FAQ: How are expenses auto-categorized?

As an administrator, you can use Emburse Spend’s self‑learning program to track changes to merchant names and expense categories when employees submit expenses. This reduces manual support requests and improves reporting accuracy across your organization.

Use case: If employees frequently miscategorize expenses—for example, assigning “Meals” to a vendor that should be “Office Supplies”—Emburse Spend learns from approved edits. Over time, it automatically applies the correct category so you spend less time correcting reports and employees submit more accurate data.

Automatic categorization

Over time, Emburse Spend categorizes expenses based on the merchant code before submission. Automatic categorization saves time and reduces errors.

Merchant name changes

When you or other users consistently edit and approve the same type of transaction, the system may learn this behavior and automatically update merchant names on similar transactions during submission.

If your organization prefers not to auto‑change merchant names, contact Emburse Support to have this function disabled.

Continuous improvement

The more edits you make, the smarter Emburse Spend becomes. It learns from your actions and more accurately recognizes combinations of merchants and categories over time.

Manual edits

Some expenses may not fit the automatic category. You can adjust categories as needed. Manual edits always override automatic categorization, giving you full control.

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