Help Center / Expense Management

Submitting Expenses via Teams

What this page is about: This article explains how to submit expenses through Microsoft Teams using the Light bot, from setup through to getting paid back. It covers connecting the integration, sending receipts, reviewing what Light extracts, submitting your expense report, and checking reimbursement status.

On this page

  • Setting up the Teams integration
  • Submitting an expense via Teams
  • Reviewing extracted data
  • Submitting your expense report
  • Tracking reimbursement status
  • Batch submitting multiple receipts
  • Receipt best practices
  • Troubleshooting
  • Mobile Teams app

Microsoft Teams users can submit expenses without leaving their chat app. Send a receipt to the Light bot in a Teams conversation, and Light processes it, creates a draft expense, and keeps you updated with status messages until you're reimbursed.

Setting up the Teams integration

Installation

An admin connects Microsoft Teams to Light once for the whole company. To connect it:

  1. Open Light and go to Settings (gear icon) > Integrations.
  2. Click Connect on the Microsoft Teams integration.
  3. Approve the Microsoft admin consent request. A Microsoft 365 administrator must grant this for your organization before anyone can use the integration.
  4. Once consent is granted, your Microsoft tenant is linked to your Light company and the Light bot is ready to use.

How Light matches you to your account

There's no per-channel setup. Light matches each Teams user to a Light account by email address, and the match isn't case-sensitive. The email on your Microsoft 365 account has to match the email on your Light user.

To submit expenses via Teams, you need:

  • An active Light user with the same email as your Microsoft 365 account
  • The reimbursement role, with an active reimbursement setup in Light (this is what lets Light pay you back for expenses)

If either is missing, the Light bot tells you what to fix, for example "You are not set up for reimbursements" or "You are missing the required roles to use this feature." Contact your admin if you see either message and believe it's wrong.

Submitting an expense via Teams

  1. Open Teams and start a chat with the Light bot.
  2. Attach your receipt (image or PDF) and send the message. You can attach several files at once, or paste an image directly into the chat.
  3. Light replies "Processing your file(s)..." and updates the message as it works.
  4. Light's AI extracts the details and sends you a card showing what it found.

Light accepts PDF and common image formats: JPEG, PNG, HEIC, HEIF, and TIFF. A file above the maximum size is rejected with a message telling you the limit.

If you also hold a card (a company card set up for expense tracking) and have the reimbursement role, Light first tries to match the receipt to a card transaction. If nothing matches, it asks "We couldn't match the receipt to a card transaction. Do you want to create a reimbursement from this item?" with Reimbursement and Discard buttons. Click Reimbursement to create an expense from the receipt.

If you only hold a card and don't have the reimbursement role, Light tells you it didn't find a matching transaction and doesn't offer to create a reimbursement, since you're not set up to submit one.

Reviewing extracted data

After processing, Light sends a card: "Your receipt was successfully uploaded." It shows:

  • Description: what the expense appears to be
  • Original amount: the amount and currency on the receipt
  • Reimbursement amount: the amount converted to your reimbursement currency (the currency you get paid back in)
  • A View expenses button that opens the expense in Light

The expense is created as a draft. To correct any details (description, amount, date, category), open the Expenses page in Light and edit the draft there.

If extraction fails, Light says "There was an issue extracting the details from the receipt." The receipt is still uploaded. Use the Open Light button on the card to fill in the missing details yourself in Light.

Submitting your expense report

Draft expenses are grouped into an expense report (also called a reimbursement) once you're ready to send them for approval. To submit:

  • Tell the Light bot in the chat to submit your expense report, or
  • Submit it from the Expenses page in Light

Submitting sends the report into your company's approval workflow.

Tracking reimbursement status

Light sends status updates as Teams messages:

  1. Upload confirmation: "Your receipt was successfully uploaded," with the extracted details
  2. Rejection notification: "Your expense report was rejected," with the reason from your finance team and a link to reset your expenses
  3. Payment notification: "Your reimbursement has been paid," with the amount sent to your account

To check your status, ask the Light bot directly. There are no special commands, just plain language, for example:

  • "What's the status of my reimbursement?"
  • "Which of my expenses are still in draft?"

The bot shows "thinking..." while it works, then answers using your data in Light.

Batch submitting multiple receipts

Submit several expenses in one go:

  1. In your chat with the Light bot, attach multiple receipt files to a single message.
  2. Send the message. Light processes each file and creates one draft expense per receipt.
  3. Once you're done uploading, submit them together as a single expense report.

Receipt best practices

For the most accurate extraction:

  1. Lighting: take a clear photo in good, ideally natural, light.
  2. Angle: shoot straight on, not at an angle.
  3. Framing: keep the full receipt in frame, not cropped.
  4. Format: use JPEG, PNG, HEIC, HEIF, TIFF, or PDF.

Troubleshooting

Extraction didn't work. If Light can't read the receipt, it sends "There was an issue extracting the details from the receipt." The receipt is still uploaded. Go to the Expenses page in Light and fill in the missing details manually.

File was rejected. If a file fails validation, Light explains why: the file exceeds the maximum size, or it's an unsupported file type. Fix the file, or take a new photo, and resend the message.

Bot doesn't recognize you. If Light replies that you're not set up, your Microsoft 365 email may not match your Light account, or you may be missing the reimbursement role or an active reimbursement setup. Ask your admin to check your Light user.

Wrong details extracted. Open the draft expense on the Expenses page in Light and correct the details before submitting your expense report.

Mobile Teams app

Submitting via Teams mobile works the same way as on desktop:

  1. Open your chat with the Light bot in the Teams mobile app.
  2. Attach a receipt photo (or take one with your camera) and send it.
  3. Light processes it and replies with the extracted details.

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