How to Set Up Categories
As an admin, set up expense categories in Emburse Spend, control which groups can see each category, and map categories to accounts in your Chart of Accounts.
Use categories so employees code expenses consistently and exported expenses post to the correct general ledger accounts.
This option is not available with certain ERP integrations.
Creating Categories and Sub-Categories
As an admin, log in to your Emburse Spend account and go to Settings > Categories.
- To enter a new top-level category, select + New Category.
- Enter the name of the new category, and select Create.
- To add a new subcategory to an existing category, select + New Sub-Category.
- Select the top-level category, then enter the new subcategory name. When finished, select Create.
- To edit a category name, select the Pencil icon to the far right of the category.
- The Edit Category screen displays. When finished making the necessary changes, select Save.
- To delete a category, select the
Trash Can icon.
You cannot deactivate a category that has an active rule applied to it.
Limiting Visibility on Categories
You can limit the visibility of categories to certain groups. If you have created Team Fields to segment your employees into groups (for example, Department or Location), you can limit category visibility based on those groups.
In this example, the Team Field used to limit category visibility is Location.
By default, each category is visible to all employees:
If only certain groups need to see certain categories, edit the visibility.
- Select ALL in the Visible to Location column.
Select Limit category visibility by team field, then choose the location from the dropdown menu.
Select Save when finished.
You can configure your category list according to the Team Fields you have set up to support a more granular approach to your accounting.
When users code an expense, they select the Team field item first from the drop-down list. The category limited to that team field then displays for coding.
Next, map each category to the corresponding Chart of Accounts in your accounting platform.
Map Categories to Your Chart of Accounts
Mapping each Emburse Spend category to an account in your Chart of Accounts ensures exported expenses post to the correct general ledger accounts. When a category is not mapped, expenses route to the Default Expense Type configured on the Accounting Integration settings screen. See Customize QuickBooks Online Integration Settings in Emburse Spend for details on this setting.
If you use an integrated accounting sync, map each category to the corresponding Chart of Accounts account in your accounting platform. For step-by-step guidance, see Connect QuickBooks Online to Emburse Spend or the connect article for your accounting system.
The system shows only the first 100 active Chart of Accounts from your accounting system. If you do not see yours there, you can search for it by typing its name in the Search box.
For manual accounting, you must connect to Custom Mapping for the Chart of Accounts column to display on the Categories screen. Go to Settings > Accounting Integration and select CONNECT. After you connect Custom Mapping, the Chart of Accounts column displays on the Categories screen. See How to Add Emburse Spend Categories to your General Ledger (GL) Codes for CSV Export for the manual GL mapping workflow.