Expensify Blog

Do you or your company use Bill.com? Have you thought about using it but you wanted to make sure that you could integrate your Expensify account with it? Well good news, you can!

If you don’t know about Bill.com – Bill.com is a great platform to streamline and automate vendor bill payment and customer invoicing. To read more about them, visit their site: www.bill.com

Once you have created your company specific Bill.com email address, you will then use that to send your company’s expense reports. When a report has been approved and is ready to send, you will use one of our features in the Reports tab, the ‘share with accountant’ button across the top row:

Once you click that button, you will then see the option to send this report to your @bill.com email address you have already set up.

The ‘share with accountant’ button will remember the last email address that you used for each policy. So if you have multiple policies, you will only have to enter the email address for each policy once.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email Help@expensify.com, tweet at us: @Expensify or just send us a smoke signal.

This week is going to be an unusual Pro Tip Monday… our recent success with weekly Webinars has made us want to do more! We want to find out the relevant topics that we know our amazing users will benefit from (yes, this is going to be one of those blog posts)

We currently have two Webinars that we do every week – one on each Wednesday and Friday at 11:30am PST. On Wednesday we go over the basics – how to create expenses, create a report and put expenses in the report to then submit to your manager. On Friday, we go over how to link your company’s Expensify Policy with your accounting software. To register for either one of these, just choose the day below:

Wednesday webinars: Using Expensify
Wed, Feb 15, 2012 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Wed, Feb 22, 2012 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Wed, Feb 29, 2012 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Wed, Mar 7, 2012 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM PST

Friday webinars: Company Setup and Integrating Expensify with your Accounting Package
Fri, Feb 17, 2012 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Fri, Feb 24, 2012 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Fri, Mar 2, 2012 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Fri, Mar 9, 2012 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM PST

Over the past couple of weeks, our attendance for these Webinars have more than doubled (which is awesome!) and we want to add 2 more to this weekly list.

SO this is where you come in: as our awesome users, what would you like to see? What do you think would be helpful for your company and/or companies like yours to see?

Any and all feedback is welcome!!

As always, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to send us an email: Help@Expensify.com

Update 1: If you missed this week’s Wednesday Webinar, here it is:

Update 2: And if you missed our Friday webinar:

Recently, I have been receiving a lot of emails asking for help on how to sync Expensify with QuickBooks – so I have the need to re-blog this.In case if you still have questions, we do have a very detailed, step by step guide in our help section as mentioned above (www.expensify.com/help/quickbooks) as well as a weekly Webinar every Friday at 11:30am PST that will go over how to establish this connection and every possible other connection to your account package supported by Expensify. To register for that, click on any of the following links:

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!

The easiest way (second to SmartScans of course!) to add expenses to Expensify is to import your bank/credit card. Linking your bank/credit card is the best way to capture expenditures made on these accounts, and will let you see all of your spending in one spot! We’ll even update your transactions as soon as new purchases become available. Most transactions under $75 are also eligible for automatically generated eReceipts.

Before we get into any detail on how to get this set up, the first thing you want to do is to make sure that you can log in to your bank’s website. If you can’t, Expensify will not be able to communicate with them.

Link your account by clicking the Import credit card/bank account icon on your Dashboard and follow along with the step by step instructions.

Additional cards and accounts can be added by going to Settings -> Credit Cards and clicking on the “Import card/bank” button.

Step 1
Pick your bank from the list of most frequently added banks or type in its name to bring it up in a search

Step 2
Connect with your account by using the same Username and Password you use for online banking.

Step 3
We’ll pull in all of the accounts tied to your username; just pick and choose the ones you want to import. If you are importing a corporate credit card, or any other account that you don’t pay directly, make sure to un-check the box for “the expenses on these cards are reimbursable” when importing the card.

You can learn about this and more by visiting our help section at https://www.expensify.com/help or email Omar@Expensify.com!

You’ve finished implementing Expensify across your entire company when your boss walks in and tells you that you will need to have more control with the users under your company’s Expensify account… You might be thinking to yourself at this point, “How am I going to do that?!?” Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered!

We have this amazing feature called Domain Control to help make everyone on your team happy (including your boss!).  Domain Control enables you to manage user accounts that are part of your company’s divisions. With a domain under your control, you’re able to:

• require strict enforcement of rules,
• disable select features
• delete user accounts

Disclaimer: These abilities are powerful, use them wisely!

Before you get started, make sure that you are on the Corporate Plan.  If you’re not, then just click here and upgrade.  Next, head over to your Settings page, and click the Domain Control tab to the left. This is where you will add your domain.

You will then need to verify ownership of this domain before continuing. You may need to consult your organization’s IT department to complete the verification process… so make sure you get them a cup of coffee before you ask.

You have two very simple methods to verify your domain: Host a File or Add a DNS record.

Once your domain is verified you will now be in control!

With Domain Control, you will have the ability to create and monitor what we call Permission Groups.  Permission Groups are an easy way to group your employees, and let you monitor what they are able to do or not do within Expensify. You can give the Permission Groups you have created any combination of the enforcements/restrictions we have made:

Once you have created all the Permission Groups needed for your company, you can begin to Add Domain Members (read as: this is where you add your employees).

You will use their email address to identify who each of your co-workers are. Once they are added, you will be able to declare what Permission Group they belong to, as well as who is an Administrator.

Don’t worry, you will be able to go back and edit these fields whenever you would like to, provided you are still the admin!

You can learn about this and more by visiting our help section at https://www.expensify.com/help or email Omar@Expensify.com!

Receipt scanning has been sweeping the nation by storm and many of you have been burning through receipt scans faster than they could be purchased. Good news for all of you – receipt scans can now be refilled automatically as they start to run out! Head over to your Settings -> Receipt Scanning page, turn on automatic scan refilling and select which package you want to reload with when the remaining receipt scans starts to get low.

First time purchasing scans and want to just “set it and forget it?” Check the box at the bottom of the purchase dialog and we will refill your account with the same amount of scans each time you run dry. Happy scanning!

Considering ditching your external receipt scanner or shoebox stockpiling? Give our receipt scanning a try!

The first in an upcoming line up of updates to what can be added in bulk is the ability to upload your employee email list.   When you are setting up an entire company save a copy of your employee contact list to a spreadsheet or comma separated value (CSV) file.  From the People page or the same tab of an expense policy click the  button, choose which file to add and pick the email column to add everyone in bulk.

Here’s some handy tips so you can import with the best of them

Get your contacts from Gmail

Take a look through Google’s guide to exporting Gmail contacts and make sure to select Outlook CSV as the export format.

Depending on how much information is stored with each contact you may get a file which has 20+ columns.  Make it easier for yourself to preview who is getting added to your account by cleaning up the CSV file to have only the email column.

Sync with contacts in Google Apps

No need to fuss with files. Just install us in to your Google Apps domain and we’ll sync with your contact list directly.

Pull contacts from Microsoft Outlook

Depending on which version you are using, take a look at the Outlook 2002/2003 contact export guide or the Outlook 2010 contact export guide.  Remember to save the contact list as a CSV file and export as few columns as necessary because only the email is used to set people up.

Remember that each person you invite gets you 5 receipt scans! Give uploading your people a go – get started by creating an expense policy!

To those of you paying very close attention, you’ll notice we’ve been making some subtle changes to the Android app.  There’s a lot going on under the hood — much of yet hasn’t yet been revealed — but one thing that just slipped out is support for logging mileage!  For you Android road-warriors out there:

1. Update your Android Expensify app
2. Tap “enter expense” on the main page
3. Tap “mileage” in the upper-right
4. Enter the number of miles you traveled
5. Use or update the mileage rate
6. Watch in amazement as the reimbursement amount is calculated
7. Add an optional comment or receipt
8. Tap “submit”

That’ll log the whole thing as a mileage expense in Expensify for adding to an expense report for reimbursement.  Some notes and caveats:

• The reimbursement rate is imported from your account application launch; if you update it on the website, just close and re-open the app.
• You can do a “one time” override the mileage rate in the mobile app, or update on the website to apply the change permanently.
• The the 2011 IRS mileage reimbursement rates recently updated, be aware!