Some Function Point customers have business processes that require expenses be entered into external applications, such as accounting or expense systems. In these cases, when there are a large number of expenses involved, it is onerous to manually enter items individually into FP to ensure that the system's financial information is up to date. In response to this need, FP has ability to bulk import expense items into the system at the Job level. Follow the steps below to learn how to bulk import expenses in to your FP system. 

Ensure you have permissions to access Expense Import Functionality

Navigate to Admin > Rate and Staffe Management > Staff, Staff Rates and Permissions, and select Permissions for the staff member who needs access to the Expense Import functionality. 

Find and open the Expenses list and click the checkbox beside the "Expense | Import" privilege.

Export your Expenses and Enter into CSV Import Template

The first thing to do is get a list of all your expenses by exporting them from your external software. 

Once you've exported your expenses from your external software, you'll need to download the CSV upload template from your FP system. It can be found by hovering over the Expenses tab in the main navigation bar > External > Import Expenses.  

This will bring you to the Batch Import page, where you can download the CSV file by clicking the Download button under Step 1.

The template will look like the one pictured above. Enter your exported expense items into the template. Mandatory fields are marked by an asterisk(*). For a description of what goes in each column click here. Note: if you leave the "Manually Exported" column blank, the expense will import into FP with the status "Manually Exported." If you fill the column with a "0" (zero), the item will import into FP with a status of "Unposted." Save your file when you've finished.

Upload your CSV into FP

Return to your FP system, and upload the completed CSV template by choosing your file and clicking the Upload CSV button.

 In the above re-downloaded CSV (with columns truncated for brevity), there are two error messages:  

1. A duplicate reference number already exists in the system
2. The supplier name entered ("Jaret+*") does not exist in the FP system,  and "Copywritingg" did not match an expense name or code in FP

When errors occur, make any necessary changes to rectify the errors, then re-upload the CSV. You can leave the error messages in as they will be ignored by the system. 

To review your imported items in FP,  go to Expenses > External > Find 

How to Fill in The Import CSV Template 

Batch Expense Import: Explanation of CSV Column Data 

We hope this article was helpful! For more step-by-step articles, videos, and webinars, check out the rest of our Help Centre. You can also contact us at support@functionpoint.com with any questions, concerns, or comments. We're happy to help.