Introduction
Advanced rule-based automation in Spendesk is designed to streamline your pre-bookkeeping process, significantly reducing the time spent on data entry. This feature allows you to set up conditions that automatically pre-fill your payables in the Bookkeep > Prepare section. It provides you with comprehensive control, ensures consistent categorisation, and dramatically cuts down the hours spent on pre-bookkeeping tasks.
Who's it for?
This feature is ideal for accountants and bookkeepers who aim to minimise manual data entry during pre-bookkeeping in the Bookkeep > Prepare section.
Creating a New Rule
Creating a rule is straightforward. Before diving into the process, let's define the key components of a rule:
Conditions: Define which payables the rule will apply to.
Outputs: Specify the field values for payables that meet the rule's conditions.
There are two types of rules based on the number of conditions:
Single Condition Rules (SCRs): Rules with one condition.
Multiple Condition Rules (MCRs): Rules with more than one condition.
Steps to Create a Rule:
Navigate to Settings > Accounting Setup > Rule-based Automation.
Click Create a Rule.
Name your rule and select an icon to help identify it among others.
Set your conditions for which payables you want to apply the rule to
Set your outputs for this rule, meaning what field values do you want to prefill when this rule triggers on a payable
If you're ready to publish the rule, click 'Publish and apply'. If not, click 'Save as draft' so that you can come back to it later and edit before publishing.
Publishing and Unpublishing
You can easily control which rules are published or unpublished, by using the 'Active?' toggle in the rules table.
Note that when you unpublish a rule, any payables that meet the conditions for the rule that have not yet been saved in Bookkeep > Prepare will immediately lose the output prefills from that rule.
And, as soon as you publish a rule, any payables that meet the conditions for the rule that have not yet been saved in Bookkeep > Prepare will immediately display the output prefills from that rule.
Rule Hierarchy
It's possible for multiple rules to apply to the same payable, as rules aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.
When a payable meets the conditions for multiple rules that have outputs for different fields, then these rules are not 'competing', and both rules will apply in their respective output fields.
But, when a payable meets the conditions for multiple rules that have different outputs for the same field, then these rules are 'competing'.
In these cases, the rules that are more granular (those with more conditions) take precedence. This is illustrated below:
So, for example, a rule with three conditions will override a rule with one or two conditions. This is useful for setting broader default scenarios with SCRs, allowing MCRs to handle more specific cases.
Note that when you have competing Single Condition Rules (rules with 1 condition), then SCRs with a Supplier condition has a higher hierarchy than Expense Category, and Expense Category has a higher hierarchy than other condition types. This follows the same logic as the previous AutoCat feature.
Even with this hierarchy, you might still encounter scenarios where multiple rules of the same hierarchy level compete at the field level. The next section explains how this is managed.
Handling Multiple Rule Outputs
At times, multiple rules of the same hierarchy may suggest different outputs for the same field in Bookkeep > Prepare or All Expenses > All Payables. Here's how it's handled:
The output from the most recently created rule will be pre-filled.
A new indicator under the field will notify you of different rule outputs.
Click the indicator to see a dropdown with details of the different outputs.
Choose your preferred output by clicking on it.
Once selected, ensure you save the payable to apply the change.
Fields with existing user value
If there’s a rule value for a field, but the Requestor has already entered something, we will keep the requestor's value. To make you aware of the rule output value, we display it to you in a callout, giving you the option to easily update the field, or to ignore it.
Save the Payable to Accept Rule Outputs
When a rule output appears in a field, marked by a ‘⚡’ icon, it is not saved until you save the payable or mark it as ready.
Existing Customers - Note on Migration of Old Rules
If you were a customer in May 2025 when the Advanced Rule-based Automation feature launched, your existing Supplier and Expense Category rules (previously called AutoCat) will have been migrated.
These now appear in the new format under Settings > Accounting Setup > Rule-based Automation.
Note: Supplier and Expense Category rules that output to the same Expense Account are consolidated into a single rule, reducing the number of rules and simplifying management.
Here's an example showing 3 separate Supplier rules before the migration and the Single Condition Rule that is created after migration:
Feature Availability
All customers can create unlimited Single Condition Rules, but Multiple Condition Rules are only available on certain plans. You can check your credit level within the product when creating a Multiple Condition Rule (see screenshot below). If you are have any questions, or if you want to discuss upgrading your plan to access more Multiple Condition Rules, reach out to your CSM or Customer Support.
