Expenses and company cards, reconciled to the penny.
No more chasing receipts, splitting VAT by hand or rekeying every card line at month end. Dataforge allows your team to capture expenses on the go, and turns the month into one balanced journal your ledger accepts.
A walkthrough using your own expense codes and VAT rules.
Four jobs that fill the expenses month.
They tend to stay as they are until something gives: someone in finance is off sick or leaves, an auditor asks for the mileage evidence, a new finance lead won't sign the spreadsheet, or the board asks what the unclaimed VAT is costing.
- 01
Splitting VAT by hand
“Part of this bill has VAT and part doesn’t. Back to the calculator.”
A mixed receipt becomes a standard-rated line and an outside-scope line, worked out one receipt at a time.
- 02
Chasing receipts
“Has anyone got the receipt for the £42.80 on the 12th?”
Every missing receipt is VAT that can’t be reclaimed, and someone in finance has to ask for it, sometimes from a director.
- 03
The month that won’t reconcile
“The 30th went on next month’s statement, so September is out.”
The statement arrives on the 1st, after everyone has moved on, and the timing differences are found by hand.
- 04
Rekeying
“Every card line, typed into the ledger one at a time.”
Then the whole month is keyed into the ledger by hand, because nothing you have exports to it.
From the receipt to the ledger in five steps.
Cardholders capture and confirm. Managers approve. Finance reconciles the cards and posts one journal. Each step checks the one before it.
- 01Cardholder
Snap
A photo of the receipt on a phone, taken when you pay.
- 02Cardholder
Confirm
Check the merchant, date, total and VAT that were read, then confirm.
- 03Line manager
Approve
The team’s month on a phone. Return a single item with a reason if needed.
- 04Finance
Reconcile
Each cardholder’s submitted total against their statement, to the penny.
- 05Finance
Journal
One aggregated, balanced journal in your ledger’s import format.
AI reads. Your rules decide. A person confirms.
Finance teams are right to be wary of software doing their VAT. Dataforge doesn't. The treatment comes from rules you set for each expense code, and nothing is confirmed without a person seeing the split first.
AI reads the receipt.
Merchant, date, total and the VAT shown on it. That is the whole of its job.
Your rules set the VAT code.
Each expense code carries its VAT treatment, with a receipt and without one. The rules are yours, set up with you and kept by your administrators.
A person confirms every item.
The cardholder confirms what was read, a manager approves the month and finance reviews the journal. Nothing posts on its own.
VAT that follows your rules for each expense code.
The split is shown before anything is confirmed. A mixed receipt becomes the right lines, client entertaining stays unreclaimable even when the receipt shows VAT, and no receipt means no reclaim.
Rules by expense code
Each code has a treatment with a receipt and without one. Exempt and zero rated stay separate, even though neither recovers any VAT.
| Expense code | With receipt | Without |
|---|---|---|
| 7400 Travel and accommodation | Standard 20% | No VAT reclaimed |
| 7410 Rail and air fares | Zero rated | Zero rated |
| 7500 Subsistence | Standard 20% | No VAT reclaimed |
| 7510 Staff entertaining | Standard 20% | No VAT reclaimed |
| 7520 Client entertaining | Not reclaimable | Not reclaimable |
| 7600 Postage | Exempt | Exempt |
One journal to review
The month is aggregated by code and VAT treatment into one balanced journal, so you review a handful of lines rather than every receipt. Each line traces back to its receipts.
| Account | VAT | Dr | Cr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7400 Travel and accommodation | Standard 20% | 1,012.50 | |
| 7410 Rail and air fares | Zero rated | 486.30 | |
| 7500 Subsistence | Standard 20% | 418.75 | |
| 7510 Staff entertaining | Outside scope | 45.00 | |
| 7510 Staff entertaining | Standard 20% | 108.00 | |
| 7520 Client entertaining | Not reclaimable | 318.75 | |
| 7600 Postage | Exempt | 27.40 | |
| 2202 VAT input | 307.85 | ||
| 1260 Company cards clearing | 2,724.55 |
The file is produced in your ledger's import format, agreed with you during onboarding.
Mixed receipts
VAT on part of a bill is split into a standard-rated line and an outside-scope line, with the arithmetic shown.
Context rules
Client entertaining is never reclaimed, even when the receipt shows VAT.
No receipt
An item without a receipt follows its code’s no-receipt treatment, so nothing is reclaimed that can’t be evidenced.
VAT lost, per item
Where VAT can’t be reclaimed, the item shows how much, so the cost of a missing receipt is visible.
Every cardholder's gap in one grid, to the penny.
Enter each cardholder's balance from the company statement and the grid shows what has been submitted against it. When a purchase on the 30th lands on next month's statement, move it there in one click.
Statement balances
Keyed in once per cardholder from the bank’s company statement. The grid does the comparison.
Late items
Move an item to the month it was billed in, in one click, so both months tie.
Past months
One picker away when you need to look back.
Reminders
Sent automatically to anyone with receipts outstanding, so finance isn’t the one chasing.
Built for the people who claim and approve.
The people who claim and approve expenses mostly do it away from a desk. Their part takes a minute, so finance gets complete months without having to police anyone.
- Cardholders
- Photograph the receipt when you pay, check what was read and confirm. No typing out totals and no month-end pile. Mileage is priced for you, passengers included.
- Line managers
- Approve the team’s month on a phone. Most months are a quick look and approve. If one item isn’t right, return just that item with a reason.
- Directors
- Can be set up so their own statements need no approval, so nobody they manage has to sign off their spending.
Mileage at HMRC rates, with the evidence kept.
From 6 April 2026 the approved rate is 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year and 25p after that. Dataforge knows where each person is in the year, so a journey that crosses 10,000 miles is split at the right point.
- Company cars paid at fuel-only rates for the fuel type and engine size
- Passengers named on the claim and priced with it
- Rate changes applied from the date they took effect
- The journey, rate breakdown and passengers kept for the auditor
The items that don't fit the card statement.
Each one goes through the same rules, the same approval and the same journal.
Spend on your own money
Staff without a card claim out-of-pocket spend with the same photo and confirm. It sits outside the card reconciliation and lands in the same journal.
Refunds and credit notes
A refund on the card goes against the original expense code, so the cardholder’s month still ties to the statement.
Recharging costs to clients
Mark the costs you recharge to a client, so they are billed on rather than absorbed into overheads.
See capture, the VAT split, the card reconciliation and the journal with your own expense codes.
Book a demoHosted in the UK, with a record of every change.
- UK hosting
- Hosted in the UK, in the London region.
- Access by role
- Separate access for cardholders, approvers, finance and administrators.
- Evidence
- Every ledger line traces to a named evidence file.
- Change history
- Every change records who made it and when. Nothing financial is ever deleted.
- Mileage evidence
- The journey, the rate breakdown and the passengers’ names, kept with each claim.
- Judgement
- AI reads receipts. Your rules set VAT codes. A person confirms every item.
- 29/09 13:14CAPTUREDphone photo RCPT-0412 · R. Hughes
- 29/09 13:14READtotal £86.40 · VAT £14.40
- 29/09 13:15CONFIRMED7500 · standard 20% by rule · R. Hughes
- 30/09 10:22CHANGED7500 → 7520 client entertaining · K. Lowe
- 30/09 10:22VAT7520 not reclaimable · £14.40 lost
- 01/10 09:02APPROVEDSeptember · M. Ellis
- 01/10 10:40RECONCILEDgap £0.00 · K. Lowe
- 03/10 09:30JOURNALEDSeptember journal line 6 · RCPT-0412
When an auditor asks why an item was treated as client entertaining, who changed it or who approved the month, the answer is in one history.
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Dataforge Expenses is strong enough for small teams and large ones alike. The same capture, VAT rules, reconciliation and journal work whether you have a handful of cardholders or a large team.
It produces one journal file a month in your ledger’s import format, aggregated by expense code and VAT treatment, and balanced. We agree the file format with you during onboarding.
AI only reads the receipt: the merchant, date, total and the VAT shown. Your rules for each expense code set the VAT treatment, with a receipt and without one, and a person confirms every item before it goes anywhere.
Cardholders take a photo and confirm what was read. Managers approve on their phones. Reminders go out automatically, so finance stops being the one who chases.
Not directly. Each cardholder’s balance is entered from the bank’s company statement, and the reconciliation grid compares it with what has been submitted, down to the penny.
Your chart of accounts, expense codes and VAT rules, your cardholders and approvers, and the file format your ledger imports. We’ll go through what that means for your firm in the demo.
Hosted in the UK, in the London region. Access is by role, every change is recorded with who made it and when, and nothing financial is ever deleted.
See it with your own chart of accounts.
We'll walk through capture, the VAT split, the card reconciliation and the journal using your expense codes and VAT rules, and show the file your ledger would receive.
No commitment. We'll set the demo up around your expense codes after you enquire.