When setting up your categories in a new account, or doing a large-scale restructure, you can use Category Bulk Update to change many categories at once.
Importing your Updated Category Information
To get started, head to your Categories page. Click “Bulk Import Categories.”
You will be prompted to upload your CSV file. You can download a template CSV to get started with from this window. You can also create your own CSV to upload. Please refer to the guidelines below on how to format your CSV file to upload.
CSV Guidelines
The above screenshot is an example that shows all the columns you must fill out in the CSV.
Expense Category: This is the Parent category. You will need to enter the name of the Parent Category for each subcategory in the row next to.
Expense Subcategory: This is the name of one of the subcategories for the specified Parent category.
Visible to: [Selected Team Field]: If you have decided to make your categories only visible to certain Team Fields, you specify this here. You will need to create a separate line for each scoped subcategory. So if you want the 'Entertainment' category to be visible to both Customer Success and Sales, you will need to create two rows, one for the category visible to Customer Success, one for the category visible to Sales.
Chart of Accounts: If you are on a manual accounting sync, you can enter the GL account name in this column that you would like expenses of this category to map to.
*Note: This the 'Chart of Accounts' column only for customers on manual accounting sync, and will not work if you sync directly to a software To enable GL account mapping for manual accounting you must not have an accounting software connected to Abacus. Head to Settings >> Accounting sync >> Connect to Custom mapping. Once enabled the Chart of Accounts column will be visible on the Categories page*
Previewing Changes
Once the CSV uploads, you’ll be able to preview your changes before you finalize them. The summary page will break down your changes by whether you added categories, deactivating categories, or updating the scoping or mapping on existing categories.
You can de-select the checkbox next to any set of changes, if you would prefer not to make them.
You can also take a closer look at the actual changes you are making, by clicking Preview Changes. This will show you specifically which categories are affected.
Confirming Changes
Make sure to review because if you apply your changes, they cannot be undone. Once you’re satisfied with the adjustments you’ve made, you can confirm your changes.