Finance - Expense Documentation

Any help would be appreciated. We added an expense today and the system was very slow to respond. Because of this, it appears that we have several copies of the same document in the documentation. When we attempted to delete the superfluous copies, the system did not and would not allow us to delete them. Interestingly, we were able to add new documents.

I have several questions - but I will boil it down to just 2:

1. Why give us the ability to delete documents if, when we want to delete them after the expense has been approved, we cannot delete them?
2. If the system accepts several copies of the same document, why is it not smart enough to detect the duplication and/or allow us to delete the duplicates?

Thanks -- Ken

I can make a guess as to #1. Once an expense has been approved it's bad form (not to mention bad for the audit process) to delete the documentation that others relied on to give that approval.

pyz01 wrote: Sun Aug 24, 2025 7:17 pm 2. If the system accepts several copies of the same document, why is it not smart enough to detect the duplication and/or allow us to delete the duplicates?

The exact same uploaded file, or a photo of the same document? The latter would be too error prone.

Walt -- I see your point and it a good point. I agree, once the expense has been approved, no documents should be removed.

On the other hand, if there are several duplicates of the same document - there should be some way to clean that up. I guess the only way is after the audit had been completed.

In the grand scheme of things, it probably doesn't matter. I doubt if effort needed to implement something and make sure it works correctly is worth the results. The entire transaction will disappear once the retention period is over. In the US, I think that's 3 years plus current.

waltbristow wrote: Sun Aug 24, 2025 8:14 pm I can make a guess as to #1. Once an expense has been approved it's bad form (not to mention bad for the audit process) to delete the documentation that others relied on to give that approval.

Although I don't disagree, if that is the reason they really should either disable or remove the delete button for that attachment or, at very least, give an error message that explains the reason.

Thanks to all that replied. I agree with all the comments. But ultimately, does it make sense to have a record with duplicate receipts. In this particular case, the system glitched and there are now 10 copies of the same document (the receipt) attached to this transaction. Now really, shouldn't there be some way to clean that up?? Yes, as correctly pointed out, the delete button does not seem to be working for this instance. So tell me, any suggestions how to get rid of the other 9 copies?