Create a New Expense Category

Every expense submitted through Certify must be classified with an expense category. Categories help users organize, identify, and report on the expenses they are submitting. This article shows you how, as a Certify administrator, you can create a new category individually or multiple categories using the Category Bulk Upload Tool.

To open the View and Edit Categories page, select the gear icon, and then select View and Edit Categories.

Creating a New Expense Category

Step 1: Click Create a New Expense Category.

Step 2: Enter category Name and select an Expense Type. The Expense Type will determine which fields will be required for that category. Continue to enter the remaining category configuration options.

GL Code - The GL code is used to organize expense categories and generally matches a code in your internal accounting system; one code can be used for multiple categories

• Personal Expense - If you select Personal Expenses, all expenses in this category will be treated with negative reimbursable amounts; this is useful 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

• Require Detailed Attendees (Meals Expense Type) - Require employees to enter the first name, last name, relationship, title, and company for each meal attendee 

• Daily Meal Limit (Meals Expense Type) - Include this category to calculate the total for all Meals expense categories used in 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) - Deduct the user's Commuter Miles from the mileage total

• Cash Advance Request (Cash Expense Type) - Used to allow users to include cash advance requests in their expense reports; will activate a 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 expense line, however, this will not prevent the user from submitting the expense
• Spend Limit per User - Enter a spend limit per user will create a policy violation when the user spends more than the limit in this specific expense category. 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 dropdown 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.

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

Expense Categories Bulk Upload Tool

Step 1: Select Use the Expense Categories Bulk Upload Tool. 

Step 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 dropdown menu.

Step 3: Click Next to create the new multiple categories.