How to automate expense management in Dolibarr

Key takeaways

• Dolibarr is a modular open source ERP and CRM, run on-premise or as SaaS.
• Its Expense Reports module moves reports from draft through approval to paid, with scanned receipts attached.
• Each expense type can be dispatched to its own accounting account.
• Vergo proposes coding, texts for receipts and posts supplier invoices through Dolibarr's REST API, with expense reports prepared for it, once you enable the module and issue a key.

Where should you go next?

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

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

1. Enable the API module. You enable Dolibarr's REST API module on your instance and issue Vergo a key; Vergo then reads your third parties and posts card purchases as coded supplier invoices through Dolibarr's API, with expense reports posted 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 each line. Vergo suggests the expense type and accounting account for every receipt line.
5. Hand off to Dolibarr. Card purchases are posted as supplier invoices and out-of-pocket spend is prepared as expense reports, ready for your normal validation and payment steps.

What does Dolibarr need on each expense?

• Expense type: which decides the accounting account.
• Third party: the supplier for a card purchase.
• Attachment: the scanned receipt.
• Status: validated, approved and paid by users with the right permissions.

Where does the module stop and automation start?

Dolibarr's Expense Reports module organises the workflow well: managers see reports awaiting approval, validate or refuse them, and track what has been paid. What it expects is that employees fill in each line and pick the type. Vergo reads the receipt itself, line by line, and predicts the GL account from what was actually bought, not just the vendor name on the header, and suggests the type from similar past spend.

A practical example

An association on Dolibarr reimburses volunteers and gives its coordinator a card. After an event, the coordinator texts photos of a venue deposit and a catering receipt. Vergo suggests events hire for the deposit and hospitality for the catering, both against the venue as supplier. The treasurer confirms, and the supplier invoices are ready in Dolibarr with receipts attached.

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. For Dolibarr, the history it learns from is how your team has typed expense reports and supplier invoices before. 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.