Frequently Asked Questions

The platform is used by finance and operations leaders, payroll and accounting teams, IT administrators, and the employees submitting expenses or logging time. Each of those groups gets a different interface and permission level, but they all work within one connected system.

DATABASICS performs best for organizations where at least one of the following is true:

• Time and Expense must be DCAA or HIPAA compliant
• Expesne Report with PCI DSS Level1 Compliant
• Configurable Policies and Workflow
• Time and Expense is tracked against multiple projects, activities, or cost centers
• Multiple credit card types or card programs need to be managed in one place
• The organization operates across multiple states or countries
• Time and Expense data must flow into a specific ERP or payroll system

Industries we serve include nonprofits and NGOs, government contractors, healthcare and life sciences, construction and engineering, and professional services firms.

Most organizations come to DATABASICS because they are managing expense or time data across too many disconnected tools: spreadsheets, inbox-based approvals, card portals, and ERP systems that don't talk to each other. The result is late reimbursements, audit risk, and finance teams spending hours reconciling data that should move automatically.

DATABASICS addresses these problems specifically:

• Manual expense reports: Replaced with mobile receipt capture, OCR extraction, and auto-generated reports, in some cases requiring zero employee input
• Disconnected credit card programs: All cards, including existing corporate cards and the DATABASICS Visa® Commercial Card, managed in one system
• Compliance gaps: Policy enforcement, DCAA audit trails, and labor law compliance built into every transaction
• No spend visibility: Real-time dashboards and AI-powered analytics via DBee give finance leaders current data, not last month's
• ERP re-entry: Direct integrations with Sage Intacct, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, ADP, and others eliminate duplicate data entry

Most expense tools are designed for the broadest possible market: simple reimbursement flows, one or two card integrations, and limited configurability. DATABASICS is different in three concrete ways:

• Card freedom: DATABASICS works with your existing Visa, Mastercard, or Amex program. You are not required to switch cards to use the platform. The DATABASICS Visa® Commercial Card is available as an option for organizations that want deeper control, but it is not mandatory.
• Compliance depth: DATABASICS supports DCAA compliance for government contractors, grant-specific expense rules for nonprofits, and state-level labor law compliance for time tracking, configurations that most horizontal tools do not support out of the box.
• Unified time + expense: Time tracking, timesheet approvals, and expense reporting are in one system. Organizations do not have to buy, integrate, and maintain separate products.

The tradeoff: DATABASICS is built for organizations with real complexity. If your expense process is simple and your team is small, a lighter tool may be sufficient.

The DATABASICS expense cycle is designed to require as little manual work as possible, for employees, managers, and finance alike.

• Capture: Employees photograph receipts in the DATABASICS mobile app ("snap and send"). OCR extracts merchant name, date, amount, and currency automatically.
• Match: Receipts are matched to corporate card transactions automatically. Employees review and submit; they don't retype data.
• Enforce: Policy rules run at submission, flagging out-of-policy spend, missing receipts, or duplicate claims before the report reaches a manager.
• Approve: Managers receive approval tasks via email or the platform. Multi-level approval chains, project-based routing, and delegation are all configurable.
• Export: Approved expense data flows directly to your ERP or accounting system. No spreadsheet handoffs.

In some configurations, particularly for corporate card programs, expense reports can be generated with zero employee input, then simply reviewed and approved.

Card flexibility is one of DATABASICS's core differentiators. Many competing platforms push or require their own card program. DATABASICS integrates with major card networks so you can keep your existing banking relationships and card programs intact.

For organizations that want a fully integrated card solution with deeper spend controls, the DATABASICS Visa® Commercial Card is available. It is built for organizations that want real-time transaction visibility, automated reconciliation, and card-level controls managed entirely within the DATABASICS platform, with no need to manage a separate card portal.

Whether you use your existing cards, the DATABASICS Visa® Commercial Card, or a mix of both, all transactions are managed in one system.

These are related but distinct functions that many organizations manage separately, though they shouldn't have to.

Expense reports capture all employee spending regardless of how it was paid: corporate card, personal card, cash, or check. They include receipts, project or cost-center allocations, approval routing, and policy checks. They are the source of truth for reimbursement and accounting.

Corporate card management is about the card program itself: pulling transaction feeds from the card issuer, matching transactions to receipts or expense reports, managing card limits, and reconciling statements at month-end.

When these two functions live in separate systems, reconciliation is manual and error-prone. DATABASICS unifies them: card transactions automatically appear in the expense workflow, employees match receipts to transactions from the mobile app, and everything posts to the ERP in one step.

Employees can log mileage directly within the expense report workflow. The system calculates reimbursement based on your organization's configured rate, including IRS standard mileage rates for U.S.-based organizations. Mileage entries go through the same policy enforcement and approval workflow as other expenses.

For organizations where vehicle use is a significant expense category, including field services, construction, and nonprofit program delivery, mileage tracking within the same system as other expense categories simplifies reporting and reduces the chance of entries being missed or submitted outside the normal cycle.

Confirm with DATABASICS team: GPS-based mileage capture availability and configuration options.

Per diem management in DATABASICS allows finance teams to define allowance rates and rules once, then have the system apply them automatically to qualifying travel expenses. Employees see their applicable per diem when submitting, which reduces disputes and exceptions.

The system supports both allowance-based per diem (a fixed daily amount employees receive) and deduction-based per diem (actual expenses submitted against a per diem ceiling). Partial-day rules, first-and-last-day adjustments, and location-based rate tables can all be configured.

For government contractors, per diem management aligned to GSA rate tables is especially important for DCAA compliance. Confirm with DATABASICS team: automatic GSA rate table integration and update cadence.

The receipt capture workflow is designed to minimize the steps between "I have this receipt" and "this is in the system." Employees open the mobile app, photograph the receipt, and the OCR engine handles extraction. The result is a pre-populated expense entry that the employee reviews rather than types.

Extracted fields include merchant name, transaction date, amount, currency, and expense category where legible. The system then attempts to match the receipt to a corresponding card transaction. When a match is found, the two are linked automatically. Unmatched receipts and unmatched transactions are flagged for employee or admin attention.

This reduces manual data entry errors, speeds up the approval cycle, and ensures that receipt documentation is attached at the transaction level, which matters significantly for audits.

Policy enforcement happens in two places: at the point of submission and during the approval workflow. When an employee submits an expense report, the system checks it against your configured rules: spend limits by category, required receipt thresholds, per diem ceilings, or project-specific restrictions. Out-of-policy items are flagged immediately, before any manager sees the report.

Approval routing is fully configurable: you can set single-level or multi-level approval chains, route by department, project, cost center, or spend amount, and allow approvers to delegate when they are out of office. Approvers receive notifications via email and can approve directly from the notification without logging into the platform.

Finance has real-time visibility into the full pipeline: submitted, in-review, approved, and rejected. Nothing moves to the ERP until it has cleared the full approval chain.

Expense fraud and unintentional policy violations are caught at multiple layers in DATABASICS:

• Duplicate detection: The system flags submissions that match a previously approved expense by amount, merchant, and date, catching both accidental duplicates and intentional double-billing.
• Receipt validation: AI cross-references receipt image data against claimed amounts and merchant details. Mismatches trigger a review flag.
• Policy rules: Spend limits, category restrictions, and required documentation rules are enforced automatically. No manager has to remember the policy.
• Audit trail: Every expense entry, edit, approval, and rejection is logged with user, timestamp, and action. This trail is immutable and available for review at any time.

For government contractors and grant-funded organizations, this layer of automated control is not optional. It is a compliance requirement. DATABASICS makes it systematic rather than relying on individual reviewer attention.

These terms are often used interchangeably but refer to different parts of the same process:

Time tracking is the act of recording when work happens, either in real time via clock in/out or retrospectively by entering start and end times. It produces the raw time data.

Timesheets are the structured, periodic summary of that data, organized by day, project, activity, or cost code, that employees submit and managers approve. Timesheets are what flow into payroll and, for project-based organizations, into their project accounting system.

DATABASICS supports both. Employees can clock in and out in real time, enter time manually, or use a combination. The system collects that data into timesheets that follow your organization's approval workflow before posting to payroll.

For DCAA compliance, the distinction is important: timesheets must reflect actual time worked on specific contracts, be approved by a supervisor, and carry an immutable audit trail. DATABASICS enforces all of this.

Different workforces have different time entry needs, and DATABASICS is built to accommodate that without requiring every employee to use the same method:

• Standard hours entry: Employees enter total hours worked per day or per project. Suitable for salaried or professional services environments.
• Clock in/out: Employees punch in and out in real time via mobile, web, or a physical time clock device. The system calculates hours from timestamps. Suitable for hourly, shift-based, or field workforces.
• Time in/time out: Employees enter start and end times for each work period without a live clock, a practical middle ground for remote or hybrid teams.
• Time + attendance: Combines time entry with attendance tracking, break logging, and absence management for full workforce visibility.

DATABASICS also supports the Shared Time Clock, a rugged tablet-based solution for industrial, construction, and field environments where mobile phones are impractical. Confirm with DATABASICS team: full hardware options and kiosk configurations.

Labor law compliance is particularly complex for organizations operating across multiple states or for those managing hourly workforces in regulated industries. DATABASICS handles this at the system level rather than relying on managers to remember state-specific rules:

• Overtime: Configurable daily and weekly overtime thresholds by state or employee class
• Meal and rest breaks: Break requirements enforced and tracked automatically for relevant workforces
• State-specific rules: California and other states with non-standard labor requirements can be configured separately from the default rule set
• Leave management: PTO, sick leave, FMLA, and other leave types tracked within the same timesheet system
• Audit trails: All time entries, edits, and approvals are logged with user and timestamp, as required for wage and hour dispute resolution

For organizations that track costs by project, including government contractors, nonprofits, construction firms, and professional services, time and expense data are two halves of the same question: what did this project actually cost?

When those systems are separate, finance has to reconcile them manually at reporting time. Employees have to remember two submission processes, two approval workflows, and two systems. Integration between the two tools is often brittle and requires ongoing maintenance.

In DATABASICS, both time and expense are captured, approved, and posted to the ERP together. Project codes, cost centers, and allocation rules are shared between modules, so a project manager sees the full cost picture (labor + expenses) without pulling data from multiple places. For DCAA compliance, this is especially important: the standard requires that both time and expense records are traceable to specific contracts and are consistently managed.

DATABASICS is designed to fit into your existing technology stack rather than replace it. Confirmed integrations include:

• Sage Intacct: bi-directional integration for expense, time, and project data
• Oracle NetSuite: expense and time data sync to NetSuite general ledger and project modules
• Microsoft Dynamics: integration with Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Confirm with DATABASICS team for specific Dynamics versions supported
• ADP: payroll data sync for time and attendance

For organizations running ERPs not listed here, Confirm with DATABASICS team on integration options via API or file-based exchange. DATABASICS has a history of building integrations to customer-specific systems where the organization has real volume and complexity.

The goal is that approved time and expense data moves to your system of record automatically, with no spreadsheet exports and no manual re-entry.

Most ERPs, including Sage Intacct and NetSuite, include basic expense entry functionality. For simple organizations with low expense volume and minimal compliance requirements, those modules may be sufficient.

DATABASICS is typically chosen when the ERP module falls short in one or more areas:

• Mobile experience: ERP mobile apps are rarely optimized for field-based expense capture. DATABASICS is.
• Compliance rigor: DCAA, grant-specific, or labor law rules require enforcement logic that ERP expense modules do not have built in.
• Card management: ERPs are not designed to manage transaction feeds from multiple card programs in one place.
• Approval configurability: Complex multi-level, project-based, or amount-triggered approval chains typically exceed what ERP expense modules support.
• Time + expense together: Very few ERPs offer a timesheet module that matches the depth of a purpose-built time tracking product.

The DATABASICS model: handle the complexity in DATABASICS, post clean data to the ERP. Finance works in the ERP. Employees and managers work in DATABASICS.

DATABASICS has a track record of building integrations to customer-specific systems. If your organization uses a system not in the confirmed integration list, the DATABASICS implementation team is the right contact to assess what is possible. Ask specifically about:

• REST API availability and documentation
• File-based import/export formats (CSV, XML, EDI)
• Pre-built connectors for your specific ERP version
• Integration maintenance and update responsibility

DCAA (Defense Contract Audit Agency) compliance requires that government contractors track time by contract and project daily, that employees certify their own timesheets, that supervisors approve them, and that the records are immutable, meaning no one can alter a submitted timesheet without the change being logged.

DATABASICS enforces all of these requirements at the system level:

• Employees allocate hours to specific contracts or projects each day
• Electronic employee certification on timesheet submission
• Supervisor approval with timestamp logging
• Full revision history: every edit is recorded, not overwritten
• Expense records tied to the same contract and project structure

DATABASICS is used by government contractors across defense, professional services, and scientific research. If DCAA compliance is a core requirement, request a demo specifically focused on the compliance workflow to verify the configuration matches your audit environment.

The audit trail is not a report you run. It is built into every record in the system. For each expense or time entry, the audit log captures:

• Original submission: employee, timestamp, amounts, allocations
• Every edit: what changed, who changed it, when
• Approval actions: each approver, decision, timestamp, and any comments
• Rejections and resubmissions: full chain of custody
• Receipt documentation: linked at the transaction level

This trail cannot be deleted or altered by end users or administrators. When an internal, external, or government DCAA auditor needs to review a transaction, every piece of documentation is in one place and accessible in seconds. Finance teams consistently cite this as one of the features that makes year-end and audit periods significantly less painful.

User permissions in DATABASICS are role-based: employees see only their own expenses and time. Managers see their direct reports. Finance administrators have system-wide visibility. IT administrators control system configuration. Each role is configurable. You are not locked into preset permission levels.

Data security specifics to verify with the DATABASICS team before contract:

• Encryption standards for data at rest and in transit
• SOC 2 certification status and report availability
• Data residency and hosting environment
• Single sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication support
• Data retention and deletion policies

For organizations with specific security requirements, including government contractors, healthcare organizations, and those subject to data localization laws, we recommend a dedicated security review conversation with the DATABASICS team before signing.

These two functions work together but solve different problems:

Policy enforcement is what the system does without human involvement: checking that a submitted expense doesn't exceed the hotel rate cap, that receipts are attached above the required threshold, that the expense category is valid for the project, and that no duplicate exists. Policy enforcement catches the clear violations automatically, reducing the burden on approvers and ensuring that organizational rules are applied consistently regardless of who the approver is that day.

Expense approval is the human step: a manager or finance administrator reviews the expense, considers context the system cannot evaluate ("this client dinner was over the limit but was authorized by the VP"), and approves or rejects with comments. DATABASICS routes approved expenses to the next level if required and holds rejected expenses for employee correction.

Together, these two functions mean that approvers spend time on judgment calls rather than catching data entry errors or policy violations the system already found.

There is no single answer to implementation timelines because the variables that affect them are significant: how many modules you are implementing, which ERP you are integrating with, how complex your approval workflows are, how many employee groups have different configurations, and whether you are migrating historical data.

What DATABASICS does provide:

• A dedicated implementation project manager
• Structured onboarding with defined phases and milestones
• Configuration support: DATABASICS does not hand you documentation and leave you to self-configure
• Training for administrators, managers, and end users
• Go-live support with a defined hypercare period

When evaluating, ask DATABASICS for reference customers with a similar profile to yours, in the same industry with a similar integration and organization size, and ask them directly what the implementation experience was like. Customer support quality is one of DATABASICS's most consistently cited strengths.

Support is a consistent differentiator in customer feedback about DATABASICS. The model is direct access to people who know the product and know your configuration, not a tiered offshore support system where you start with a generic agent and escalate endlessly.

Confirm with DATABASICS team on the specifics of your support tier, including:

• Support hours and coverage (business hours vs. extended)
• Dedicated account manager or customer success contact availability
• SLA response times by issue priority
• Training resources for new employees or configuration changes
• User community or knowledge base access

For organizations making their first move from spreadsheet-based processes to a purpose-built platform, the quality of post-go-live support has a large impact on adoption. Ask about this explicitly during your evaluation.

Training is built into the implementation process rather than being an afterthought. There are typically two distinct audiences with different training needs:

Administrators and finance teams need to understand system configuration, approval workflow management, reporting, and how to troubleshoot common issues. This training is more in-depth and usually delivered in sessions with the implementation team.

End users, meaning employees submitting expenses or time, need a simple, practical walkthrough of the mobile app and submission process. The goal is that an employee can submit their first expense report without calling IT.

For organizations with high employee turnover or frequent onboarding, ask specifically about self-paced or on-demand training resources that do not require scheduling a training session every time a new employee joins.

DBee is the AI layer built into the DATABASICS platform. Instead of navigating report menus and filter configurations, users ask DBee questions in plain English: "Show me all expenses over $500 submitted this month," "Which projects are over budget on travel?" or "What is our average reimbursement cycle time this quarter?"

DBee can surface anomalies, identify trends, and answer questions that would otherwise require a finance analyst to build a custom report. For CFOs and controllers who want visibility without building dashboards, DBee functions as an always-available analyst.

DBee also supports the fraud detection and policy compliance layer by identifying patterns in expense data that human reviewers are unlikely to catch at scale.

Confirm with DATABASICS team: current DBee capabilities, which user roles have access, and the roadmap for AI feature expansion.

DATABASICS does not publish flat-rate pricing because the right configuration, and therefore the right price, depends significantly on your organization's size, complexity, and module selection. The three primary variables that affect cost are:

• Users: The number of employees using the platform, which may differ by module (not every employee who submits expenses also uses time tracking)
• Modules: Expense reporting, time tracking, commercial card management, and AI features may be priced separately or bundled depending on your configuration
• Contract length: Multi-year agreements typically carry different pricing than annual contracts

DATABASICS is not priced for freelancers, solo users, or small businesses. The platform is built for organizations with the complexity and volume that justify a purpose-built, configurable solution. If you are evaluating for a team of fewer than 25 users with simple needs, a lighter tool may be a better fit.

To get accurate pricing for your organization, request a demo. The sales team will scope your requirements and provide a proposal based on actual configuration rather than a generic tier.

When evaluating expense management software, the license fee is only one part of the cost picture. A complete assessment should include:

• Implementation costs: Professional services, IT time, data migration
• Training costs: Admin training, end-user training, ongoing onboarding for new hires
• Integration maintenance: Who maintains the ERP connection when the ERP is updated?
• Support costs: Included or billed separately?

On the savings side, finance teams implementing DATABASICS typically see reductions in: manual reconciliation hours, duplicate reimbursements, late payment penalties, and audit preparation time. For organizations facing DCAA audits, the cost of a failed audit (or even a qualified audit opinion) dwarfs the cost of a compliance-grade system.

Ask DATABASICS for customer references in your industry who can speak to realized ROI, not projected ROI in a vendor-produced spreadsheet.

Spreadsheets work until they don't. The breaking points are predictable: the organization grows past the point where a finance person can review every submission manually; a compliance audit reveals that the documentation trail is incomplete; an employee leaves and takes the spreadsheet template with them; or a duplicate reimbursement slips through because there is no automated detection.

The concrete costs of spreadsheet-based expense management that are easy to undercount:

• Finance team hours spent chasing receipts, correcting errors, and reconciling card statements
• Reimbursement delays that create friction with employees
• Audit risk from incomplete or inconsistent documentation
• Zero visibility into spend until reports are submitted, sometimes weeks after the expense occurred

DATABASICS is not the right answer for every organization. But for the organizations it is built for, those that are compliance-driven, project-based, and multi-system, the question is not whether to use software. It is which software to use.