Expense categories and custom fields help you classify payments and add additional information for accounting and reporting purposes.

Add expense categories

You can create expense categories to classify your payments according to your company’s accounting needs.

Add custom fields

You can also create custom fields to collect additional information, such as:

Projects
Customer names
Quote numbers
Internal references

Reporting

Once Expense categories and custom fields are created, you can include them in your accounting exports:

Go to Settings > Accounting Setup > Export.
Add the relevant columns to your custom export.

Expense categories and custom fields are included by default in your Spendesk bank journal.

Selection limitations

Keep the following limitations in mind:

You can select only one expense category per payment.
You can select only one value per custom field and payment.

For example, if you create a custom field called City, you cannot select both NYC and Paris for the same payment. If a payment relates to both cities, create a single value such as NYC-Paris instead.

Manage Expense Categories

Expense categories help you classify spending and improve visibility over your company’s costs. You can also link them to specific cost centers so that requesters only see the categories that are relevant to them.

Add an expense category

Go to Settings > Organisation > Analytical fields.
Click Add a category.
Enter the name of the expense category.
Under Select visibility, choose one of the following options:
- All cost centers: the category is available for every cost center.
- Some cost centers: the category is available only for the cost centers you select.
If you selected Some cost centers, choose the relevant cost centers.
Click Add the category.

Once at least one expense category value has been added, the Expense category field appears on requests. Requesters can also select an expense category when making or reviewing a payment.

Edit an expense category

Go to Settings > Organisation > Analytical fields.
Hover over the category you want to update.
Click the pencil icon.
Update the category name, if needed.
Under Select visibility, choose one of the following options:
- All cost centers: the category is available for every cost center.
- Some cost centers: the category is available only for the cost centers you select.
If you selected Some cost centers, update the list of relevant cost centers.
Review the expense category policies associated with the category, if any.
Click Save changes.

View expense category policies

If expense category policies are associated with a category, their details are displayed in the category details.

This section is read-only. You can review the policies associated with the category, but you cannot edit or delete them from this screen.

To create or manage expense category policies use the dedicated configuration flow.

Delete an expense category

Go to Settings > Organisation > Analytical fields.
Hover over the category you want to delete.
Click the bin icon.
Confirm the deletion.

Important

Renaming an expense category also updates its name on payables that have already been exported.
If you want to preserve the original name on exported payables, delete the old category and create a new one instead of renaming it.
Deleting a category removes its value from payments that are still in the Prepare tab and have not yet been exported.
Payments that were already exported retain the expense category value assigned at the time of export.

Link expense categories to cost centers

By default, expense categories are visible for all cost centers.

You can restrict a category so that it only appears for selected cost centers. To do this, open the category for editing and select Some cost centers under Select visibility.

This restriction applies when requesters create a request. Controllers can still assign any expense category to a payable from the Payments, All Payables, and Prepare tabs.

Note :If no expense category has been restricted to a specific cost center, all categories remain visible for that cost center. This is expected behavior.

Manage Custom Fields

Custom fields let you collect additional information about requests and payments, such as projects, customer names, quote numbers, or internal references.

Create a custom field

Go to Settings > Organisation > Analytical fields.
Click Create analytical field.
Follow the setup steps.

You can create up to 10 analytical fields manually.

Depending on the available configuration options, you may be able to define:

Whether the field is mandatory.
Which roles can add values to the field, such as Admins, Controllers, Requesters, or specific roles.
Which roles can view the field values.
Where the field applies, such as requests, subscriptions, expense claims, payments, or a combination of these.

If the available options do not meet your needs, contact support@spendesk.com or your Customer Success Manager. Include the following information in your request:

Whether the field should be mandatory.
Which roles should be able to add values.
Which roles should be able to view values.
Where the field should apply.

Manage custom field values

Each custom field appears as a separate section on the Analytical fields page. You can manage its values directly from this page. You do not need to open the analytical field to add, edit, or delete a value.

Add a value

To add a value to a custom field:

Go to Settings > Organisation > Analytical fields.
Locate the relevant custom field.
Click Add a value directly from the custom field section.
Enter the new value.
Save your changes.

Edit a value

To edit an existing custom field value:

Locate the relevant custom field.
Find the value you want to update.
Hover over the value.
Click the pencil icon.
Make your changes.
Save the value.

Delete a value

To delete a custom field value:

Locate the relevant custom field.
Find the value you want to delete.
Hover over the value.
Click the bin icon.
Confirm the deletion, if prompted.