Expense Report

Level: Advanced 60–90 min

Concepts: Business LogicValidationStateEdge Cases

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Build an expense report system that enforces company spending policies and approval workflows.

Requirements

An expense report contains:

• employeeName — who submitted it
• expenses — a list of individual expense items
• status — Draft, Pending, Approved, Rejected

Each expense item has:

• description — what the expense is for
• amount — cost in dollars (positive number)
• category — one of: Meals, Travel, Accommodation, Equipment, Other

Spending Limits

Each category has a per-item limit:

Category	Per-Item Limit
Meals	$50
Travel	$500
Accommodation	$200
Equipment	$1,000
Other	$100

An expense item that exceeds its category limit is flagged as over-limit.

Report Limits

• Total report amount must not exceed $5,000
• A report with any over-limit items requires manager approval
• A report over $2,500 total requires manager approval regardless of individual items

Approval Workflow

1. A report starts as Draft
2. Submitting a report moves it to Pending
3. A pending report can be Approved or Rejected
4. Only pending reports can be approved or rejected
5. Approved and rejected reports cannot be modified
6. A draft report can have expenses added or removed
7. Submitting an empty report is not allowed

Output

An expense report should produce a summary:

Expense Report: Alice Johnson
Status: Pending

  Meals: Team lunch            $45.00
  Travel: Flight to NYC       $350.00
  Meals: Client dinner         $62.00 [OVER LIMIT]
  Equipment: Laptop          $1,200.00 [OVER LIMIT]

Total: $1,657.00
Requires Approval: Yes (over-limit items)

Test Cases

Scenario	Expenses	Total	Approval Required?
All under limits	Meals $30, Travel $200	$230	No
One over-limit item	Meals $60	$60	Yes (over limit)
Total over $2,500	Travel $500 x 6	$3,000	Yes (total)
Empty report submit	(none)	$0	Error: cannot submit
Over $5,000	Equipment $1,000 x 6	$6,000	Error: exceeds maximum

Additional cases:

• Cannot add expenses to an approved report
• Cannot approve a draft report (must be pending)
• Rejecting a report requires a reason
• A report can be resubmitted after rejection (moves back to Draft first)

Bonus

• Add date tracking — expenses older than 90 days are flagged as stale
• Add receipt requirements — items over $25 must have a receipt attached (boolean flag)
• Add department budgets — each department has a monthly spending cap

Hint

Start with the simplest case: a report with one expense, no limits exceeded. Build the approval state machine separately from the spending policy rules. Compose them together only after both work independently.