Why limit the categories?
A full chart of accounts can hold several hundred categories. For a coworker who just needs to be reimbursed for a lunch or a train ticket, that is both overwhelming and a source of miscoding.
Limiting the categories your coworkers can choose from gives you:
Fewer miscoded documents for the accountant to correct afterwards.
Faster submission and approval of reimbursements.
Sensitive accounts in the chart of accounts kept out of sight.
Four ways to limit the categories
Corpay One gives you four options. Use them on their own or combine them:
Show only selected categories on expense reports – when coworkers should only be able to pick from a few categories on their reimbursements.
Hide categories across the whole chart of accounts – when a category should not be selectable on any document type.
Limit categories per department – when different departments each need their own slice of the chart of accounts.
Rename the categories – when the account names from your accounting system are hard to understand for people outside finance.
1. Show only selected categories on expense reports
This is the simplest and most direct option if you only want to limit the choices on reimbursements and leave every other document type as it is.
💡 Good to know: By default, no categories are shown on reimbursements. So if your coworkers cannot select a category on their reimbursements today, nothing is broken – no categories have been released yet.
How to do it
Go to Settings > Lists > Categories.
Tick the categories your coworkers should be able to choose on their reimbursements.
Click Show for expense reports.
The selected categories now appear in the drop-down on expense reports. Every other category stays hidden on this document type.
💡 Tip: Keep the list short. 5–10 categories usually cover every everyday reimbursement – for example travel, meals, office supplies, fuel and training.
2. Hide categories across the whole chart of accounts
If a category should not be selectable at all – not on invoices, receipts or reimbursements – you can hide it completely.
How to do it
Go to Settings > Lists > Categories.
Click the 👁 icon next to the category you want to hide.
To hide several at once, tick all the categories you want and click Hide selected.
To unhide a category, click the 👁 icon next to it again.
⚠️ Please note: Hiding only affects what is shown in Corpay One. The category is not deleted, and nothing changes in the chart of accounts in your accounting system. Documents already coded to a hidden category keep their coding.
3. Limit categories per department
If you have several departments that each use their own part of the chart of accounts, you can control the categories at department level. A coworker with a primary department then only sees that department's categories.
How to do it
Make sure the departments exist under Settings > Lists > Departments. If you use departments in your accounting system, you can import them from there – otherwise create them manually.
Go to Settings > Team, click the coworker, and choose a primary department.
Go back to Settings > Lists > Departments and click the pencil icon next to the department.
Choose which categories from the chart of accounts should be available to that department.
⚠️ Please note: The categories available under a department come from your chart of accounts. If a category is hidden in the main chart of accounts (option 2), it cannot be selected under an individual department either.
4. Give categories names your coworkers understand
Account names from an accounting system are rarely written for coworkers. "1310 Travel expenses, domestic" does not tell a salesperson on the road very much.
You can give a category a different display name in Corpay One:
Go to Settings > Lists > Categories.
Click the pencil icon next to the category you want to rename.
Enter the new name and save.
The category's original name is still visible in the overview, so you and your accountant can always see which account is actually being posted to.
Recommended setup
If you only do one thing, this is the setup that gives the most effect for the least work:
Agree with your accountant which 5–10 categories reimbursements realistically land on.
Rename them to clear, everyday names – for example "Taxi and public transport" instead of an account number and its chart of accounts name.
Release exactly those categories with Show for expense reports.
If you have departments with their own chart of accounts, assign primary departments to your coworkers afterwards.
Please note
You need to be an account owner or administrator to change list and coworker settings.
The changes apply going forward. Expense reports that have already been submitted are not affected.
If your chart of accounts is imported from your accounting system, it still updates automatically. Hidden categories stay hidden, but new categories from the accounting system are not shown on expense reports by default – remember to release them if your coworkers need to select them.