13. Multi-entity
Overview
Multi-entity management is a global-first, dynamic system architecture that allows you to seamlessly manage your spend across all of your global subsidiaries — both collectively and independently — from a single dashboard.
You should take advantage of multi-entity capabilities if you are a US company with one or more US or non-US legal entities, or a non-US company with a US legal entity
AND
You want to track expenses by entity, regardless of entity’s country, and export them into your accounting software.
You want to issue local cards in local currency to an entity’s employees that can be billed and paid for from that entity’s local bank account.
You want to reimburse an entity’s employees from the entity’s local bank account.
Multi-Entity Capabilities
Assign employees to entities.
Separate billing and set local billing currency.
Set entity-specific budgets, policies, and approval workflows.
Issue cards and enable reimbursements for entity employees in local currency.
Map transactions to your entity’s GL accounts.
Setting up Card Entities
You can add your entities and employees to Brex manually by following the steps below.
Step 1: Navigate to Team > Legal entities.
Step 2: Click Add legal entity.
Step 3: Enter the entity’s legal business name and click Add. Once created, an entity will be in unverified status.
Unverified* = Verification process has not yet begun.
Incomplete* = Process started but missing some details.
In review* = Details submitted , awaiting Brex approval.
Verified = Ready to invite employees and begin using Brex.
*You will have limited capabilities until the entity is fully verified. For non-USD billing, there may be additional documentation and time required for KYC verification purposes.
If you plan to add users utilizing HRIS or SCIM, you will need to ensure the name of the entity in Brex must match the respective system being synced.
Setting up Billing for Card Entities
View bills or statements for each entity
To view bills or statements for each entity:
Step 1: Navigate to Accounts.
Step 2: Click on Credit row.
Step 3: Click on the billed entity you want to view bills or statements for.
Please note, if users are not split out by entity, all transactions will be billed to the parent entity. However, if the users are split out by entity, their transactions will be billed to the entity they are a member of.
Change autopay account for any USD-billed entities
To change the autopay account for any USD-billed entities, please follow the steps below.
Step 1: Navigate to Accounts.
Step 2: Click on Credit row.
Step 3: Click on the billed entity you want to view bills or statements for.
Step 4: Click Edit billing settings.
Initiate manual payments for non-US entities
For non-US entities, you won’t be able to set up autopay. However, you can initiate manual payments towards your bill each month from your foreign bank account by following the steps below.
Step 1: In your Brex dashboard, navigate to Accounts.
Step 2: Select your local entity and click Edit billing settings. Follow the payment instructions when they open in the sidebar.
Note: If you want to make a payment via SWIFT wire, you can use the details in the sidebar under Payment instructions.
Step 3: Checkmark the box when you’ve finished making the payment.
Note: If the bill isn’t paid by its due date, your parent entity may be charged instead.
Activating Reimbursements for an entity’s employees
If you already activated reimbursements for your parent entity, then you can skip this step as reimbursements are already available for your global employees.
However, if you’re setting up Brex for the first time, then you can activate reimbursements for all employees across subsidiaries using the steps below.
Step 1: Navigate to Accounts, scroll to Employee reimbursements and click Get started.
Step 2: Select Manage payments to add or edit a payment account.
Step 3: Choose the reimbursements payment billing cycle and frequency (if applicable) and click Confirm.
Step 4: Agree to terms of service and click Review.
Setting up non-US mileage reimbursement rates
Brex will automatically populate and keep mileage rates for the US up to date with IRS guidelines. For employees in countries outside the US, admins will need to manually set mileage reimbursement rates in accordance with the local tax authority rates and update those as rates change.
You can set up unique rates by country by going to Company settings > Expenses and scrolling down to Mileage reimbursement rates. These rates will apply to employees based on the country of their inked bank account for payout.
Setting up Reimbursements for Billing Entities
By default, reimbursements are funded by your parent entity in USD. Separating reimbursement billing lets you pay from its own bank account, and use local currency. You can separate reimbursement billing for the parent entity as soon as verification is submitted.
There are three ways to pay for Reimbursements:
1. By the USD account connected to your Brex account
2. Paying outside of Brex
3. Via Local Payment (push-payments)*
To set up your preferred method of Billing for Reimbursements:
Step 1: In your Brex dashboard, navigate to Team.
Step 2: Click on the entities tab and select the entity.
Step 3: Scroll down in the detail panel to the Set up individual payment button in the reimbursement billing section.
Step 4: Select the entity’s billing currency. If this is a USD entity, select your autopay account.You can also select the alternatives of paying outside of Brex or via Local Payment.*
Step 5: Choose the payment cycle and day of the week.
Step 6: Review details, agree to the terms, and click Confirm. These changes are permanent. Once you set an entity to be billed separately, it can no longer be billed back to the parent.
*Note: For non-USD billing, click Verify with Airwallex to submit extra required data which may require additional time. If you would like to speak to a representative about setting up non-USD billing, feel free to reach out to your Implementation Consultant or your Brex contact.
Setting up Bill Pay Entities
By default, bills are funded by your parent entity. Once you set up bill pay for an entity, you can select which entity you want to use for paying a bill during the bill creation flow.
To set up your entity to be used for Bill Pay:
Step 1: In your Brex dashboard, navigate to Team.
Step 2: Click on the entities tab and select the entity.
Step 3: Scroll down in the detail panel to the Edit button in the bill pay billing settings section.
Step 4: Select the funding source, review details, agree to the terms, and click Confirm.
Note: Refer to the Accounting Integrations (hyperlink the section) section to understand the mappings for your respective integrations.
Multi-entity FAQ
Why can’t I set up my entities reimbursements?
Note: Parent entity reimbursements need to be enabled before sub-entity reimbursements. Please see the above steps to ensure your parent entity’s reimbursements are enabled
Why can’t I initiate a global or locally funded reimbursement to a specific country?
Please see the below two articles to understand which countries are available generally for reimbursements and specifically countries where locally funded reimbursements are available:
I am using Xero as a direct integration and cannot utilize the local reimbursements feature.
At this time, you cannot take advantage of local reimbursements while utilizing the direct Xero integration or it may impact the Reimbursement Billing Settings. As an alternative, if you would like to utilize local reimbursements, you will need to opt out of the direct integration and use the custom CSV setup.
Here’s a resource to better understand the availability of direct integrations and locally funded reimbursements: