# Merchants you transact with Get answers to all of your questions regarding Brex **URL Source:** https://www.brex.com/support/brex-merchant-categories --- ## Overview When you transact on your Brex card, a charge will appear in your dashboard that contains all the expense’s information. This includes the identity of the vendor that you transacted with and what kind of category their business falls into. ## Brex merchant categories Here’s a complete list of the merchant categories that Brex uses. These merchant category code (MCC) controls can be used to block or allow (pre-authorization rules) spend through category and merchant controls at the [policy](https://www.brex.com/policy-rule-builder), [spend limit](https://www.brex.com/manage-budgets-and-spend-limits), or purchasing card level. Note that the spend limit level controls override the policy controls. They can also be used to flag spend for review (rather than blocking the spend outright) at the expense policy level (post-authorization rules). These controls are determined by the data we get from the card network. Though we use a custom machine learning model to improve the data, our systems may not always assign the correct merchant category. To avoid unintended transaction blocks, you can set MCC controls to flag the transaction for review at the policy level. Doing so will flag expenses for review rather than outright block them. **Note: **We recommend not to implement too many (single-digits) pre-authorization rule sets that counteract one another. This can cause merchant categories to be flagged incorrectly and potentially blocked. To update an expense's merchant category, please contact Brex Support. ### Category list Despite these definitions, categorization can be case-by-case, where some transactions may be categorized differently than expected. We recommend reaching out to Brex to confirm a merchant’s category as needed. - **Advertising/marketing:** All services used to create advertisements or branding material as well as services used to display company information, including job board postings. Some merchant names may not specify that they are ads related, so we may need to see confirmation like a receipt, invoices, etc. to update accordingly. - **Airline expense:** Flight expenses _e.g._ Air Canada, Delta, etc. - **Bank/financial fees: **Any charges imposed by financial institutions on account set-up, maintenance, and minor transactional services. - **Bars and nightlife:** These are typically categorized as “Restaurants”, but depends on the merchant. - **Books and newspapers:** Bookstore, magazine, or newspaper purchases. Also includes any associated subscriptions. - **Car rental:** Represents short term car rentals. The merchant must be a car rental company/agency, e.g.Dollar, Enterprise, etc. - **Charity:** Voluntary donations to non-profit organizations - **Clothing:** Transactions specifically from clothing retailers - **Conferences:** Conferences that are explicitly related to an organization or association. Events will be categorized as "Event Expenses.” - **Consultant/contractor**: A person or company that undertakes a contract to provide materials or labor to perform a service, such as a third-party bookkeeper - **Corporate insurance:** Insurance purchased by companies to cover operational risks and losses. - **Digital goods:** Online books (ebooks) and streaming purchases, such as Audible, Hulu, etc. - **Electronics:** Purchases from retailers for electronic goods. This includes network devices, radios, laptops, etc. - **Event expenses:** Expenses related to an event holder’s use of an event area, such as venue, catering, event security, and tickets. - **Facilities expenses: **Facility rentals and/or maintenance, such as cleaning or janitorial expenses - **Fees, licenses, and taxes:** Recurring and non-recurring fees, licensing, or taxes. Third party bookkeeping services are categorized as “Consultant/Contractor.” - **Flowers: **Purchases from a flower boutique - **Food delivery:** Food delivery services as their primary business model, such as Caviar, DoorDash, GrubHub, etc. - **Furniture:** Purchases from a furniture store, such as Ikea, Ashley Furniture, Living Spaces, etc. - **Gambling:** Transactions for lotteries, raffles, horse races, and casinos. - **Gas and fuel: **Transactions from gas stations for fuel. - **General merchandise:** Merchants that retail a general line of goods, such as Indigo, Target, etc. - **Grocery:** Household supplies or food purchases from a grocery store. - **Laundry:** An institution or store where clothes and linens can be cleaned - **Legal services:** Services involving legal or law-related matters such as legal opinion, filing, pleading and defending of lawsuits. This includes law firms, law clinics, and lawyers practicing as sole proprietors. - **Lodging:** Short term stay at a hotel or an inn, such as Sheraton, Marriott, Hilton, etc. - **Medical:** Expenses for hospital visits, prescriptions, etc. - **Memberships & clubs: **Any non-redeemable fee that a member must pay for admission or retention of a membership or a club. - **Office supplies**: Administrative supplies, include items such as staples, paper, ink, pen and binders - **Other business expenses:** Represents merchants that don't clearly fit into the other business related categories, such as spas, salons, etc. - **Other travel expenses:** Represents merchants that don't clearly fit into the other travel related categories. - **Parking expenses:** An expense specifically from a merchant rendering parking as a service, such as EasyPark - **Political donations:** A contribution made to a politician or a political campaign. - **Private air travel:** Flights that are neither for the purpose of aerial work, referring to paid aircraft work outside of commercial air transport, nor for public transport. - **Public transportation:** Buses, trains, subways, and other forms of transportation that charge set fares, run on fixed routes, and are available to the public. - **Recurring software and SaaS:** Subscription-based software and technological services. - **Rent:** Expenses for office spaces, not personal rent, such as WeWork, etc. - **Restaurants**: All food, drink or alcohol purchases that are made at an establishment that allows the consumption on the premises. Food delivery merchants will be categorized as "Food delivery." - **Rideshare and taxis:** All chauffeur-driven transportation or scooter rentals. Uber, Lyft, Taxi’s, and other applicable services. Public transportation is a separate category. - **Servers:** Merchants classified as Platform as a Service (PaaS). This includes data hosting and cloud computing services, such as Azure, Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services - **Shipping**: Direct shipping expenses from the carrier, such as FedEx, DHL, etc. - **Software (non-recurring): **Non-subscription based software - **Telephony:** Merchants that support landlines, fax lines, and cell phones during a usage period - **Toll and bridge fees:** Fees paid directly to a toll road or bridge for transportation access - **Training and education**: Tuition, enrollment fees, and any other expenses from training courses or learning institutions - **Travel wifi:** Represents portable or mobile wifi expenses - **Utilities: **Represents utility bills. Expenses from plumbers, electricians, etc. will be categorized as “Facilities expenses” or “Consultants / Contractors.” - **Vehicle expenses:** Transactions made directly from vehicle repair shops or parts from vehicle retailers, such as Pep Boys, Jiffy Lube, etc. ## Merchant identification We’ve partnered with MasterCard to provide a direct connection to the card network, so our merchant identification infrastructure provides close to 100% accuracy. ## Merchant categories for accounting All Brex transactions contain _Category _fields, which are determined via expense data and can be used to more efficiently code the GL field on your transactions. Brex uses a common set of standard categories that can easily be mapped to your GL accounting fields. **Note:** If you need to update a merchant category, please contact Brex Support. Merchant categories are based on external merchant data and cannot be changed through your dashboard or mapping rules. This is different from expense categories, which can be mapped to GL accounts and customized as needed. If you're unsure which field you’re trying to update, we recommend reviewing your accounting mappings first or reaching out to Support for assistance. Mappings are part of the _Accounting_ page onboarding process when you first open your Brex account. Following this, they can be accessed through the dashboard via _Accounting >_ _Manage automations > Mappings. _You can match up the Brex category/merchant to your GL account mappings by clicking on one of the _GL account _sections. Brex expense categories should closely resemble your GL category fields. Here’s an example of a Brex category to GL account mapping: **Brex category**: Taxi > **GL account: **Account. ![Merchant categories](https://brand.brex.com/m/75c831e50de52ec1/webimage-Merchant-categories.jpg) We recommend mapping all Brex categories. Expenses with uncategorized GL fields cannot be exported to your ERP. **Note: **If you’ve created any custom rules, those will override your mappings. ### Map categories Category rules are a type of mapping whereby a particular Brex category is mapped to a category in a GL account that lives within your chart of accounts. Account admins, card admins, bookkeepers, and any other users with the [specific product capability](https://www.brex.com/custom-roles) can create these mapping rules by following the steps below. **Step 1:** In your dashboard, click _Accounting. _**Step 2: **Click_ Manage automations _and go to the _Mappings_ tab. **Step 3:** Click _Category_ to expand the section. **Step 4: **Create the mappings and** **save them to map the categories. ### Refresh categories Brex admins and bookkeepers can refresh your updated GL accounts within Brex by performing the following actions. **Step 1:** Click your name in the top right of the Brex dashboard, then go to _Integrations. _**Step 2: **Beside your connected integration, click the three dots and click _Refresh._ Doing so will import any updates you've made to your ERP or accounting software. If you have new GL accounts come through after the refresh, please remap all of your Brex categories to the new GL accounts to prevent exporting errors. **Note: **Depending on the size of your chart of account, this process may take a few moments. You can navigate away from the page while the refresh takes place. Otherwise, you’ll see a green checkmark appear once it has been completed.