Expensify is a cloud-based expense management platform that streamlines the process of capturing, tracking, and reporting business expenses. It simplifies tasks such as receipt scanning, expense reporting, and approval workflows, making it a popular tool for organizations of all sizes. Expensify integrates with accounting and ERP systems, enabling seamless financial reconciliation and automation of expense policies. By connecting Expensify with Frends iPaaS, businesses can enhance efficiency by automating expense workflows, synchronizing data across systems, and improving visibility into business spending.

Business use cases

Integration with accounting systems

Expensify tracks employee expenses and generates reports, but it often needs to integrate with accounting systems like QuickBooks, Xero, SAP, or NetSuite. Frends can automate the transfer of approved expense reports, reimbursement statuses, and tax details between Expensify and accounting platforms. For example, when an expense report is approved in Expensify, Frends can update the corresponding accounting record and ensure financial data is reconciled automatically.

Automated expense approval workflows

Expensify’s built-in approval features can be extended with Frends for automated notifications and escalations. For instance, when an employee submits an expense report, Frends can notify the approver (via email or platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams). If the report remains unapproved for a defined period, Frends can escalate the request to higher-level management or send reminders to expedite processing.

Receipt digitization and archiving

Expensify allows employees to upload expense receipts for reimbursement, but regulatory and business needs often require archived records. Frends can automate the process of extracting receipts and metadata from Expensify and archiving them in secure storage systems like AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage, or Google Drive. This not only ensures compliance with document retention policies but also simplifies audit preparation.

HR and onboarding workflows

When onboarding new employees, ensuring they’re added to Expensify for expense tracking is critical. Frends can integrate Expensify with HR systems like BambooHR, Workday, or SAP SuccessFactors to automate user setup. For example, when a new employee is added to the HR system, Frends can automatically create an Expensify account, assign them to the correct reimbursement policy, and notify the new hire via email.

Policy validation and compliance monitoring

Organizations often define expense policies, such as limits on meals or travel expenses, to ensure compliance. Frends can monitor expense data flowing through Expensify and flag violations automatically. For example, Frends workflows can check if submitted expenses exceed policy thresholds and, if so, send notifications to the approver with detailed reasoning, helping maintain compliance.

Integration with payroll systems for reimbursements

Once employee expenses are approved in Expensify, reimbursements need to be processed. Frends can integrate Expensify with payroll systems like ADP, Paychex, or Gusto to automate the reimbursement process. For example, Frends workflows can extract reimbursement data from Expensify and feed it into a payroll system, ensuring employees are reimbursed in their next paycheck without manual bottlenecks.

Budget tracking and expense analytics

Tracking budgets and building actionable insights from expense data is crucial for business decision-making. Frends can extract expense data from Expensify and integrate it with business intelligence (BI) tools like Tableau, Power BI, or Google Data Studio. For instance, Frends can automate workflows to generate real-time dashboards showing department-level expense spending trends, alerting managers if budgets are at risk of being exceeded.

Multi-currency expense management

Global organizations often deal with multi-currency expenses. Frends can automate the conversion and synchronization of currency-based data between Expensify and financial systems. For example, when employees from different regions submit expenses in local currencies, Frends can ensure these amounts are automatically converted and recorded in the organization’s standard currency for accurate reporting and reconciliation.

Departmental expense reporting

Generating detailed reports of expenses by department or project is time-consuming when done manually. Frends can automate workflows that categorize and aggregate expense data from Expensify based on department, project, or client. For instance, Frends can extract relevant expense data and generate periodic departmental reports, emailing stakeholders the details directly.

Travel and expense synchronization

For organizations using travel management platforms like Concur or Egencia, Frends can integrate these systems with Expensify to synchronize travel and expense data. For example, when an employee books a business trip, Frends can automatically extract travel details such as flight or hotel bookings and prepopulate expense data in Expensify, saving time for the traveler.

Audit-ready reporting and compliance

Expensify helps simplify expense tracking, but compliance reporting often requires integrating with auditing and regulatory tools. Frends can schedule workflows to pull expense data, approval logs, and associated receipts from Expensify and format them into audit-ready reports. These can be archived or sent directly to compliance teams, ensuring data integrity during regulatory reviews.

Integration with CRM systems for client billing

For client project-based expenses, Frends can integrate Expensify with CRM systems like Salesforce, HubSpot, or Zoho CRM to track billable expenses. For instance, when an employee tags an expense as billable to a client project, Frends can sync this data with the CRM to generate client invoices automatically, ensuring expenses are billed accurately and timely.

Automated fraud detection workflows

Expense fraud is a significant concern for many organizations. Frends can enhance fraud detection by integrating with Expensify to analyze expenses for suspicious patterns. For example, workflows can flag instances of duplicate receipts, significantly inflated amounts, or frequent manual overrides. Frends can notify compliance teams for manual review in such cases.

Event and team expense tracking

Team outings, corporate events, and team-building activities often generate shared expenses. Frends can create shared workflows where Eventbrite or other event management tools are integrated with Expensify. For example, when receipts are uploaded for an organizational event, Frends can associate those expenses with specific projects, departments, or team budgets in Expensify.

Cross-platform notifications

Manual follow-ups for expense submissions or approvals can delay reimbursement workflows. Frends can link Expensify to communication tools like Slack, Teams, or email, automating notifications for key pipeline stages. For instance, when an expense report is submitted, Frends can automatically notify the approver, and once it is approved, inform the employee of the reimbursement status.

Long-term archive for tax and audit compliance

Tax regulations often require long-term storage of expense records. Frends can integrate Expensify with enterprise archiving tools or cloud storage platforms to schedule periodic data exports. For example, Frends workflows can archive expense logs older than a certain retention period, store them in secure platforms like AWS Glacier or Azure Blob Storage, and purge excess data from Expensify to optimize its usage.