Categories: How do I limit selections of Category & Department?

MattWong
MattWong Expensify Customer Posts: 4

Hi, in our business (using Expensify integrated with Netsuite) we have a number of departments and categories combinations that are "incompatible".

For example, Expensify will allow us to create an expense claim with say a "Sales" Department and a "Office Amenities" Category. However, our internal accounting rules say that only the "General & Admin: Office" department is allowed to code to "Office Amenities" category.

Is there a way to prevent certain combinations of Department & Category? Or can we limit an employee to ONLY be able to code to their own department?

I'm sure this has probably been addressed somewhere - would appreciate if you could point me in the right direction!

Thanks

Matt

Answers

  • Lauren Schurr
    Lauren Schurr Expensify Team, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 137 Expensify Team

    Hi @MattWong! Thanks for writing in!

    It sounds like you're describing multi-level tags, which unfortunately, are not available in Expensify when you have an accounting integration connected. However, the NetSuite integration does allow Departments, Classes and/or Locations to be set according to the NetSuite Employee Default for expenses exported as both Expense Reports and Journal Entries. These fields will need to be set in the employee record in NetSuite for them to be successfully applied upon export to NetSuite.

    To make this change, just select NetSuite Employee Default from Settings > Policies > Group [Policy Name] > Connections > Configure > Coding.

    For more on all of your coding options with NetSuite, take a look at this help doc!

  • MattWong
    MattWong Expensify Customer Posts: 4

    Thanks Lauren, I will try this out and see if it works for us.

  • Christina Dobryzynski
    Christina Dobryzynski Expensify Success Coach - Admin, Expensify Team, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 267 Expensify Team

    Hi @MattWong! On behalf of Lauren, you're welcome! 😀 Please let us know if we can help with anything else!

  • MattWong
    MattWong Expensify Customer Posts: 4

    Hi - thanks again! I was just thinking some more about this - what do you recommend to customers when they have more complex coding structures? So, in Netsuite we can code to GL account / Dept / Location / Class (which I think is supported by the Expensify integration). Right now the burden falls mostly on the finance review to pick up where coding doesn't adhere to our internal rules.

    Do you think it's the same for most other Expensify customers? Have you seen any cases where its done differently? (eg coding chiefly checked on manager review, rather than finance review.)

    Thanks, Matt

  • Conor Pendergrast
    Conor Pendergrast Expensify Success Coach - Admin, Expensify Team, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 175 Expensify Team

    Hey Matt, great question: we typically recommend keeping a simple structure for GL accounts and other information like Department, Location and Classes. That's based on the reality that the more data you require from employees for each expense, the less likely they are to know how to complete this correctly.

    So, paring down your list of categories (GL accounts) and tags (Department, Location and Classes), and using the NetSuite Employee Default (as Lauren suggested) where you can, will reduce the likelihood of mistakes happening, and therefore reduce the work that needs to be done to check and correct the coding.

    In general, when there is coding to check, we see that get a first glance by a manager (who may have more knowledge on the matter) and then by the finance team (who almost always have the full context).

    Hope that helps!

  • MattWong
    MattWong Expensify Customer Posts: 4
    Thanks very much for that - our coding has become more complex as the business grows, and now finance has to check and correct a larger volume of transactions. Good to know that we all face the same challenges.