expenses Policy Agent answers policy questions |
| Audit | Anomaly rules and the risk indicator focus auditors on high-risk reports (section 10.4) |
The Expenses mobile app
- Employees scan receipts, enter expenses offline and upload them later.
- They download card transactions to the device, and the app merges them with matching items.
- Employees can add attendees and projects.
- Administrators can disable Scan with the EXM_MOBILE_DISABLE_SCAN profile option set to Y at site level.
When mobile items reach the web application:
- a one-to-one match with a card charge is merged automatically, shown with a Match icon, and can be undone;
- one-to-many potential matches are flagged for the employee to resolve.
Creating expenses from email receipts
Employees forward receipts, as an attachment or in the email body, to a designated address.
Setup:
- Enable Electronic Receipts Processing on Manage Auto Submission and Matching Options, for all business units or specific ones.
- Obtain the forwarding address.
Checks before processing:
- the sender's address is a valid work email in HCM (a personal address fails);
- the sender is an active employee with the right privileges;
- the business unit is enabled.
Processing:
- The application extracts merchant, date, amount, currency and location, assigns an expense type, and matches the expense to card charges on date, amount, currency, merchant, type and category.
- An exact match is submitted automatically with other queued items. A potential match waits for the employee to confirm it in Expenses.
- Attachment preference: the default is Attach the email, which converts the forwarded email to a PDF and keeps only the primary receipt from its attachments. The alternative is Attach the primary receipt from the email.
The Expense Assistant
The Expense Assistant is a skill in the Oracle Fusion Applications Digital Assistant. Employees use it to create and modify expenses and check report status through conversational channels.
- SMS is the supported channel. Microsoft Teams needs a Microsoft bot.
- English is the supported language.
- Users authenticate with single sign-on, then a one-time PIN on SMS.
- It is included in the ERP SKU. Extending it needs the Digital Assistant Platform for SaaS.
Setup:
- Configure the Digital Assistant: roles, training and channels.
- Run Synchronize Financials Objects for Database Search. It builds the merchant repository used to derive expense types.
- Configure Manage Auto Submission and Matching Options, which needs the Corporate Card Account Administration role. It covers auto-submission, card matching, expense type synonyms, the email digest, electronic receipts and the notification email. Settings default to all business units. Card matching settings can't be set per business unit.
Automatic submission
- Schedule defaults to No. When set to Yes, choose at least one day of the week.
- Run Automatically Submit Expense Reports once or twice a week.
| Eligible | Not eligible |
|---|---|
| Assistant-created items with no missing information, required receipts attached and justified violations | Items with missing information |
| Card users: items paid personally, or exactly matched to one card charge | An item matching several charges, or a charge matching several items |
| Taxi tips charged separately where the base fare receipt was sent | Items that violate policy |
Matching tolerances
Category tolerances:
- Amount Variance Percentage from 0 to 50%. The default is 20% for meals and entertainment and 0% for others.
- Amount Variance Direction: More than the Digital Assistant (meals with tips; the meals and entertainment default), Less than, or Both (the default for others).
- Days Variance: 2 days for accommodations, meals and entertainment, and 0 for others.
Merchant tolerances override these for merchants such as ride services that charge tips separately. Defaults are 20%, Less than the Digital Assistant, 1 day, plus Wait Days for Tip Charge. An unmatched card-paid item waits indefinitely for its charge.
Touchless Mobile Expenses and the Expenses Agent
With Touchless, employees charge expenses to a corporate card and forward receipts in any format or language. The Oracle Expenses Agent:
- matches the receipts to card charges, using the authorization or settlement;
- checks policy;
- asks only for missing information, such as attendees or a justification;
- submits automatically, so employees don't create expense reports.
Receipt processing uses the generative AI Document IO (Doc IO) agent. Touchless works with any card vendor, which earlier was J.P. Morgan only. Receipts for cash or personal cards become cash reimbursements.
Enablement:
- An opt-in in controlled availability, needing a promotion code.
- Enable it per business unit on Manage Expenses System Options, Corporate Options for Expense Report tab. A readiness check lists any blocking setup in a downloadable report.
- It can't be disabled for that business unit afterwards.
Considerations:
- Consolidate granular expense types, for example Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner into Meals, to improve matching.
- Report-level receipts and report-level spend authorizations don't apply.
- Delegate and delegator must both be Touchless users.
- Overdue emails go out weekly after 21 days, or the Enable Corporate Card Transaction Age Limit setting.
- Not yet available: split allocations, manual cash advance application, and advanced mileage options (eligibility rules and add-on rates). Disable them first, after clearing the reports that use them.
Update 26A added projects, a guided manual merge, card disputes (disputed items can't be submitted), card aging that blocks cash submissions while card charges are overdue, Mark as Cash for cash e-receipts, daily policy limits, and push notifications. Update 26C adds agent-led cash advance application by email: one advance per report, and a justification is required if the employee chooses Don't apply.
The Expenses Policy Agent
Employees can ask the Expenses Policy Agent policy questions at any time. You can override its seeded prompt, financials.exm.expense_policy_inquiry_agent_prompt, in the AI Configurator of HCM Experience Design Studio inside a sandbox. This needs at least one Touchless business unit. Deleting the override restores the seeded prompt.
An employee records an 80 USD dinner in the Expense Assistant, paid by corporate card. Two days later a 94 USD charge, including the tip, arrives from the restaurant. With default category tolerances, does it match?
Yes: the charge is within 20% above the entry and within the 2-day window
No: Meals uses a 0% amount variance unless a merchant tolerance is set
No: the date variance for every category is 0 days by default
Yes, but only after the employee merges the two items manually
A company plans to roll out Touchless Mobile Expenses to one business unit first. Which statement is correct?
It's switched on for every business unit at once, and can be turned off later
It only works with a J.P. Morgan card program configured for every cardholder
It requires removing all expense policies, since the agent doesn't apply them
It's enabled per business unit after a readiness check, and can't be undone
Automatic submission is scheduled for Expense Assistant items. Which item is not submitted automatically?
An item with receipts attached and no missing information
An item that matches more than one corporate card charge
An item paid with personal funds that has a justified policy violation
A taxi tip charge matched to a ride whose receipt was already sent
Sections you finish are checked off in the contents.