How to Use International Mode
If your company is based in the US but has a few international employees, we can enable International Mode for your account to allow you to activate it for them. If you're on this page, chances are we've already enabled this for you. But if your company does not have International Mode, please reach out to Support.
What does this mean for your company's finance team?
Any employee who enables International Mode will not be reimbursed through Abacus. So you'll have to arrange their reimbursement directly. It may be easiest to look at the total amount of expenses in Abacus once a month and then arrange for payment (for example, add the payment to your payroll).
Will International Mode expenses be synced to my accounting software?
No. Since no payment processing is occurring, we do not sync reimbursable expenses to your accounting software if they are associated with an employee in International Mode.
Admin: Activate International Mode for an Employee
If an employee does not have a bank account connected to their Abacus account, admins may assign International Mode to that employee.
1. On the Admin tab in the left nav bar, click People.
2. Find the desired employee and click the pencil icon next to their name in order to edit that person's user profile.
3. At the bottom of the Edit User Profile pane, click International to toggle it on, then click Save.
Employee: Self-Activate International Mode
Alternatively, employees can set themselves to International Mode by following the steps to connect a personal bank account to Abacus.
At the step where an employee would otherwise connect their US bank account, they can select International Mode at the bottom.
If they select this option, they'll be presented with the following explanation:
Don't have a United States bank account?
Is your bank account outside the USA? This option will prevent reimbursement direct to your bank account through Abacus. Only select this option if you’ve first checked with the head of finance at your organization, and if they’ve arranged an alternative reimbursement method (PayPal, wire transfer, etc.)
After the employee enables International Mode, all future expenses will reflect this setting and it will be displayed under the expense details.
Deactivate International Mode
The only way to turn off International Mode is to have the employee connect a personal bank account to their Abacus account. But first, an admin must switch that employee's Home Currency to USD via their record on the People page.
1. On the Admin tab in the left nav bar, click People.
2. Find the desired employee and click the pencil icon next to their name in order to edit that person's user profile.
3. Use the Home Currency drop-down to select USD and click Save.
Once the employee's currency has been set to USD, they may follow the steps in Connect Your Personal Bank Account to Abacus to connect their US-based bank account and disable International Mode.