---
title: "Managing employees' expense categorization"
slug: "managing-employees-expense-categorization"
description: "Assign expense categories to employees: manage individual or team categorization settings for precise accounting in Payhawk spend management platform."
updated: 2026-10-27T14:18:02Z
published: 2026-10-27T14:18:02Z
canonical: "payhawk.com/managing-employees-expense-categorization"
---

> ## 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.

# Managing employees' expense categorization

This article explains how to complete your employees' expense categorization template correctly.

> [!WARNING]
> To manage employees' expense categorization, you need to generate, complete, and upload a separate template for each entity, as templates are only available at the single-entity level.

## Adding and updating data in the employees' expense categorization template

To ensure accurate data entry, refer to the information in the following table.

| **Column name** | **Description** | **Notes** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Employee** | The list of existing users' names and their corporate emails. | - Select from the drop-down list of already imported users. - Confirm that the users' emails match the existing ones in your system. - If a user is not visible in the drop-down list, they may not be part of this entity: 1. Add the missing employees either through the employees import feature or directly in the portal. 2. Regenerate the employees' expense categorization file to view the updated user list in the drop-down list. |
| **Custom fields** | - These columns represent custom fields used to categorize expenses such as **Project**, **Customer**, **Location**, and others. - Each column contains values that have already been imported into the Payhawk system. | - These are only examples, as your actual template will have different or additional custom fields based on your organization's specific needs. - Each field will include a drop-down list with values from previously imported data. - Empty cells will be treated as having a **None** value. |

## Bulk import and export of employees' expense categorization

As a Payhawk administrator, you can import your employees' expense categorization in bulk in the following way:

1. In the [Payhawk Web Portal](https://portal.payhawk.com), open the app switcher in the top-left corner and go to **Employees**.
2. Click on the three-dot menu and select **Import**.
3. On the next screen, select **Expenses categorization**.
4. Click on **Generate template** to download the template file.

![](https://cdn.payhawk.com/Help%20desk%20images%20moved/Managing_employees_expense_categorization_20250508_manual.jpg)
5. Enter the required data in the template file, then return to the wizard and upload the file. Click on **Upload**.
6. On the **Preview** screen:
  1. Review the data to be added or updated.
  2. Select the confirmation checkbox.
  3. Click on **Import**.
7. Click on **Done**.

![Import preview showing record details and successful data processing summary.](https://storage.googleapis.com/payhawk-cdn/Adm%3ABulk%20import/bulk_import_employees.jpeg)

To export your employees' expense categorization data and download it as a ZIP folder, select the **Export** option from the three-dot menu.