SoftTech AI Registry
Microsoft · Dynamics 365 Business Central

Expense Agent

AI agent in Dynamics 365 Business Central that ingests employee receipts from a web app, mobile app and monitored shared mailbox, extracts and categorises receipt data, creates draft expense records and monthly expense reports, validates configured rules, and notifies users by email. Microsoft documents it as a production-ready preview that produces drafts only and does not post transactions.

Recorded characteristics

Function
Microsoft documents Expense Agent as an AI-powered agent that automates expense processing in Business Central: it handles receipt intake, data extraction, categorisation, itemisation and expense line creation, then groups expenses into expense reports for review and approval. Receipt intake channels documented on the current product page are the Expense Agent web app at app.expenses.dynamics.com, the Expense Agent mobile app and a monitored shared mailbox; the "Manage expenses with Expense Agent" page additionally states users can interact with the Copilot agent in Microsoft Teams or use Microsoft Copilot chat. Supported formats are documented as JPEG, PNG and PDF (the Responsible AI FAQ lists PDF plus .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .webp, .heic, .heif), default maximum file size 10 MB (configurable), up to 25 files per upload or email attachment and up to 50 MB per batch. From each receipt the agent identifies and extracts merchant name, expense date, total amount, currency, payment method and line-item details where available; the upload page states AI also suggests Project (if project tracking is enabled and detected) and Category. The agent automatically classifies each expense into configured expense categories and subcategories based on receipt content and category descriptions, extracts subcategories with amounts for itemised lines where the category requires itemisation, extracts per diem details (location, start and end date/time) from uploaded itineraries, and calculates mileage from a travel map where the user supplies start and end points and selects a route. It generates draft expense report lines populating merchant, description, receipt number, amount, currency, payment method, expense date and expense category, and converts foreign-currency amounts to the company currency. It creates monthly expense reports per employee, grouping all expenses for the period into a single report and creating a new report when an expense falls outside the period covered by existing reports. Microsoft states the agent runs in the background, interacts with Business Central in a similar way to a user using natural-language instructions and page metadata, notifies users when review is needed, and sends automated notifications of pending reports. Microsoft's Responsible AI FAQ states the agent only produces draft expense entries and reports and does not post transactions or make permanent financial changes without human review and approval, and that post-approval processing such as posting and reimbursement is beyond the agent's scope and handled manually in Business Central.
Data access
Documented access: receipt files and images (JPEG, PNG, PDF and other listed image types) uploaded through the web app or mobile app; messages, inline content and attachments in the configured Microsoft 365 shared or user mailbox; expense user registration records including the registered company email address; expense categories and subcategories and their descriptions; expense management rules and policy configuration; expense records and expense reports; project and task information where project fields are enabled; payment methods, posting groups and number series configured for expenses; mileage rate and per diem configuration; approval relationships and notification settings; currency data in Business Central. Microsoft states the agent has a Business Central user account whose access is limited by the EXPENSE AGENT permission set to only the objects, data and UI elements needed to process employee expenses, and that it cannot exceed the permissions granted to it. Broader Business Central data access is not established.
Actions
Can take actions
External actions
Yes
Human confirmation
Conditional
Permission basis
Dedicated agent identity
Administrative control
Documented controls: the Expense Agent capability toggle on the Copilot & Agent Capabilities page; the Configure Expense Agent assisted setup and the Expense Agent Setup page; the Active toggle that activates or deactivates the agent (deactivation stops processing of incoming expenses and disables background processing while retaining configuration); AGENT ADMIN and EXPENSE MGMT. ADMIN permission sets for administrators; "Enable access via web app" and "Enable sending email with receipts" submission-channel switches and the associated mailbox account; Manage user access, listing users the agent may work with and a "Can configure" flag; the Agent Permission Sets section on the agent card (EXPENSE AGENT system permission set, copyable but not directly modifiable; the agent must be Disabled to change permission sets); accounting defaults (number series, payment methods, posting groups, expense categories); management defaults (expense locations, management rules); rules and controls (required receipt number, required merchant name, default approver, anti-corruption attestation visibility); communication settings (open-report reminder behaviour, approval notifications, notification frequency); project visibility settings; mileage and per diem settings; agent user settings for profile, region, language and time zone; consumption-based billing setup; Copilot data movement across geographies where Azure OpenAI Service is unavailable locally. Administrators and users can review the agent's processing steps, imported receipts and created expense details, and compare agent-entered values with the original extracted data.
Default state
Disabled
Availability
Microsoft labels Expense Agent a production-ready preview and marks the documentation prerelease. The Responsible AI FAQ states initial regional availability is limited to the US only and that the user interface and environment currently support English only, with receipt upload not restricted by language but reduced extraction accuracy possible. The 2026 release wave 1 plan lists public preview 8 May 2026, English and US only, with Australia, New Zealand and the UK following in July 2026, and no general availability date. The Business Central environment must be a supported country/region version. Only one Expense Agent can be configured per Business Central company and a single expense user cannot be enabled across multiple Expense Agents. On-behalf expense submission is not supported. Complex approval systems with interim or conditional approvals are not yet supported. Policy validation is documented as not yet available and planned for version 28.3.
Licensing
Microsoft states no Business Central licence is required to use Expense Agent through the web app, email or Copilot chat, and that these channels use Copilot Credits instead; the web app requires only a registered expense user with a Microsoft Entra ID. Reports can be reviewed in Business Central by licensed users. Billing for agent capabilities must be set up in the Business Central admin center before use; the product page states the agent consumes Copilot Credits and costs 50 Copilot Credits per receipt handled (one expense creation) regardless of complexity, covering extraction, categorisation, itemisation, grouping into expense reports and approving. The setup page states Expense Agent uses Microsoft Copilot Studio messages when activated, which the company is charged for. Administrators need AGENT ADMIN and EXPENSE MGMT. ADMIN permission sets and Read and manage (Full Access) permission on the shared mailbox. Approver licence requirements are not separately established.
External model or provider
Microsoft's Responsible AI FAQ states Expense Agent uses an Anthropic Claude model in the United States and an OpenAI GPT model in other countries, and links to Anthropic as a subprocessor for Microsoft Online Services (United States only). The same FAQ elsewhere states "The agent uses an OpenAI GPT model for AI processing", and the product page states "The Expense Agent uses an OpenAI GPT model, which requires no additional AI subprocessor configuration"; the product page also states the feature requires Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service. Microsoft does not name exact model versions. The provider statements are recorded as documented, including the conflict, and no exact model version is asserted.
Limitations and uncertainty
Boundaries recorded conservatively. Extraction and categorisation are AI functions; expense management rules are administrator-configured deterministic constraints enforced during processing, with soft warnings allowing submission with justification and hard blocks preventing submission - Microsoft does not describe the soft/hard enforcement decision itself as an AI judgement. Expense policies written in natural language are described as guidance; policy validation after report submission is documented as not yet available. The agent creates expenses and reports, not approvals: approval is performed by a human approver who can Approve or Send Back with comments, approval workflows are configured in Business Central, and no automatic approval by the agent is documented. Documentation conflicts on submission: the detailed product page states the user must review all expenses before submitting and the "Create and submit expense reports" page describes the employee selecting Submit and confirming, while the same product page lists "Submission for approval" in the sequence the agent runs automatically and the 2026 release wave 1 plan states the agent "can automatically submit it for approval when approvals are enabled and no rule violations are detected". This discrepancy is preserved and not resolved; no configuration setting that switches automatic submission on or off is documented. Documentation also conflicts on posting: the product page lists "Posting of approved expense reports" in the automatic sequence, while the Responsible AI FAQ states the agent only produces drafts, never posts transactions automatically, and that posting and reimbursement are beyond the agent's scope and handled manually in Business Central; posting an expense report in Business Central creates Expense, Employee, Detailed Employee, G/L and (where applicable) Project Ledger Entries. No agent authority over reimbursement is established: reimbursement is documented as performed afterwards through Payment Journals using Employee as the account type. No payment file creation, payment transmission, bank account access or money movement is documented, and the highest established financial authority of the agent is creation of draft expense records and draft expense reports. Confirmation differs by channel: the upload page states the user always reviews and confirms extracted details before the expense is saved, whereas receipts sent to the mailbox are processed in the background and expenses are created automatically for review afterwards, and validated email-sourced expenses are automatically added to a default expense report. External action is recorded as yes on the basis that Microsoft documents the agent sending outgoing email messages to employees (agent language settings govern "Outgoing email messages to employees"; the FAQ lists "Timely pending report emails"; the mailbox is used for communication back to users); Microsoft does not describe the transport component in detail, so the precise sending mechanism is uncertain. Permission basis is recorded as dedicated agent identity because Microsoft states the agent has its own Business Central user account with the EXPENSE AGENT system permission set; whether mailbox access at runtime uses a separate Exchange identity is not established. Teams and Microsoft Copilot chat are named as ways to interact with the agent but their processing behaviour is not detailed. Duplicate and anomaly detection and Outlook integration appear only in the release plan, not in the current product documentation, and are not recorded as established capability. Expense Agent is distinct from Payables Agent, which processes vendor accounts-payable invoices.

Evidence