Create a New Expense Category

Every expense submitted through Certify must be classified with an expense category. You can use expense categories to determine which fields are required for different types of expenses to ensure that you have all of the information you need for accounting and budgeting purposes.

The list of expense categories and requirements for expenses within each category are defined by a Certify Administrator. The Expense Types determines the default fields that will be included for any expense within a category. You can also include and require custom fields using General Ledger Dimensions.

This article focuses on adding new Expense Categories. To learn how to view and edit existing categories, see View and Edit Categories.

Access the View and Edit Expense Categories Page

To access the View and Edit Categories page, click the gear icon on your Certify homepage and then select View and Edit Expense Categories.

Create a New Expense Category

1. Click Create a New Expense Category.

2. Complete the Expense Category Details.

• Name: Input the name of the category as you would like it to appear to users.
• Expense Type: The Certify Expense Type determines which fields will be required for that category.
• GL Code: The GL code is used to organize expense categories and generally matches a code in your company's accounting system. You may want to use the same code for multiple categories if they should be associated with the same code in your accounting system.
• Personal Expense: If you select Personal Expenses, all expenses in this category will be treated with negative reimbursable amounts. You should use this checkbox for categories that will be used for situations such as personal use of a corporate credit card, cash advances, and other scenarios in which the expense amount should be subtracted from the expense report's reimbursable total.
• Meals Expense Type Options: These options will only appear for categories that have the Meals Expense Type.
  • Require Detailed Attendees: Require employees to enter the first name, last name, relationship, title, and company for each meal attendee.
  • Daily Meal Limit: Calculate the total for all Meals expenses added by a user for one day. The Daily Meal Limit amount will equal the total of all Maximum Amounts for each Meals category with this option.
• Deduct Commute (Mileage Expense Type only): Deduct the user's Commuter Miles from the mileage total.
• Cash Advance Request (Cash Expense Type only): Allow users to include cash advance requests in their expense reports. This option will activate the Cash Advance Balance on homepage.
  • Please Note: If a Money Return is required from unused Cash Advance funds, a new expense category must be created. The GL code for the Money Return expense category must be the same as the Cash Advance expense category, but there is no extra configuration required. 
• Require Reason: Require an entry in the Reason field for each expense assigned to this category.
• Maximum Amount: Entering a maximum amount will create a policy warning when a user exceeds the amount on an individual expense line in this category. It will not prevent the user from submitting the expense report.
• Spend Limit per User: Enter a spend limit per user will create a policy violation when the user spends more than the limit for all expenses in this category on their report. It will not prevent the user from submitting the expense report.
• Receipt Threshold: Select Inherit From Policy from the dropdown menu if you want this expense category to use the standard receipt requirement threshold amount set on the View and Edit Policy page. Select Use Threshold Amount from the dropdown menu if you want to override the standard amount for this expense category.
• Receipt Threshold Amount: To use a Threshold Amount, you must select Use Threshold Amount from the Receipt Threshold Amount dropdown menu. Expenses less than this amount will not require a receipt; entering a value of zero will cause no receipts to be required for this expense category.
• Department Filter: Selecting a department filter from the drop-down menu will ensure that this expense category will only be available for users assigned to the selected department; if no department filter is selected, the category will be available for all users.
• Hide Billable: Hide the Billable field on the expense level for this expense category and select a default billable status when hidden.

3. To finish creating the new expense category, click Next.

Bulk Upload Expense Categories

1. Click Use the Expense Categories Bulk Upload Tool. 

2. Enter a line item for each new category you would like to create. The format for each line item should be Category Name,Category Code.

Clicking Add These Records will generate a line for each expense below the text box. Enter the maximum amount and select the appropriate Expense Type from the drop-down menu.

3. Click Next to create the new multiple categories.