Using BigTime Expense Agent

Table of Contents

• Overview
• What You Can Do with BigTime Expense Agent
  • View Expenses
  • Create New Expenses
  • Update Existing Expenses
  • Create Expenses from Receipts
• How You Interact with Expense Agent
  • Chat-Based Interaction
  • In-Line Editing
• Review and Confirmation
• Limitations
• Early Access Availability and Pricing

Overview

BigTime Expense Agent allows you to create, view, and update expenses directly through AVA, the BigTime AI Assistant. Expense Agent is designed to reduce manual data entry and speed up common expense workflows by letting you interact with expenses using natural language and receipt uploads.

Expense Agent works on individual expenses and operates within your organization’s existing expense configuration, required fields, and approval policies.

What You Can Do with BigTime Expense Agent

Expense Agent supports the following expense-related actions through AVA chat.

View Expenses

You can ask AVA to display expense information directly within the chat interface.

Supported scenarios include:

• Viewing a single expense
• Viewing multiple expenses at once
• Filtering expenses by attributes such as submission status, client, or project

Example prompts:

• "Show me the details of this expense"
• "Show my expenses from last week"
• "Show all unsubmitted expenses for the client Acme Corp"

AVA returns the matching expenses and their details directly in the chat.

Create New Expenses

You can ask AVA to create new expenses using natural language.

When creating an expense, AVA:

• Fills in all configured expense fields, including custom fields
• Enforces required fields before allowing an expense to be created
• Applies project-specific field rules, such as project-dependent code lists

Example prompts:

• "Add a new expense for $50 against Project X for car rental"
• "Create a non-reimbursable meal expense for $30 from yesterday"

Before the expense is saved, AVA shows you a preview so you can review and confirm the details.

Update Existing Expenses

You can ask AVA to update existing unsubmitted expenses that you own.

When updating an expense, AVA:

• Applies changes only to unsubmitted expenses
• Respects required fields and project-dependent field rules
• Shows a preview of the changes before confirmation

Example prompts:

• "Change this expense to non-reimbursable"
• "Update the amount on this expense to $75"

Create Expenses from Receipts

You can upload receipt files to AVA and have Expense Agent automatically create expenses for you.

Supported upload methods include:

• Clicking Add files & photos in the chat interface
• Copying and pasting receipt images into the chat
• Dragging and dropping receipt files into the chat

Expense Agent supports the following receipt behavior:

• Accepted file types: PDF, PNG, HEIC, JPEG
• Up to five receipt files can be uploaded at one time
• There is currently no file size limit

After processing the receipts, AVA presents the extracted expense details for your review and confirmation.

How You Interact with Expense Agent

Expense Agent supports two interaction models. You can use either approach at any time.

Chat-Based Interaction

You can make changes by telling AVA what you want to do in natural language.

Examples:

• "Change the project on this expense to Project Y"
• "Mark this expense as non-reimbursable"

AVA interprets your request and shows the proposed changes before you confirm them.

In-Line Editing

You can also edit expense fields directly within the AVA interface.

With in-line editing:

• All available expense fields and current values are displayed
• You can click into a field and select or enter a new value
• Changes are reflected immediately in the expense preview

This approach is useful when you prefer direct field-level control instead of typing a chat instruction.

Review and Confirmation

For both new and updated expenses, AVA always shows a review step before finalizing changes. You must confirm the expense details before they are saved.

This review step helps ensure accuracy and prevents unintended changes.

Limitations

BigTime Expense Agent currently has the following limitations:

• Expenses cannot be deleted
• Only individual expenses are supported
• Expense Reports cannot be viewed, queried, or submitted through AVA
• You can only create and update expenses that you own
• Creation of Vendor Expenses are not supported at this time (Coming Soon!)

Early Access Availability and Pricing

• BigTime Expense Agent is currently available in Early Access at no additional cost with select customers. If you're interested in joining the waitlist for Expense Agent, please fill out the form here.
• During the Early Access period, BigTime Expense Agent can be enabled by administrators through Active Features. 
• At the completion of the Early Access period, Expense Agent will be included at no additional cost in the Premier subscription plan. Customers on Advanced or Essentials subscriptions will be offered limited free trials. Availability and packaging are subject to change.
• Use of BigTime Expense Agent during Early Access does not modify your existing subscription terms.