If I downgrade my account to free, will I lose all my existing reports?

davidparks21

My trial period expired, and when I select the option to downgrade to the free version it warns me that my policy will be lost and the action is irrevocable. I don't know what a policy is really, the docs seem to say that they are rules and limits on expenses that can be configured. I don't think I set anything like this up, and don't think I care. But I have 4 expense reports that I created with various expenses assigned to them. I don't want to lose these, and there's no reassurance in the documentation on downgrading or policies that tells me that I won't lose this data.

Can I downgrade safely without losing data? Or does the loss of a policy mean that all the reports created previously will be lost as well?

tylerzoll

@davidparks21 your data won't be lost. just the policies that govern the submission process.

marty

I didnt know about policies until now. What exactly does that mean? I wasnt knowingly using policies and am curious how the reports will look without said policies. IT says I will lose policies, and I cant get them back, which sounds like a big deal.

Sheena Trepanier

Hi @marty, happy to help here. Policies are a collection of submission rules and guidelines that employees must follow in Expensify. You can use policies to determine how an employee's report is approved and reimbursed, connect to an accounting package for easy export, or add categories and tags your employees can use to code expenses. A policy also grants it's members unlimited SmartScanning every month.

If you don't need a report approval, an accounting connection, or unlimited SmartScan, our free account sounds like a great fit for you.

Deleting your policy will not delete existing expense information, but any categories and tags you'd added to the policy will be removed as options to apply to future expenses. Additionally, the free account will grant you 5 free SmartScans per month.

I hope this helps!