PURNAM New expense

How the expense form works

What it does for you, what happens after you submit, and what runs behind it.

The journey of an expense

From a photo of the bill to money in your account.
  1. Add the billPhoto or PDF. It is read and the details are filled in.
  2. Say who paidYou, Purnam, or not paid yet (pay the vendor).
  3. SubmitA row lands in the expense sheet, as with the Google Form.
  4. CheckedFinance reviews it and books it in Zoho Books.
  5. PaidPaid by bank transfer (ICICI) or FS. You get an email.

In the form

Things it does so you type less.
Reads your bill

Description, amount, date and category are filled in from the bill in a few seconds and marked from the bill. Anything you type yourself is never overwritten.

Remembers you

Your name, how you usually pay and your usual project are set for you. A personal link like expenses.purnam.co/?who=Surya opens it as you.

Repeat a past expense

One tap for things you submit often. Fixed-price ones (subscriptions) fill the amount too; for others, "Last time ₹…" offers it.

Suggests the category

Words like "spotify" or "dinner" pick the category, learned from everyone's past requests.

Warns about duplicates

If the same bill file, the same invoice number, or the same amount on the same date was already submitted, it asks before sending it again.

Who paid, clearly

I paid asks whether to reimburse you, whether it came from a Purnam advance, or whether you're already reimbursed. Purnam paid and Not paid yet cover the rest.

Saved accounts

You're paid to your registered account (shown as ••1234). Vendors already registered with the bank can be picked by name; new ones take bank details once, and the IFSC shows the bank and branch.

Split or several bills

Split one bill across projects, or add several bills and submit them as separate expenses in one go.

Bills in other currencies

For a USD (or any foreign) bill, enter the ₹ your card was charged including fees. The bill's own amount is added to the note.

Never loses your work

An unsent expense, bills included, stays on your device for 7 days, even if the page reloads after taking a photo.

Works like an app

Add it to your phone's home screen. On Android it also appears when you tap Share on a photo or PDF.

After you submit

Follow each request until it's paid.
My requests

My requests shows the last six months. Sign in with a six-digit code sent to your email; you stay signed in for 60 days.

Stages

Received Checked Being paid Paid, with the payment date and bank reference. Requests that pay no one show Booked.

"You've been paid" email

When a bank payment reaches the ICICI statement, you get an email with the amount and bank reference.

Bills by email

For invoices that arrive in your inbox.
Forward it

Forward the invoice to info+bills@purnamcommunity.in from the email on your requests. Within about ten minutes you get a Check and submit link with the form already filled in. Nothing is sent to finance until you submit.

Or automatically

A Gmail filter can forward invoices from a vendor (Zoom, Google…) to that address every time.

Monthly reminders

If you submit something every month (a subscription) and this month's isn't in yet, you get one reminder with a prefilled link.

Behind the scenes

For the curious: what runs where.
Where requests goThe same expense sheet the Google Form fills, one row per expense, so the sync to the main sheet, vouchers, Zoho and ICICI BizPay work unchanged. The Google Form still works alongside.
BillsSaved in the Google Form's bills folder in Drive, named <file> - <your name>.
ListsMembers, projects and who-for come from the Google Form; categories from the category sheet; saved vendors from the ICICI payee list. Changes there show here within minutes.
ChecksEvery answer is checked again on the server before a row is written. Sending the same submission twice never writes two rows.
TimingThe form opens instantly. Submitting takes about ten seconds; the main sheet is updated a few seconds after that. Emailed bills are picked up every 10 minutes; reminders go out at 9 am.
Built onCloudflare (site, bot check, cache), Google Gemini (reading bills), Google Apps Script and Sheets (rows, emails), Razorpay's public IFSC list. All on free plans.

Good to know

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