💰 Zoho CRM based Expense Management

Overview

The CRM Expense Management module is designed to streamline the tracking and computation of employee field expenses, particularly those associated with planned and unplanned partner journeys. The system supports automated travel expense calculation via Mapbox APIs and allows for manual entry of other operational expenses. Each entry is linked to a specific journey for traceability and analytics.

🔄 Travel Expense Automation

💡 Purpose

Auto-calculate travel-related expenses based on field movement between partner visits and attendance punch points, ensuring consistent reimbursement practices with minimal user input.

🧠 Core Logic

Initiation Point (Attendance Punch-In):
- The system logs the location and time when the user marks attendance.
Journey Movement Tracking:
- As the user checks in to partner locations, each GPS coordinate is logged.
- The journey record holds start and end coordinates.
Closing Point (Attendance Punch-Out):
- Once the user ends the workday, the final checkout coordinates are recorded.
Distance Calculation using Mapbox API:
- All recorded coordinates (start, intermediate journey points, end) are passed to the Mapbox Directions API.
- The API returns:
  - Accurate travel distance (in km)
  - Estimated travel time
- This avoids manual entry and reduces tampering.
Rate Application:
- Distance is multiplied by a pre-set rate.
- Rate is defined per user role (e.g., Sales Executive = ₹6/km, Manager = ₹8/km).
Entry Generation:
- The calculated travel cost is auto-recorded under the journey's date.
- Field: Expense_Type = Travel
- Associated journey reference is stored via Partner_Journey_Name.

🔧 Mapbox API Integration Details

Component	Description
API Used	Mapbox Directions API
Inputs Provided	Sequence of GPS coordinates from check-ins and attendance logs
Output	Route distance in meters, converted to kilometers
Reliability	Accounts for road paths, not just point-to-point (great-circle)

✍️ Manual Expense Entry

Users can submit non-travel related expenses manually through the mobile app.

Field	Description
`Meeting_Start_Date`	Date of expense (auto-filled or user-provided)
`Expense_Type`	Type of expense (e.g., Meal, Lodging, Miscellaneous)
`Description`	Optional notes about the expense
`Amount`	Expense amount
`Partner_Journey_Name`	Reference journey name for relational mapping & future analysis

✅ Benefits

💸 Accurate travel reimbursements
📍 GPS-verified distance logs
🔄 Reduced manual workload
🧾 Clear audit trail for every entry
📈 Expense-linked journey insights for operations and finance teams