Expenses Agent for Email-Based Expense Completion

Employees respond in natural language to email requests from the Expenses Agent for additional details, such as policy justifications or attendee information. This conversational workflow enables automatic completion and submission of expenses once all required information is provided, streamlining expense reporting and enhancing the employee experience. The agent can resolve scenarios involving the following information: attendee names and emails, delegates, merchant name, dates, justifications, project, task, company, cost center, and spend authorization. 

Employees start by emailing receipts from meals, flights, or other expenses directly to the Expenses Agent. In line with company policy, employees may provide additional details, such as justifications, cost centers, or any personal expense amounts, within the email. The Expenses Agent automatically processes this information, creates a new expense, and replies via email if any required details are missing, such as the names and emails of the attendees.

A sample email from the expenses agent creating an expense and requesting additional information.

A sample email from the expenses agent creating an expense and requesting additional information.

Employees can respond to this using the provided email template by clicking the reply button in the body of the email or through a standard email reply. Any additional information sent by the employee in this reply will be added to the expense.

A sample email template after clicking the reply button in the previous email from the agent.

A sample email template after clicking the reply button in the previous email from the agent.

Once all necessary details are complete, the expense is marked as ready to submit (or will be auto-submitted if that option is enabled). For issues that cannot be resolved through email, a link will be provided to access the Expenses application and complete the process manually.

The business benefit of this feature includes significantly enhancing the employee expense management process by automating the submission, validation, and completion of expenses. By allowing employees to forward receipts directly via email, organizations reduce the reliance on manual data entry and minimize common errors associated with traditional expense reporting. Automated prompts for missing or inconsistent information ensure that required details are captured early, which helps reduce back-and-forth between the employee and the agent. Streamlined processing accelerates the reimbursement cycle, supports compliance initiatives with more accurate and complete data capture, and frees up valuable time for both employees and administrators. 

Steps to enable and configure

This feature requires enablement of the Expenses Agent (Touchless Expenses). Refer to the 25D What's New for steps to enable and configure.

Existing customers using the Expenses Agent before 26B must enable the FSM opt-in Email-Based Expense Completion Using Expenses Agent (ORA_EMAIL_BASED_EXM_CMPLTN_USING_EXM_AGNT) to use the Email Completion Agent. For new customers using the Expenses Agent in 26B, this opt-in is enabled by default.

Tips and considerations

  • Receipts must be clear and attached in a supported format (JPEG, PNG, PDF).
  • Expense policies and related validations must be configured for the agent to properly enforce rules.
  • If required information cannot be supplied using email, the agent will direct the employee to the UI for manual completion.
  • Auto-submission may occur when all required data is present; expenses pending employee-related details are tagged for review.
  • Errors such as invalid cost centers and missing mandatory fields result in one concise email prompting corrective action.

Access requirements

No new access requirements.