Xero Integration - Some roadblocks and questions

cheyenne
cheyenne Expensify Customer Posts: 6

We're planning on doing a beta roll out of Expensify with a few of our more high use credit card holders to see if it will make everyone's life a little easier. I'm working my way through the help pages, but I'm running into some major road blocks and I can't find answers any where.

Okay, first off -

We're unable to link up our company cards to Expensify. It's an issue with our bank, we're working through it. That said, we have two different bank accounts where corporate cards come from, which means two different bank accounts where spend needs to be recorded. Many of our cardholders have cards from each account. Without having been able to assign cards to our users, how to we ensure our end of week reports appear in the correct Xero bank account?

Second -

Will money spent on the credit card appear on our transaction ledger as a spend money to Expensify, or a spend money to the merchant?

Third -

If we want to process reimbursements through payroll (Gusto) instead of through direct deposit/paypal/etc, can we avoid exporting those transactions into Xero?


I may have a few more questions. Mostly I'm trying to find out what everything looks like on the Xero side so I know what our accounting team should expect.

Answers

  • Nicole Trepanier
    Nicole Trepanier Expensify Team Posts: 498 Expensify Team

    Hi @cheyenne! Happy to help you with this. First, since you aren't able to assign specific cards to export to specific accounts, you have two options. One is to create two separate policies with different default accounts and keep the transactions from each account under the correct policies.

    This can create problems for users as they will need to make sure their expenses are going on the correct reports and that each report is placed on the correct policy.

    The second option is to not use auto-sync to export your reports and select the correct default account prior to manually exporting. This means that the users don't have to select the appropriate policy but they will still need to make sure that the transactions are on separate reports.

    Second - When you export bank transactions, we will use the merchant on the vendor if there is an exact match in Xero, otherwise, they will be placed under a default vendor called Credit Card Misc.

    Third - If you aren't using auto-sync to automatically export your reports, you'll be able to select which ones are exported to Xero, otherwise, you would need to create a second policy that isn't connected to Xero for these transactions.

    Let me know if you have any questions!

  • cheyenne
    cheyenne Expensify Customer Posts: 6

    Thanks for the follow up.

    It sounds like the separate reports will be the answer. I'd like to pre-title the reports "Card Type A" or "Card Type B". Is there any way to set this up automatically? I see where I can customize report names, but there doesn't seem to be a way to include specific options.

  • Sheena Trepanier
    Sheena Trepanier Expensify Team, Approved! Accountant, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 1,362 Expensify Team

    Hi @cheyenne, you can customize a single report title format for each policy you own. To customize the format you can use formula found in our Help Center here.

    What is the ideal report title format you have in mind? I can help you figure out which formula to use if you'd like.

  • cheyenne
    cheyenne Expensify Customer Posts: 6

    I saw the CSV export page, I was thinking more of the auto generated 'which expense report do you want this transaction to go to' report. Is there any way to allow that naming to be customized so our team doesn't need to remember Karen 56481231 is Visa while Karen 466542215 is Mastercard?

  • Sheena Trepanier
    Sheena Trepanier Expensify Team, Approved! Accountant, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 1,362 Expensify Team

    Hi @cheyenne, thanks for circling back. I was referring to the default title of reports rather than the CSV export option. They use the same formula though so it's easy to get the two mixed up.

    The best option to create customized report titles would be to use a report field to pull the Mastercard or Visa designation into the title.

    For example, if you created a report field that was a free text field or dropdown named "Card type" and asked employees to fill out input MasterCard or Visa, you could then use a formula to pull the information into the title.

    To set up the report field, head to Settings > Policies > Group [Policy Name] > Reports > Report Fields. Once the report field exists, you can update the report title format (Policy Reports > Default Report Title) to include the formula below.

    An example for the full report title format could be:

    {report:submit:from|frontPart}'s Expenses #{report:id} - {field:Card type}

    This would output something like:

    Sheena's Expenses #12345678 - Visa

    Does this sound like a better fit for your needs?

  • cheyenne
    cheyenne Expensify Customer Posts: 6

    We're getting closer! I've followed the above recommendation, but when I go to create the report here's what it looks like:

    Cheyenne's Expenses #46543215 - {field:Card type}

    I never get to interact with the option to select the card type. Ideas?

  • Sheena Trepanier
    Sheena Trepanier Expensify Team, Approved! Accountant, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 1,362 Expensify Team

    Hi again @cheyenne, since you created the card type drop down as a Report Field, you'll need to choose Mastercard or Visa at the report level. (below)

    Can you update that field, then either head back to your Reports page or refresh your page. Let me know if the report title doesn't update and I'll take a closer look at this report on the backend.