The expense fields in Payhawk are fields providing additional information for an expense so that it can be categorized - for example, Document date or Service period.

Most expense fields allow you to define who can see them when opening an expense (their visibility), whether the person submitting the expense will be required to submit a value in that field (required for submission), and if the person reviewing the expense will be required to submit a value in that field (required for review). For more information, see the article about managing the built-in or custom expense fields.

The built-in expense fields are provided as default expense fields by the system in the Settings > Expense fields > Built-in fields section. Examples of built-in fields in Payhawk are the expense category, document date, document number, and more.

The information and settings you may apply to the built-in expense fields vary depending on the field. For example, expense categories require you to set values to define their names (for example, Advertising and marketing), account codes (4501), and tax rates (12%) and tax rates require you to set values to define their names (for example, Standard BG), tax codes (133), and rates (20%).

This section lists the available built-in expense fields and provides an overview of their settings.

Expense categories help businesses structure their spending better and simplify their spending management process. Depending on the purchased goods or services, each expense falls into a specific category - for example, operating or non-operating expenses. Based on the requirements and needs of your organization, categories can be further split into sub-categories that correspond to the internal processes.

In Payhawk, expense categories allow you to set values for their names, account codes, and tax rates. Depending on the visibility you define, you can also decide whether they'll be required for expense submission and review, and can enable and configure the automatic population of expense category data.

In Payhawk, the note is the field where employees enter the reason or purpose of the generated expense. By default, Note is a free-text input field. Depending on the visibility you define, you can decide whether notes will be required for expense submission and review.

The Document expense field requires an uploaded file attachment (expense document) and is always visible to all employees. You can decide whether an uploaded expense document will be required for expense submission and review.

The Document date expense field displays the issue date of the expense document and its data is automatically populated. Depending on the visibility you define, you can decide whether a document date will be required for expense submission and review.

The Document type expense field contains the invoice and receipt note pre-defined options and its data is automatically populated. Depending on the visibility you define, you can decide whether a document type will be required for expense submission and review.

The Document number expense field displays the number of the expense document and its data is automatically populated. Depending on the visibility you define, you can decide whether a document number will be required for expense submission and review.

The Service period expense field indicates the accounting period of the expense document and its data is manually filled in by the Finance team.

The Supplier expense field is always required for reviewing bill payments and its data is automatically populated. Depending on the visibility you define, you can decide whether the supplier will be required for expense review.

The Tax rate expense field displays the tax rates imposed by the state on the types of goods or services that have been purchased, for example, VAT. In Payhawk, tax rates allow you to set values to define their names, tax codes, and rates. Depending on the visibility you define, you can decide whether a tax rate will be required for expense review.

The Discount expense field displays the tax relief provided by the state for specific goods or services that have been purchased by the organization and its data is manually filled in by the Finance team.

Team will be visible as a built-in expense field if the Settings > Teams > Team organization and management option has been enabled. As a result, whenever an employee who is part of a team creates an expense, the name of their team will be reflected in that expense in the Expenses app.

Also, the team name and external ID will be visible for every expense during export initiated from the Export app. Team managers and Payhawk accountants will still be able to select the team to which this expense relates for expenses submitted by employees who are not part of a team.

A composite built-in expense field for expenses that are deferred over a period of time - for example, a 12-month subscription for a service.

By default, its visibility is set to No one and, therefore, the field is not available in the expenses. If the visibility settings have been updated, expenses and purchase orders will display the following fields related to amortization:

The custom expense fields require additional information for an expense specific to the needs of your business - for example, Cost center. You can manually create and configure them from the Settings > Expense fields > Custom fields section.

Payhawk also uses custom expense fields to map classes and tracking categories from ERP systems and accounting software integrations.

Depending on the type of custom field you define, employees will have different options for filling in the required data:

For audit considerations, Payhawk doesn't historically update the following built-in and custom expense fields:

As an example of the way updated custom field values will be treated by the system, assume you have a Project custom field with a MyProject value. When you use the MyProject value in 10 expenses, the MyProject value will be saved on the expense. However, if from Settings > Expense fields you change the Project value from MyProject to MyNEWProject, the new value will be applied to the future Project expenses but will not be updated historically for the expenses that have already used the MyProject value.