Using Expense Fields in Abacus – Abacus

Expense Fields allow you to track additional information about each expense. Examples include Project, Event, Job, and Client.

If you need to track specific information for all or some expense types, consider including Expense Field requirements in your Abacus expense policy.

What are Expense Fields?

Expense Fields allow you to track additional information about each expense for reporting and syncing back to your accounting system. Expense Fields appear in the expense submission window and allow employees to add additional information to each expense.

Sync a New Expense Field from Your Accounting Integration

For lists that exist within your connected accounting platform, Abacus can automatically pull, map, and sync these fields in a few easy steps once you have an accounting integration set up:

1. Click the gear in the top right corner to open the Company Settings page.

2. In the sidebar, select Expense Fields.

3. Click Create New Expense Field.

4. Select Sync from [Accounting Software].

5. Select the field from your integrated accounting software for which you would like to create a synced Expense Field in Abacus.

The drop-down list that populates will include any currently unmapped custom fields from the integrated accounting software - each of these fields can be used only once within Abacus.

6. Optionally, rename the field as you would like it to appear in Abacus.

We recommend that you input a descriptive Expense Field name for Abacus that your users will understand.

7. Click Create.

You're all set! Synced accounting fields will always reflect the corresponding list in the connected accounting software - including as new tags are added and existing tags are deactivated - ensuring that the selections available to employees are always up to date.

Create a Custom Expense Field

You can also create custom Expense Fields in Abacus:

1. Click the gear in the top right corner to open the Company Settings page.

2. In the sidebar, select Expense Fields.

3. Click Create New Expense Field.

4. If you have an integrated accounting software, you'll see the option to create a new field or to sync from your accounting software. To create a custom Expense Field, select Create New Field.

5. Choose from the standard Expense Fields or choose to create a custom field.

We recommend that you input a descriptive Expense Field name for Abacus that your users will understand.
Please Note: You cannot create multiple fields with the same names.

6. Input the Expense Field Name.

7. Choose if the Field should be a dropdown field (members choose from a standard set of options) or text field (members input a unique response).

8. Choose if the Field should appear on all expenses or if it should only appear for users who have certain associated Expense Fields.

9. Click Create.

Add Custom Expense Field Options

Once you have created a custom Expense Field, you can define which options are available for that field.

1. Locate the Expense Field on the Expense Fields page of your Company Settings.

2. Click Add.

3. Add item names.

To add manually, input the item names in individual fields, clicking Add New Field Item to include additional options.
To add in bulk, click Bulk Add and input the list of items in the text box.

4. Click Save.

Map Expense Fields to Accounting Fields for Manual Upload to Accounting Software

Expense Fields can be easily mapped to secondary values, which will populate as a separate column in a CSV export from Abacus for simple upload into an accounting platform, project management system, etc.

To set up this mapping:

1. Locate the Expense Field on the Expense Fields page of your Company Settings.

2. Click Edit.

3. Add the name of the field in your accounting system you'd like to map the Abacus Expense Field to in the Accounting Field box.

4. Click Save.

5. Input the value that you'd like each Abacus item to map to in your accounting system, pressing Return on your keyboard to save.

Please Note: You can also click Bulk Add to input the list of items with their associated accounting field value in the text box in bulk.

Archiving Expense Fields or Expense Field Items

If you created a Expense Field or Expense Field Item in Abacus that is no longer in use, you can archive it without losing access to any search or reporting capabilities related to that field or item. When a field or item is archived, it will still remain on all historic expenses, so you can still use the disabled field or item to run reports. The disabled field or item will no longer show up in your Expense Fields page after it has been archived, and archived fields or items cannot be reactivated.

To archive a Expense Field, click Delete below the Expense Field name.
To archive a Expense Field Item, click delete next to the item name.