Getting started
A useful first workspace takes preparation, not a long implementation. This guide walks through a five-day rollout for a single company and its first spending team.
You need an administrator account, your chart of accounts, a list of departments, and one person who can confirm your company expense policy.
Day 1: Create the structure
Create your legal entity and base currency first. These choices affect exports and should match your accounting file. Then add departments and accounting categories. Keep employee-facing names recognizable: “Client travel” is easier to choose correctly than a ledger code alone.
- Import categories with a CSV or enter them manually.
- Assign each category to the departments allowed to use it.
- Review tax treatment with your accountant before enabling tax fields.
Day 2: Invite a small pilot group
Choose one department with a cooperative manager and a normal mix of card and out-of-pocket spending. Invite the manager as a budget owner and everyone else as members. Reserve administrator access for the people responsible for workspace settings.
Roles in plain English
- Member: submits expenses and sees their own cards and requests.
- Budget owner: approves requests and sees spend for assigned budgets.
- Finance reviewer: checks completeness and prepares exports across departments.
- Administrator: manages people, policies, integrations, and security settings.
Day 3: Publish a short policy
Start with three rules people can recall. For example: receipts are required above $25; travel over $500 needs pre-approval; and personal purchases must be flagged within two business days. Add exceptions to the policy rather than relying on private knowledge.
Link the full document from your workspace, but keep the submission checklist short and visible at the moment of spending.
Day 4: Run real transactions
Ask the pilot group to use AppBill for every new purchase. Include a card transaction, a reimbursement, and a pre-approval. Finance should review the records and export a test batch. Look for wrong categories and missing context—not just whether the software accepted the submission.
Day 5: Resolve and expand
Adjust category choices and approval thresholds based on the pilot. Write down any manual step that remains. Then invite the next department and repeat the same review after its first week.
If something goes wrong
Pausing an approval rule does not delete transactions. You can return a submission to the employee with a note, or move an approved transaction back to review before export. Administrators can see these actions in the audit history.