Tracking Reimbursements

What Is a Reimbursement?

A reimbursement is money you receive to pay you back for an expense you covered. Common examples:

• A work lunch or travel expense your employer pays back
• A shared group cost where friends or family reimburse your portion
• A medical or dental claim paid out by insurance
• Any purchase you fronted on behalf of someone else

Reimbursements are different from income — they offset an existing expense rather than adding new money to your budget.

How NivoaFlow Handles Reimbursements

NivoaFlow tracks reimbursements in two steps:

1. Flag the expense — mark an outgoing transaction as "expecting reimbursement" so it shows up in your pending list
2. Link the payment — when the money arrives, connect it to the original expense(s) it covers

Once linked, the reimbursement is proportionally split across the categories of the original expenses. This means your budget automatically reflects your net spend — not the gross amount you initially paid.

Step 1: Flag the Expense

When you pay for something you expect to be reimbursed for:

1. Open the transaction in your transaction list
2. Tap the Edit (pencil) icon
3. Scroll to the bottom of the edit sheet
4. Enable the Expect reimbursement toggle
5. Save

The transaction now appears in your pending reimbursements list with a violet Awaiting reimbursement badge.

Step 2: Link the Incoming Payment

When the reimbursement payment arrives in your account, there are three ways to link it:

Option A — From the transactions list banner

If you have any expenses awaiting reimbursement, a violet banner appears at the top of your transactions list:

"2 expenses awaiting reimbursement — Match →"

Tapping it opens a two-step sheet:

1. Pick the payment — select the incoming positive transaction that is paying you back (last 60 days shown)
2. Pick the expenses — select which flagged expenses this payment covers (all are pre-selected by default)

Confirm and the link is created.

Option B — From the payment transaction

Open the positive transaction (the incoming money):

1. Tap Edit (pencil icon)
2. Scroll to the bottom — tap This is a reimbursement payment →
3. Select which flagged expenses it covers
4. Save

Option C — From the payment's detail card

Open the positive transaction's detail card and tap Link Reimbursement in the footer.

Example: Work Expense

You pay $240 for a team dinner — $150 in Dining, $90 in Entertainment (split transaction).

Step 1: Edit the transaction → enable Expect reimbursement.

A week later, your employer deposits $240 reimbursement.

Step 2: Open the $240 deposit → tap Link Reimbursement → select the team dinner → confirm.

NivoaFlow creates splits on the $240 payment:

Split	Amount	Category
Offset for Dining	$150.00	Dining
Offset for Entertainment	$90.00	Entertainment
Total	$240.00

Your Dining and Entertainment budgets both net to $0 for that expense. ✓

Example: Partial Reimbursement

You pay $500 for a flight. Your employer only covers $400.

Link the $400 reimbursement to the $500 expense. Your budget shows $100 net spend on Travel — the amount you actually bore out of pocket.

How Reimbursements Affect Your Budget

Scenario	Effect on Budget
Expense flagged, reimbursement not yet linked	Full expense amount shows in category
Reimbursement fully linked	Net spend = $0 (or unrecovered portion if partial)
Expense not flagged at all	Incoming payment counts as income unless linked

Reimbursed amounts are excluded from your 3-month spending averages used in projections — your forecasts reflect actual out-of-pocket spend, not gross expenses.

How Reimbursements Affect Net Worth

Your net worth updates automatically when transactions post to your accounts — the same as any deposit. Reimbursement tracking does not add a separate net worth adjustment; the account balance change handles it.

Tips

• Flag expenses at the time of purchase, before you forget — it takes one toggle
• If the reimbursement arrives before you have a chance to flag the expense, you can link them retroactively in either direction
• For insurance claims, flag the medical expense and link the insurance payout when it arrives
• If you are reimbursed more than you spent (rare), the budget category nets to $0 — it will not go negative
• The Reimbursed badge (teal) appears on expenses once successfully linked

See splitting transactions if your original expense covers multiple categories.