--- title: "Getting started for Payhawk Accountants in the US" slug: "getting-started-with-payhawk-for-us-employees" description: "Set up Payhawk as an Accountant in the US: activate your account, review expenses, monitor card limits, manage suppliers, schedule payments, and export data." updated: 2026-10-27T15:58:46Z published: 2026-10-27T15:58:46Z canonical: "payhawk.com/getting-started-with-payhawk-for-us-employees" --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://payhawk.com/help/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Getting started for Payhawk Accountants in the US Welcome to Payhawk! We are super excited to have you on board and hope to make your life easier with our platform! - The Payhawk Customer Success Team is available to guide you through the entire process and you can also find them in the live chat every Monday-Friday from 08:00-18:00 CET for proactive support. - If you need to check some of the most common questions, search through the resources on the Payhawk [help center](https://payhawk.com/help-center). ## Audience This guide is intended for US-based employees with Payhawk Accountant permissions who manage and monitor company expenses within the Payhawk Web Portal. It explains how to use Payhawk to review and monitor expenses, payments and reimbursements, manage suppliers, monitor purchase orders and spend policies, and export and edit expense data to ensure accurate financial reporting. ## Summary This quick start will lead you through the basic steps for using the system as a Payhawk Accountant and will help you get up and running with the Payhawk Web Portal and Payhawk Mobile App. 1. [Register to Payhawk and activate your personal Payhawk account](/help/getting-started-with-payhawk-for-us-employees#h_834255e633) 2. [Manage your company expenses](/help/getting-started-with-payhawk-for-us-employees#h_1aa2bdfc06) 3. [Monitor card limits and spend policies](/help/getting-started-with-payhawk-for-us-employees#h_e600cd283f) 4. [Create and edit supplier details, and export suppliers](/help/getting-started-with-payhawk-for-us-employees#h_2ba6a408ee) 5. [Schedule bank payments](/help/getting-started-with-payhawk-for-us-employees#h_8c3f89c616) 6. [Export expenses on demand and schedule email exports](/help/getting-started-with-payhawk-for-us-employees#h_d39ec14d31) **Let's get started with your Payhawk experience!** --- ## Step 1 - Register to Payhawk and activate your account --- To be able to follow the steps in this guide, you need to first: 1. [Register to Payhawk with an email invite](/help/registering-to-payhawk-with-an-email-invite) or [over Active Directory](/help/registering-to-payhawk-over-active-directory). 2. [Activate your personal Payhawk account](/help/activating-your-personal-payhawk-account). For more information, see the articles about [configuring your personal Payhawk profile settings](/help/personal-profile). --- ## Step 2 - Manage your company expenses --- You can manage, monitor, and pay all your company expenses in **Spend**. Log in to the [Payhawk Web Portal](https://portal.payhawk.com), open the app switcher in the top-left corner, and go to **Spend**. ### Expenses and spend types Payhawk supports the card, bill, reimbursement, per diem, mileage, and company cash spend types. For more information, see the articles about [expenses for Payhawk Accountants](/help/overview-of-expenses-for-accountants) and [authorized and settled card payments](/help/authorized-and-settled-transactions). Managing your company expenses can include the following actions: - [Searching and filtering expenses and payments](/help/searching-and-filtering-expenses-and-payments) - [Downloading expenses](/help/downloading-expenses) - [Viewing expense activity](/help/viewing-expense-activity) - [Closing the month and archiving expenses](/help/closing-the-month-and-archiving-expenses) ### Save and manage filtered views If you frequently search for and filter by a particular kind of expense - for example, category, employee, or total amount - then, saving that filtered view will save you time. 1. Filter the desired expenses by the required criteria. ![Company spend in Spend with the Approval status filter open and Not submitted and Pending approval selected.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Navigation%20images%20Desi_20261009/acc_gs1_20261009_ai.png) 2. Click on **Save view**, enter a name for your view, and click on **Save**. ![Manage views panel in Spend with a name typed in for a new saved view.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Navigation%20images%20Desi_20261009/acc_gs2_20261009_ai.png) 3. To manage a saved view, go to **Spend** > **Saved views**, click on the three-dot menu next to the view, and select **Edit** or **Delete**. ![Saved views in the Spend left pane with the three-dot menu open showing Edit and Delete, and the Manage views panel for the selected view.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Navigation%20images%20Desi_20261009/acc_gs3_20261009_ai.png) If you select **Edit**, update the view in the **Manage views** panel that opens and click on **Save**. For more information: - [Filtering expenses](/help/searching-and-filtering-expenses-and-payments) - [Saving and managing filtered views](/help/saving-and-managing-expense-views) --- ## Step 3 - Monitor card limits and spend policies --- In Payhawk, corporate cards can be affected by stand-alone limits, spend policies, and team cards. While, as a Payhawk Accountant, you cannot define spend policies, issue individual corporate cards, or create team cards, you can monitor these and the cards that are affected by shared budgets or spend policies. ### Stand-alone limits In Payhawk, a [stand-alone limit](/help/setting-spend-limits-and-advanced-card-controls-for-employee-cards) is a monthly recurring limit defined for a corporate card. ### Spend policies Company [spend policies](/help/spend-policies) include predefined limits and other settings for cardholders whose cards are included in that spend policy. They help Payhawk Administrators manage multiple cards by using a company policy where they can easily configure limits and card settings for executives, managers, and employees alike. Spend policies also provide options for defining card controls on a group level - for example, recurring limits, ATM withdrawals, and approval chain for requests - and managing all cards in bulk without the need to deal with individual card controls. - [Overview of spend policies](/help/overview-of-spend-policies) - [Viewing spend policies and affected cards](/help/viewing-spend-policies-and-affected-cards) ### Team cards Team cards are shared budgets that apply to the cards of two or more cardholders within the company. - [Creating and closing team cards](/help/creating-and-closing-team-cards) - [Viewing team cards and details](/help/viewing-team-cards-and-details) --- ## Step 4 - Create, edit, and export suppliers --- Payhawk allows you to input the supplier information once, store it, and apply it to expenses that are due to a specific supplier. - [Overview of the supplier management solution at Payhawk](/help/overview-of-suppliers-for-accountants) - [Affected expense management workflows](/help/workflows-affected-by-supplier-management) - [Warning and error messages for supplier management](/help/warning-and-error-messages-for-supplier-management) ### Create suppliers You can create a new supplier in several ways. For the purposes of this guide, let's create a supplier from the **Suppliers** app: 1. In the [Payhawk Web Portal](https://portal.payhawk.com), open the app switcher in the top-left corner and go to **Suppliers**. 2. Click on the **+ New** button. 3. Fill in the available data and click on **Save**. As a result, your supplier is listed under the **Suppliers** > **Company suppliers** > **Active** tab. ![Suppliers app with the Add supplier panel open, showing the supplier name, tax number, country, and address fields.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Navigation%20images%20Desi_20261009/acc_gs4_20261009_ai.png) For more information: - [Creating, archiving, and searching for suppliers](/help/creating-archiving-and-searching-for-suppliers) - [Editing, viewing, and applying supplier details](/help/editing-viewing-and-applying-supplier-details) - [Editing the supplier expense categorization](/help/editing-the-supplier-expense-categorization) ### Archive suppliers If a wrong supplier has been added to the list with active suppliers, an existing supplier has become outdated, or the supplier details are inaccurate and you prefer to keep them out of use instead of deleting them, you can move the supplier under the **Suppliers** > **Company suppliers** > [**Archived**](/help/creating-archiving-and-searching-for-suppliers) tab. 1. Go to the **Suppliers** > **Company suppliers** > **Active** tab and select the desired supplier by clicking on it. 2. Click on its three-dot menu and select the **Archive** option. As a result, the supplier will be moved under the **Archived** tab. ![Supplier record in Suppliers with the three-dot menu open, showing View spend, View history, and Archive.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Navigation%20images%20Desi_20261009/acc_gs5_20261009_ai.png) ### Manually import suppliers You can manually import your existing suppliers by using the Excel template file and, similarly, export your existing supplier database from Payhawk. > [!TIP] > You won't be able to manually import suppliers if you have an [active ERP integration with Payhawk](/help/erp-systems). 1. Go to **Suppliers** and click on the three-dot menu. 2. Select the **Import suppliers** option and click on the **the template file** link to download the template file locally. 3. Fill in the necessary data for the supplier import in the file and go back to Payhawk and upload the file with your supplier data. Click on **Continue**. 4. On the next screen, a summary of the uploaded data will be displayed. Confirm the import in the system and click on **Import**. ![Company suppliers three-dot menu with Import suppliers, and the Import suppliers from an Excel file page with the template file link and upload area.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Navigation%20images%20Desi_20261009/acc_gs6_20261009_ai.png) For more information: - [Manually importing and exporting suppliers](/help/manually-importing-and-exporting-suppliers) - [Syncing suppliers between Payhawk and ERP systems](/help/syncing-suppliers-between-payhawk-and-erp-systems) --- ## Step 5 - Schedule bank payments --- Employees with permissions to confirm company expense details can schedule bill payments in Payhawk to be executed on the due date, a specific date, or immediately after authorization. Payment scheduling can be done individually for each expense or in bulk for multiple expenses at once, allowing flexible management of outgoing payments based on company cash flow and authorization policies. To schedule a single bill payment: 1. Open the app switcher in the top-left corner and go to **Spend** > **All spend**, then open the **Pay** tab and select the desired bill. On the bill, open the **Confirm details** tab. 2. From the **Payment execution method** drop-down menu, select the payment option: - **Pay now** for executing the bill payment immediately after its authorization by the respective people at your company. - **Due date** for executing the bill payment on the expense due date as detected by Payhawk's data extraction tool. Note that due dates can only be set in the future. - **Specific date** for executing the bill payment for a date you select from the calendar. Note that past dates will be disabled. 3. When you finish confirming the details, click **Confirm details**. The bill then moves to its **Authorize** tab, where the authorized people at your company can pay it or confirm it for scheduling. For more information: - [Scheduling bank payments in bulk](/help/scheduling-payments-for-bills-and-reimbursables) - [Managing scheduled payments](/help/managing-scheduled-payments) - [Overview of expenses for Accountants](/help/overview-of-expenses-for-accountants) --- ## Step 6 - Export expenses on demand and schedule email exports --- As a Payhawk Accountant, you can export your data for accounting purposes. The Payhawk [on-demand export](/help/exporting-expenses-and-payments-on-demand) allows you to get the exact data you need, slice and dice it as you wish, and be on top of your numbers. For expense data reporting, Payhawk supports the following formats by default: - Excel - CSV with and without document images - PDF full account statement - CAMT.053 The on-demand expense reports in Excel and CSV include the following data: - Balance statement - Payments - Unpaid expenses - External payments - Deposits ### Export accounting data in Excel Exporting accounting data from Payhawk is a straightforward and user-friendly process. Note that all on-demand reports are downloaded directly in the browser and that at the time of file download, you will also receive an email with a download link, which for security reasons is only valid for 12 hours. 1. In the [Payhawk Web Portal](https://portal.payhawk.com), open the app switcher in the top-left corner and go to **Export**, then click on the **Export** button. As a result, the **On-demand export** dialog appears. 2. From the **Period** drop-down list, either select a predefined period or choose the **Custom period** option to define a specific date range***.*** 3. Select the format in which you want to generate your expense report by clicking on the respective field, for example, **Excel**. As a result, the **Export** button becomes active. 4. Click on the **Export** button to download the report to your computer. ![On-demand export panel in the Export app with Last month selected as the period and the Excel format selected.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Navigation%20images%20Desi_20261009/acc_gs7_20261009_ai.png) ### Schedule email reports You can schedule your expense reports in CSV, Excel, and CAMT.053 formats and define the frequency at which they will be sent to you or your team by email. 1. In the [Payhawk Web Portal](https://portal.payhawk.com), open the app switcher in the top-left corner and go to **Export** > **Scheduled exports**. 2. Click on **Add scheduled export**. 3. Under **Template**, keep the selected format or click on **Change template** to choose another one. Then select the **Period** (how often the report is sent) and, under **Recipient**, pick a team member or enter an email address. 4. Click on **Schedule export** to confirm your choice. ![Schedule an export panel in the Scheduled exports view of the Export app, with the Excel template, Monthly period, and Recipient field.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Navigation%20images%20Desi_20261009/acc_gs8_20261009_ai.png) For more information: - [Exporting expense data on demand](/help/exporting-expenses-and-payments-on-demand) - [Exporting the carbon emissions report](/help/enabling-the-carbon-emissions-tracking) - [Creating, editing, and deleting scheduled email reports](/help/managing-scheduled-email-reports)