Financial Accounts (fin accounts) define what is commonly known as a company's 'chart of accounts'. For the purposes of Time and Expense management, financial accounts represent the expense categories that are used in T&E items. Other financial accounts used include taxes payable, taxes recoverable and employee advances. Financial accounts can be defined in a hierarchy to make reporting easier. Many companies will assign codes for financial accounts based on their tax reporting requirements. The fin accounts define your specific T&E policies, including ceilings, reimbursement rates and the rules for when receipts and reasons are required.
Financial Accounts categorize expenses and enable automated management of expenses. Financial accounts can be entered manually in the Fin Accounts tab or they can be imported from a .csv Comma Separated values. This file format, where the different field values are separated or delimited with a comma, includes column definitions and required fields and the field values.
Accorto provides an example of the spreadsheet for importing Financial Accounts.
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You can also use this to update existing financial accounts. If your .csv file contains just the updates check the Ignore empty cells check box. If this is not checked, then any columns that do not have a value will have the corresponding field updated with blank.
When creating or updating fin accounts, keep in mind the following settings:
Use the Parent Only check box to designate a fin account that is used for reporting purposes only. These fin accounts can be used for selection and summarization in reports but cannot be used in transactions (like T&E items).
Use the T&E Report check box to designate a fin account that can be used in a T&E item. This is used only for those records with an Account Type of 'Expense'.
The Automatic Tax section determines the tax handling for expenses. Select a Tax to be used as the default tax for this expense. Use the Tax Included check box to designate that the amount entered for the T&E item includes the tax. When the T&E report is processed, the tax amount will be calculated from the expense amount. Use the Tax Exclusive check box to designate the tax cannot be changed in the T&E item. If it is not checked, the tax may be changed on the T&E item to a different tax (or no tax).
The Fixed Amount section is used for those expenses where a quantity is entered (e.g. mileage). When a Fixed Amount is entered, the amount cannot be updated on the T&E item and the quantity is entered.
If an Approval Quantity is entered, approval is required if the T&E item quantity is greater than the approval quantity.
The Account Rules section determines the processing rules for T&E items which refer to this fin account. Enter an Approval Amount if a T&E item must be approved if it exceeds this amount. A No Approval Amount indicates the maximum amount which does not require approval.
Generally, one of these fields will be used. If an Approval Amount of 100.00 is entered, than any amount of 100.00 or less does not require approval. Similarly, if a No Approval Amount of 100.00 is entered, then any amount less than 100.00 does not require approval.
Use the Max Amount field to limit the amount that can be entered for this expense. If the T&E item amount exceeds this amount, the record cannot be saved.
Use the Reason Mandatory check box if the reason field on the T&E item must always contain a value, if this expense is used.
Enter a Reason Amount, if the reason field should be entered only if the T&E item amount exceeds the reason amount.
For example, for an expense of 'Gift' the reason amount may be set to 50.00 so that if a gift is claimed as an expense that is greater than 50.00 a reason must be entered.