Prerequisites
Before syncing expenses and travel advances in contractor payroll, ensure the following:
You have admin access in Asanify.
The contractors you are paying are on INR currency (expense and travel advance sync is available only for INR contractors).
Expenses to be reimbursed must be in Approved status and marked as reimbursable. If you need to create or approve expenses, you can do so from the Expenses section.
Travel advances to be recovered must have been recorded and be in Uninitiated payout status. You can manage and report travel advances from the Travel Advances section.
Step 1 - Navigate to Pay Contractors
Click on the Payroll tab from the left navigation bar.
Select Pay Contractors from the submenu.
Step 2 - Set up and run contractor payroll
Select the Entity for which you want to run payroll.
Choose the date range (start and end date) for the pay period.
Optionally, configure the following settings:
Do you want to round up net payable amount? — Toggle Yes or No as required.
Do you want to sync hours / loss of pay days? — Toggle Yes if you want to sync LOP days, then select the hours calculation method.
Click the Run button.
Asanify will initiate the payroll and display the Payroll Summary screen with contractors grouped by currency.
Note: You can also view your past contractor payruns by clicking the View Payruns link on the setup screen.
Step 3 - Open the Sync Expenses and Travel Advances dialog
Once the Payroll Summary loads, locate the INR currency expansion panel (the sync option is only available for INR-currency contractors).
Click the Sync Expenses and Travel Advances button within the INR panel.
This opens the Sync Expenses and Travel Advances to Payroll dialog, which has two tabs: Expenses and Travel Advances.
Step 4 - Sync approved expenses
In the dialog, you will be on the Expenses tab by default.
The table shows all approved, reimbursable expenses for contractors in this payroll run that have not yet been added to a payrun.
Use the search bar ("Search by Expense type or Employee Name") to filter expenses if needed.
The table displays the following columns: Expense Date, Created On, Expense Type, Amount, Belongs to, Receipt, View Info.
Select the checkboxes next to the expenses you want to reimburse in this payroll run.
Click the Sync Expenses button (this button is enabled only when at least one expense is selected).
The selected expenses will be added to the respective contractor's Expense Reimbursements - Advances column in the payroll table, increasing their net payable amount. Once synced, those expense rows will become unselectable so they cannot be double-counted.
Note: Only expenses that are Approved, marked as reimbursable, and not already linked to another payrun will appear as selectable in this table.
Step 5 - Sync travel advances (advance recovery)
In the same dialog, click on the Travel Advances tab.
The table shows all travel advances for INR contractors in this payroll run that are in Uninitiated payout status.
The table displays: Belongs To, Created On, Total Amount, Expense Group Name.
If a travel advance does not yet belong to an expense group, an Add to Group button will appear. Click it to open the Add Travel Advance to Expense Group drawer:
Choose Add to Existing Expense Group to assign the advance to an existing group, or
Choose Add New Expense Group (admin only) to create a new group for this advance.
Click Assign to save.
Select the checkboxes next to the travel advances you want to recover in this payroll run.
Click the Sync Travel Advances button (enabled only when at least one advance is selected).
The selected travel advances will be deducted from the respective contractor's Expense Reimbursements - Advances column, reducing their net payable amount to recover the advance.
Note: Syncing expenses adds to the contractor's payout (reimbursement), while syncing travel advances deducts from their payout (recovery). You can see the net effect in the Expense Reimbursements - Advances column for each contractor.
Step 6 - Review the payroll table
After syncing, close the dialog and review the contractor payroll table:
The Expense Reimbursements - Advances column (read-only for INR contractors) will reflect the synced amounts:
A positive value means the contractor will receive an additional reimbursement.
A negative value means an advance is being recovered from their payment.
Review each contractor's Gross Payments, TDS Amount, and Net Payments columns to confirm the amounts are correct.
If needed, you can skip individual contractors using the Skip Payroll option or use Upload Inputs to make bulk edits via CSV.
Step 7 - Confirm the payroll
Once you have reviewed all details, click the Confirm Payroll button.
If any warnings appear (e.g., contractors with mid-period salary revisions or missing personal address information), review them carefully, check the acknowledgment box — I understand the potential risk and wish to proceed — and click Yes, Confirm Payroll.
On successful confirmation, you will see the message: Congrats! Your Contractor Payroll is confirmed.
You can view the completed payrun under Payroll → Past Payruns → Contractors.
Additional Information
Which expenses are eligible for syncing?
An expense will appear as selectable in the sync dialog only if it meets all of the following conditions:
The expense Status is Approved.
The expense is marked as reimbursable (i.e., IS_REIMBURSEMENT is enabled).
The expense has not already been linked to a payrun.
The expense belongs to a contractor whose currency is INR and who is included in the current payroll batch.
Which travel advances are eligible for syncing?
A travel advance will appear as selectable in the sync dialog only if:
Its payout Status is Uninitiated.
It belongs to a contractor with INR currency in the current payroll batch.
What if the expense or travel advance list is empty?
If no eligible expenses or travel advances appear in the dialog:
For expenses: ensure that contractor expenses have been submitted and approved in the Expenses module before running payroll.
For travel advances: ensure advances have been recorded and reported and are in Uninitiated status.
After creating or approving the missing data, click Back on the payroll screen and Run again to refresh the lists.
Does expense/advance sync work for non-INR contractors?
No. The Sync Expenses and Travel Advances button is only shown for the INR currency panel. For non-INR contractors, the Expense Reimbursements - Advances column is directly editable in the payroll table.