Expensify and GL Codes: How to Get Started
Yes it’s Saturday, a time when most companies don’t publish anything on the *official* company blog. Well we’re no *typical* company, and some things just can’t wait for Monday! What’s so pressing? We’re super excited about the great feedback we’ve been getting to our previous blog post – Calling All GL Coders – and in addition, we wanted to follow-up by providing our users with something they can refer to when setting up their company with GL codes. So without further ado…
Step 1: Account Set-up
After you’ve signed-up for a free Expensify account, visit www.expensify.com/upgrade to upgrade to the Corporate plan and add GL Code functionality.
Add GL code functionality by upgrading to Expensify's corporate plan
Step 2: Create an expense policy
The Corporate plan also allows you to create an expense policy, or the umbrella under which all employees can create and submit expense reports. To create an expense policy, visit the Expensify Dashboard and click on the button to “Set up a policy” (or if you have already created an Expensify account, you can go to Settings>Policies).
Set up an expense policy to begin importing GL codes
Step 3: Enable GL codes and add/import into your expense policy
In the basic section of the expense policy setup dialogue, you will see a checkbox to use GL codes.
Enable GL code functionality in the basics section of your expense policy
Enabling GL codes will reveal a new column in Expensify Categories.
You can add GL codes manually to test out our functionality, or you can import a CSV file that contains your account names and the corresponding GL Codes
You will also see a GL column for Expensify Tags.
Like Expensify Categories, with Expensify Tags you can input some GL Codes to test out our functionality, or you can import a CSV file that contains your customers/projects/etc. names and GL codes
Finally, you can associate a GL code with each of your employees.
If your employees are setup as vendors or cost centers, you can associate a GL code with them as well
Step 4: Customize your CSV export file (based on the format accepted by your accounting package)
After you set up GL codes for Expensify Categories and Tags, you can create the customized CSV format that is accepted by your accounting package. To do so, click on the “create policy CSV export” button that appears below the People section in the expense policy setup process. Clicking this button will take you to the following screen.
Expensify allows you to stipulate the order as well as the information contained in column of your CSV file
Expensify also has a formula helper on the righthand side of the screen. Click on a name, and Expensify will reveal a formula that you can copy and paste for your CSV export file. For instance, say you want to add a column that includes the email of the report submitter. To do so, use the formula helper to go to Report>Submit>From.
Expensify's formula helper allows you to copy and paste the formulas for information you'd like to include in your CSV file
Step 5: Export expense information into your expense policy CSV file and then upload to your accounting package
Once your GL codes are mapped to Expensify and your expense policy CSV export format is set up, you can choose to “export to…Policy CSV Export” for any approved reports. Your exported CSV file will look something like below.
An example of a customized CSV export
Now you just need to import your CSV file into your accounting package! All done in five steps!
