Define your own transaction categories based on the categories that matter to your business, then choose where and how you surface them to employees to streamline accounting.
Key workflows for custom categories
- Setup. Create categories for company-specific programs (like “Travel for conference” or “Health and wellness stipend” or “Remote work setup”).
- Surface to employees. Choose where to surface these categories for you and your team so you can select them when submitting reimbursements, categorizing card transactions, or others.
-
Automate with accounting. Map custom categories to your accounting categories to automate GL coding and streamline your end of month close.
Creating custom categories
- Click on your company name in the left-hand corner of your dashboard and click Settings
- Select Categories from the left hand side bar
- Click on Create Category
- If you’ve created tags, you’ll be able to copy these over as new custom categories
- Enter the name of the category and choose where employees will see them: for reimbursements, card spend, or other transactions (eg. ACH payments, Wires etc)
- Hit Save in order to save your new category and you’re all set
Managing custom categories
Editing
Edited category names will update across all previously categorized transactions. To edit category names:
- Navigate to Categories
- Click on the pencil icon for the category you’d like to edit
- Make the necessary edits and select Save
Deleting
Deleted categories won’t be available for future transactions, but will remain assigned to historical transactions. To delete a category:
- Navigate to Categories
- Click on the trash icon for the category you’d like to delete
- Select Yes, Delete and you’re all set
Applying custom categories
When submitting reimbursements
- Navigate to Reimbursements
- Click on “Submit Expense”
- Select the custom category from the Expense Category dropdown
- Fill out the rest of the details
- Click Review
- Select Submit
When categorizing card transactions
- Navigate to Transactions
- Click the card transaction to categorize
- Select the custom category from the Category dropdown
- Fill out the other details as needed
- Exit the transaction and you’re all set
On the transactions page for all transactions
- Navigate to Transactions
- Click the transaction to categorize
- Select the custom category from the Category dropdown
- Fill out the other details as needed
- Exit the transaction and you’re all set
On the accounting page
- Navigate to Accounting
- Go to the Category column and select the custom category from the dropdown
- Fill out the other details as needed and you’re all set
Creating accounting rules for custom categories
Create automated mapping rules for each category so the right GL code is applied once a category is set. With mapping rules in place, GL codes will be automatically applied to each transaction once a category is set, which you can review on the Accounting page before syncing transactions to your accounting tool.
- Navigate to Accounting
- Click on the gear near the upper right corner of the screen to go to your mapping rules
- Select Category
- Choose what GL code maps to each category and you’re all set
FAQs
How does this work with transaction tags?
Tags were launched as a beta feature in October of 2024, and custom categories were built to address some of the feedback we gathered from tags users. If you currently use tags, we’ll give you the option to copy those over as new custom categories. For historical transactions, we’ve preserved existing tags, which will soon be moving to the notes field. Tags will still be searchable, so you’ll still be able to filter transactions by tags and reference tags in transaction exports as needed.
Are custom categories available on the mobile app?
Yes. While you can’t create or manage custom categories via mobile app, you can apply any that were previously created in the web app to your transactions and reimbursements.