Accounting automation mappings and custom rules

Overview

Automating accounting categorization with mappings and custom rules can dramatically reduce the time you spend coding transactions each month. Mappings help you pair Brex fields with ERP fields to auto-populate important fields such as GL account, department, or class. Custom rules allow you to create logical relationships between multiple Brex and ERP fields.

Mappings

Mappings can automate your accounting categorization and reduce your time spent manually coding. You can map your expense fields to the accounting fields in your ERP or even to custom fields you have in Brex. For example, if you map Brex categories to GL accounts, we’ll automatically map new expenses to a designated GL account, depending on their Brex category.

By default, category mapping and merchant mappings will be enabled for GL accounts. Category mappings match each of Brex’s default 48 categories to a GL account in your accounting software. Merchant mapping allows you to automatically set a GL account based on the transaction merchant and will override category mapping. You can create both mapping rules and custom rules to help ensure that all of your transaction information carries over to your ERP at the time of export.

Create mappings

Account admins, card admins, and bookkeepers can set mappings by following these steps: Step 1: Go to Accounting > Fields & rules > Fields & mappings. Step 2: Click the accounting field you want to auto-code and, in the details window, scroll down to the mappings session. Step 3: Choose the expense field value you want to map in the dropdown and click Add mapping. This is the Brex field you want to use as the source to populate the field you’ve selected. Step 4: To map your expense fields, select the values you want to map for each expense field. On the left side, choose the value that corresponds to the field on the expense (e.g., Brex location). On the right side, select the value that will automatically be filled in based on that expense (e.g., Location).

Mappings will apply to all new transactions and transactions in your Prepare tab. If there's a conflict, any custom rules you've set up will take priority over these mappings.

Custom rules

Custom rules auto-code transactions that share similar expense fields. This helps you decrease the amount of manual categorizations you have to make when closing the books. Essentials You can enable custom rules in Company settings > Plan > Custom accounting rules. Enabling custom rules overrides your ability to change expense fields, such as Department and Location. Here’s an example of a custom rule that filters transactions with two expense fields in order to auto-code a GL account field: Brex category: Advertising & marketing + Merchant: Meta > GL account: 6010 Advertising Custom rules can be created by combining any Brex transaction fields, including these:

• Amount (greater than, lesser than, or equal to)
• Approved (yes or no)
• Card (specific card that made the purchase)
• Category
• Cost center
• Department
• Location
• Memo (has a memo or not)
• Merchant
• Receipt (has a receipt or not)
• Spend limit
• User
• Any custom fields you’ve created (including ERP fields such as location, subsidiary, and vendor)

Create custom rules

Account admins, card admins, and bookkeepers can create custom rules by following these steps: Step 1: Go to Accounting > Fields & rules > Custom rules. Step 2: Click New custom rule. Step 3: Fill out the two sections of the custom rule detail pane.

• For transactions that contain: Use these fields to filter the transactions you want to apply the rule to.
• Categorize these fields: Set the accounting field values you want to auto-code.

Step 4: Click Create and apply rule. Custom rules will apply to all transactions that you haven’t yet exported. Custom rules will override mappings if there’s a conflict between a custom rule and a mapping. Note: You can create mappings or custom rules that overlap.

Solving rule conflicts

In the event of a conflict between two custom rules, we’ll ask you to choose which rule to apply. To find transactions with conflicting rules, select Conflicting rules in the Accounting flag filter. To solve the conflict on a case-by-case basis, click on the transaction and choose the rule that takes precedence in the Accounting section. The transaction will be considered Manually recategorized.

View or edit custom rules

Step 1: Go to Accounting > Field & rules > Custom rules. Step 2: Click the three dots to the right of the specific rule and click Edit custom rule. Step 3: In the details window, make your desired changes to the custom rule. The date on the top right of the details pane tells you when the rule was last updated. Step 4: Click Save custom rule.

Delete custom rules

Step 1: Go to Accounting > Field & rules > Custom rules. Step 2: Click the three dots to the right of the specific rule > Delete custom rule.

Automation suggestions

Brex Assistant will suggest mappings or custom rules for you to consider creating based on semantic similarity (e.g. names are similar) or your past transaction categorization. For example, if you frequently assign certain GL accounts to transactions that have the same Brex category, we may suggest that mapping. You can find suggestions in multiple places in the accounting dashboard.

In-table suggestions

We’ll suggest rules as you categorize your transactions.

To create a new rule, click Create rule when choosing a value for a given field. In the details window, review the mapping and either accept or reject it. You can also revise the suggested mapping before accepting it.

Automation home

You can find all suggestions in Accounting > Create rule.

The details window will show you all the suggestions available for you to review. You can review the custom rule and either accept or reject it, or revise it before accepting it. Note: Not all users have Automation home available. Please contact Brex Support for assistance. You can also click View all to see all of Brex Assistants' suggestions, where you can filter and bulk accept multiple suggestions at the same time.

Automation preview

New for Fall

When you’re creating a new rule, you can use rule automation prior to implementing it to see which transactions the rule would affect. To do this, click Preview in the creation process on either Automation suggestions or Automation hub.