Dynamics 365 Expense Management Mobile App: Simplifying Expense Reporting on the Go
Expense reporting is one of those business processes that often happens away from a desk. Employees may be travelling, meeting customers, attending events or simply working from different locations. Capturing receipts and submitting expenses later can create delays, missing information and additional administrative effort.
The new Dynamics 365 expense management mobile app addresses this challenge by bringing expense creation, receipt capture, expense report management, and submission into a mobile experience built with Microsoft Power Apps.
In this blog, I will walk through the key capabilities of the new mobile app and look at why this approach is important for organizations using Dynamics 365 Project Operations with integrated expense management.
Per official Microsoft documentation, this mobile experience specifically applies to:
- Project Operations Integrated with ERP
- Project Operations for manufacturing-based scenarios
Note: It is intended for ERP-integrated architectures rather than Lite (non-ERP) deployment topologies.
What Is the New Expense Management Mobile App?
The Dynamics 365 expense management mobile app is a Power Apps canvas app that can be accessed through the Power Apps mobile app. It is designed to simplify the expense reimbursement process and improve productivity for users who need to capture and submit expenses while working away from their computers.
Users can create expense lines, work with receipts, manage expense reports and submit reports for approval and reimbursement directly from a mobile device.
The key idea is simple: expense reporting should happen when the expense happens, rather than becoming a task that employees postpone until they return to their desks.
Key Capabilities
Microsoft highlights several capabilities that make the new app useful for day-to-day expense management:
Users can create individual expenses and organize them into expense reports directly from their mobile device.
The app can use optical character recognition (OCR) to scan a photo of a receipt and extract relevant information into the expense line, reducing manual data entry.
Users can create new receipts, attach or detach receipts from expenses and delete receipts when required.
Expense reports can be saved while still being prepared, submitted for approval or recalled when changes are needed.
The mobile experience also supports access for approving expense reports, extending the process beyond expense creation and submission.
Organizations can customize the app to fit their business requirements rather than treating the mobile experience as a completely fixed process.
OCR: Turning a Receipt Photo into Expense Data
One of the most practical capabilities is receipt scanning. Instead of manually entering every detail from a paper or digital receipt, a user can take a photo and allow OCR to extract relevant information for the expense line.
Mobile Device
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Capture Receipt Photo
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OCR Processing
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Extract Relevant Receipt Information
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Create / Complete Expense Line
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Attach Receipt to Expense ReportThere is also flexibility around when the receipt is attached. A user can capture a receipt photo and attach it to an expense report later, which is useful when the expense needs to be captured quickly while travelling.
From Expense Capture to Approval
The mobile app is not limited to taking pictures of receipts. It supports a broader expense lifecycle from creation through submission and approval.
Capture Expense
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Add / Extract Receipt Information
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Build Expense Report
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Save
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Submit for Approval
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Approval Workflow
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Reimbursement ProcessThis creates a more connected experience between the employee capturing the expense and the business processes that ultimately validate and reimburse it.
Consistency with Dynamics 365 Finance
An important architectural aspect is that the mobile app uses key configurations from Dynamics 365 Finance. Microsoft identifies policy configurations, workflow configurations and the visibility of expense report fields as examples of configurations used by the mobile experience.
Mobile expense capture should not become a separate process with completely different rules. Reusing the relevant Finance configuration helps provide a more consistent experience between the mobile app and the web application.
The mobile experience becomes an extension of the existing expense-management process, rather than a disconnected expense-capture tool.
Power Apps as the Mobile Experience
From a Power Platform perspective, the app is especially interesting because it is developed using a Power Apps canvas app and accessed through the Power Apps mobile app.
This approach brings the flexibility of the Power Platform into a business process that is traditionally associated with enterprise ERP applications. It also provides an extensible foundation for organizations that need to adapt the mobile experience to their own requirements.
Prerequisite: Expense Management Must Be Implemented
The mobile app is not a standalone replacement for the underlying expense-management setup. Microsoft states that a fully implemented Expense management setup is required in the environment before using the mobile app.
Therefore, organizations should first ensure that the core expense-management process, policies, workflows and required configuration are in place before introducing the mobile experience to users.
What Happened to the Previous Expense Mobile Workspace?
The new Dynamics 365 expense management mobile app replaces the now-deprecated Expense Management mobile workspace. This is an important distinction for organizations planning their mobile expense strategy.
Rather than continuing to build processes around the deprecated workspace, organizations should evaluate the new Power Apps-based experience as the current mobile direction for expense management.
Availability
Microsoft states that the Dynamics 365 expense management mobile app is available in all regions where Dynamics 365 Project Operations is available. Regional availability should still be confirmed against the current Dynamics 365 and Power Platform geographical availability information when planning a deployment.
Product & Technology Perspective
From a product perspective, the value of this mobile experience goes beyond simply making an existing form available on a phone. The combination of mobile capture, OCR, receipt management, report submission, approval and reuse of ERP configuration addresses the complete journey around an expense.
For organizations using Dynamics 365 Project Operations, this can help reduce the gap between where an expense occurs and where it is eventually recorded in the enterprise system.
From a Power Platform perspective, the use of a canvas app is also significant. It demonstrates how Dynamics 365 business processes can be extended with purpose-built experiences while continuing to rely on the underlying enterprise configuration.
Final Thoughts
The new Dynamics 365 expense management mobile app brings expense reporting closer to the point where expenses actually happen. With mobile expense creation, OCR-powered receipt capture, receipt management, report submission, recall, approval and customization, it provides a practical experience for employees and managers working on the move.
The most important takeaway for me is the combination of mobile-first experience + Power Apps + OCR + enterprise expense configuration. It is a good example of how the Dynamics 365 and Power Platform ecosystem can bring a more intuitive user experience to an established business process.
Capture the expense where it happens, reduce manual entry with OCR and keep the experience connected to the enterprise expense process.