How to automate expense management in Aqilla

Key takeaways

• Aqilla is UK cloud financial management for mid-market and fast-scaling businesses, with built-in expense management and approval workflows.
• Every expense type maps to a mandatory cost account and says whether VAT is reclaimable and whether mileage applies.
• Expenses link to Aqilla's project features for reporting.
• Vergo suggests type, VAT and project, texts for receipts and posts documents through Aqilla's API.

Where should you go next?

• Vergo's Aqilla integration
• What expense management software integrates with Aqilla?
• Get started with Vergo

How do you automate expense management in Aqilla, step by step?

1. Connect Aqilla. Vergo connects to Aqilla's API, reads your accounts and suppliers, and posts card spend as coded Journal or Purchase Invoice documents through the API, with claims posted as Expense documents through the same API.
2. Connect your existing cards. Connecting your existing cards involves no card applications, no re-issuing and no banking change.
3. Collect receipts by text. Employees handle everything by text message — no app to download, no portal login — and Vergo chases missing receipts itself instead of waiting for a report.
4. Code type, VAT and project. Vergo suggests the expense type, whether VAT is reclaimable and the project for each line.
5. Hand off to Aqilla. Card spend is posted as Journal or Purchase Invoice documents and claims are prepared as Expense documents, ready for your approval workflow.

What does Aqilla need on each expense?

• Expense type, which sets the cost account.
• VAT treatment: reclaimable or not.
• Project or other analysis.
• Receipt, especially where VAT is reclaimed.

Where does Aqilla stop and automation start?

Aqilla's expense types carry the accounting rules, and its approval workflows route documents. Someone still chooses the type and project for each line, and a wrong type means the wrong cost account and possibly the wrong VAT claim. Vergo reads the receipt itself, line by line, and predicts the coding from what was actually bought — the expense type, VAT treatment and project — not just the vendor name on the header.

A practical example

A UK consultancy on Aqilla bills clients by project. A consultant pays for a client workshop venue and train tickets on a company card. Vergo gets both receipts by text and suggests venue hire with VAT reclaimable on the client's project and travel on the same project for the tickets. The finance manager confirms, and the documents are posted to Aqilla.

How Vergo handles this

Vergo proposes the coding by inference from your own accounting structure and history — no rule library to build, no keyword lists to maintain, and new vendors are coded on first sight. With Aqilla, it learns which expense types and projects each team normally uses. Every coding shows why it was chosen, so a reviewer confirms in seconds instead of re-coding by hand. Approval workflows are optional and fit how you already control spend: route by GL account or by amount — or skip approval flows entirely and let policy flags catch only what breaks a rule.